| Tuesday, September 13, 2011
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| Post-NDK Report |
Well, now that I don't feel like the living dead, I can finally wrap my head around how awesome things went at NDK. We sold out of nearly all of our stock. Only a quarter of cat collars, a chunk of lasered-neckaces, bookmarks and some chibi badges were left. All-in-all a great weekend and we'd be happy go go back next year.
Also, I could not BELIEVE the positive response from all the Bronies. You guys kept us busy making an INSANE amount of Chibi Pony Badges. As a matter of fact, once I decide if I'm going to stick with Etsy, or try and set up a shopping cart on my website I will have more available for sell.
Here's a breakdown of how the weekend went:
Thursday:
Hit the road at 6 AM with a small SUV Kia CRAMMED to the brim with merch and displays and started the drive to Denver. We made the trip in 8.5 hours. Checked into a Motel 6 with ghastly decor, picked up Foamy from the airport and then had dinner at Casta Bonita. Picked up a few things from the dollar store, got our pre-reg badges and then called it a night.
Friday:
Woke up at a decent time so we could find breakfast and stock up on vittles for the weekend. Then, we headed for the Tech Center. We checked into the Hilton before going to the Marriot and checking in to the Artist's Alley at Noonish. We began to set up. Our display takes forever to build, after about 45 minutes it was announced that AA would be opening an hour earlier than scheduled! We had to scramble to finish putting our display up as hoards of people hovered around our table.
One things were set up, sells kept us busy, but things went smoothly. Once word got around that we had pony chibis . . . we sold out very quickly. A print-run was made to the office supply store to print more ponies so we could make more badges.
After we packed up for the night, we spent several hours cutting and laminating pony chibis.
Saturday:
Woke up sore from standing and bending all day.
Thought a 8 AM setup time was too early, so we slept a little, got breakfast and arrived at our table around 10. . . only to find a line waiting for us. All wanting ponies of course.
. . . we sold out of ponies in a matter of hours.
Made another print run. Tried to go to Fedex across the street, but was met with nothing but fail. After watching the girl struggle to print a single page correctly, I gave up and we went several blocks away to get it printed elsewhere. We made pony badges all afternoon and had them ready to go again around dinner time.
Saturday went well, we sold out of Totoros, Sushi Pillows and Mana/Health bottles that day.
Sunday:
Druuuuuuugg ourselves out of bed. . . soo tired. . .
By the end of saturday we were running dangerously low on badge clips. We ran to walmart and some office supply stores to re-stock after Sunday's setup.
Sunday's sales went good. Sold out of most of my large items which was good news, because we wouldn't have room to take them back home with us. We ran out of badge clips, but people were still willing to buy chibi's without them.
I ran out of Dethklop prints and tried to send someone to Fedex to get a few more printed. They came back empty handed because Fedex is apparently completely retarded. They told us they couldn't print 11x17 on their regular printer and they'd have to do it on their wide-format, despite the fact that tabloid is a standard copy size that every copy center has the capability to print. . . way to train your employees Fedex.
Despite hiccups, Sunday ended well. We packed up around 5 and went to Noodles & Co. for dinner. Met this epic Brony working there, and chatted with another group of AAers. After dinner, we hit the road for a few hours and stayed the night in Laramie WY.
Monday:
Finished the trip home. It seemed like it took FOREVER, but the rest of the drive was made in under 6 ours. Wanted nothing more to pass out on my face, but I was called into work. Fun.
On a side note: Rumor has it that a secondary market popped up surrounding the pony badges. Anyone know more about that? Or is it just empty rumors? I hope the latter is true.Labels: Artists Alley, NDK, Pony |
posted by Scorchie @ 11:19 PM
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| Tuesday, February 22, 2011
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| We've Been Selected to NDK! |
 We just got our e-mail back from Nan Desu Kan and our application was selected! So exciting!
All of our usual items have been approved except for our Neko Ears. . . a major bummer because that's where a lot of our table's income comes from. So, I will have to work hard to come up with some new ideas that sell well, so we can actually afford the trip.
. . . Also, as I've been researching NDK and this year, they will apparently be enforcing an Attendance Cap. Numbers will be capped off at 7500. So we've got to pre-register. If you are part of our group and plan on attending with us, keep that in mind.
Labels: Artists Alley, Convention, Nan Desu Kan, NDK |
| posted by Scorchie @ 5:20 PM
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| Thursday, February 3, 2011
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| Applying For Nan Desu Kan |
People keep suggesting to us that we try to get into Nan Desu Kan's Artist's Alley. While it's something we've wanted to do for awhile, we felt it wasn't worth trying until we were confident in the work we produce to sale.
This year, we're feeling pretty confident.
I just submitted an Application to get into NDK's Artist's Alley.
Everybody wish us luck, because as I read over the rules and restrictions I've come to realize this will be quite a challenge. Not only is there only about a 40% chance of making it into the con (Applications are graded and then entered into a weighted lottery), but there is also a chance that we will not be able to sell some of our more popular items (there are restrictions on particular items, and weighted lottery determines who gets to sell what) . . . So, we're really going to need that luck.Labels: Artists Alley, Convention, NDK |
| posted by Scorchie @ 1:37 AM
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