Never heard of half of 'em and have zero interest in the other half (unless disdain could be construed as 'interest'). Seems like most of these guys have an online presence anyways, so the concept of paying a middle-man for 'booth' in a virtual world baffles me . . . but I'm happy enough being a miserable old fuck!
Anyone that thinks that VIP doesn't have an advantage in our hobby is kidding themselves. There's no need to put this system up on a pedestal for the sofubi community. While the vendor can define their own rules, the general rule of thumb is that VIP will buy up all the good sofubi as soon as it is available. In my experience, most of the things I've liked that were sold during the normal weekend after VIP were by lotto. And let's be honest, someone like Gargamel does not need Popshop or Dcon to have a successful online lotto. In fact, I'd argue that the whole Popshop experience towards a maker like Gargamel, where the products sell themselves and an English translator is needed, adds zero value to the process. Also, I'd like to bring up something that I thought was kind of in bad form, and not really discussed here. On one of their posts, in the comments section, I saw something interesting. It was a discussion between a vendor and the official account. The vendor in question had participated in the prior year and requested a refund for their booth this year. According to the comment thread, if you join in 2019, you are guaranteed a spot for 2020. If you take the spot, you are guaranteed a spot for 2021. However, if you don't want to participate in 2020, you are no longer guaranteed a slot for 2021. I dont like this method of pressuring towards smaller makers who, due to a variety of reasons, may not be able to (or may not want to) participate in 2020 Dcon. End of the day, vendors should be able to choose to skip 2020 without worry. The fact that they don't have this option is kind of disheartening. I wanted to screenshot and post the conversation but it seems removed.
There should be enough vendors willing to participate at their own will that they shouldn't need to force anyone's hand... definitely not cool if that is the case. This was one of their earlier broadcasts: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEFTu44BWcM/ @ around 10:30 Ben states vendors who have already paid for their 2020 booth can either credit that to the cost of exhibiting in 2021 or get a full refund. Those deferring their payment would be eligible to participate in the virtual event at no additional charge. At the time there was no word on it being an obligation in order to keep their 2021 spot but that might have changed.
As the comments I mentioned have been deleted, and your link takes place after the comments in question, fingers crossed this is a resolved issue. Best case, they got enough negative feedback that they are now allowing people to participate in 2021 without forcing them to participate online. I really hope that is the case.
Noone is forced to participate in 2020. If you paid for 2020 it was deferred to 2021 for a guaranteed spot, or you could get a full refund. 2020 is basically free for vendors who participated in 2019 and those who had paid for 2020. They were actually very good about this.
I think it is like you said, why is there a middle man for vendors that are popular enough without 1. So they can't really expect vendors to pay in this scenario. It still leaves me to wonder how Popshop makes their money. I haven't looked into it at all.
"Popshop Live receives fees typically equal to 9% of the purchase price, with the percentage adjusted according to the size of the seller and sales volume." Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanve...ok-popshop-live-gives-small-stores-a-lifeline
I'm not sure. I would guess Popshop takes a cut somewhere, but I've mentioned that I don't know how it works. I would think the attendees $10 and $65 would cover that. I meant that the booth fee was waived, as it should be since there is no overhead cost like renting an event space and all that goes with that. Vendors typically pay $700-1000 for a booth space.
You'd think so but I read that Dcon wants a fat commission from all sales this time. Also seeing paid IG ads for it every day now even though there still isn't a vendor list.
well, i think I'm going to bite the bullet and check it out on saturday. For ten bucks I'll take a chance. More and more on the vendor list. Not much I'm excited for, and most of that will probably be sold to vip. But I am missing dcon. Can't believe it's already been a year.
Let us know how it goes! I was tempted but no international buyers or SELLERS killed it for me. Plus the fact I can't do any shopping on my android device and I don't have an Iphone. Probably cool for designer toys though but I don't know much about that stuff.
I got VIP just to see how this goes. Praying it isn’t an utter complete mess. I was genuinely curious about it and there’s some Medicom and Little Hut co items I am eyeing up. I’ll prolly let y’all know how it went. The popshop app is....something else. It’s been nice in some regards and obnoxious as hell in other ways. The big thing that at first made me hesitant was the extreme lack of international artists this time, understandably. Really sad....gonna miss it this year in person to be honest.
Yeah there were international vendors ready to go but a couple weeks ago it was decided the app couldn't do it because of shipping I think. So international stuff has to be in the hands of a US based seller first to be sold through Dcon. I guess Dcon just didn't make it public knowledge for some reason. It is pretty cool how several vendors are skipping VIP day so all the economy ticket people have an equal shot at stuff tomorrow.
I can’t bring myself to pay money, granted it’s only $10, to use a third party app or whatever, that will then take a cut of whatever money the vendors make. I know it was discussed in previous posts, but is dcon also taking a cut, I read mixed things about what would happen if the vendors opted for a refund or let it ride till next years show. Seems like the vendors are getting fucked from both ends.
It's totally nuts. It's like you get to watch yourself get cart jacked in real time. Glad I didn't go in with big expectations. At least creature Bazar has some good VHS programming. Star Wars Xmas special!
I need to be at the table early tomorrow and the line for the coffee stand is always super long. If someone is grabbing a cup for themselves and can grab one for me too (two creams, no sugar) I will be forever in your debt. Not enough to give you a price break on a figure, though. Thanks!
Wow, what a mess. Medicom crashed as I was buying one of the Godzillas. Forget about a Rangeas Jr....froze out and sold out immediately after they basically teased the crowd on releasing. Seeing a lot of angry people. Blessed to have gotten a small blind box, resting Godzilla and a custom. It’s been....an ass clenching 2 hours. There also seems to be a glitch with being charged for shipping multiple times with the 3DRetro stuff. Not cool.
It's a shit show. I bought VIP. Hearing talk that General Admission was able to purchase tonight. Seeing some shops struggling as the app is charging shipping with every purchase in the same store when it's not supposed to. People getting angry because stuff is selling out so fast. Some people are being rude to sellers when it's not even their fault. It's the app. MEDICOM was having technical issues and they keep coming on and offline. A lot of people who were in there were not happy.
Frustrating but certainly not worth insulting the sellers. Although I’m not too keen on the way things were getting released at 3DRetro, that’s no reason to be an asshole. I just kinda threw my hands up after a while. I’m hoping next year if we got a hold on Covid it goes back to a regular con setting cause....eugh
