Anime Pasadena

This was only my 3rd table at a con, but I did make my personal best here at 4 digits. However, it was quite difficult for a lot of people, myself included, to be sure that they got in after applying, and only after several emails asking about application status was I confirmed to have a table, while others were not as fortunate. The attendees were great, but I think that the key to doing well at this con may be to pay attention to the VAs that will be there. I happened to have a lot of stuff from series that had their voice actors at the convention, so quite a few people who went to get their official goods signed we're looking for merch in artist Alley of those same characters. In the future, I'll be sure to check their guest list before stocking goods, because I ran out of a good portion of my stock on day 1 since I had underestimated the pull of the voice actors to get people to come to the con. I had a great time, was right in front of snack bar (but the queue was well organized so sales were not interrupted) and the staff at the event and fellow artists were lovely. I hope to make this an event I visit annually.

Con has more cosplayers then people buying things. Not good for sales. The staff seems to pick favorites when it comes to tables. Venue has horrible parking. There is a huge line just to get in that u spend half your day in.

I turned in my application within minutes of the artist alley application launch and never heard back. Emailed multiple times to follow up too and nothing. I even went back to look at the map status a few times and saw it slowly getting filled up over months. It's not like it filled up so fast that I missed it since it was FCFS and was open for a while. I heard this happened to a few other artists as well. Still no idea what happened.

The completely silent wait to find out if you get a table was absolutely inexcusable, with zero communication other than a 'we're working on going through the lists' for about two months. After a poor experience just visiting Anime Riverside, followed by this horrible experience just attempting to be an artist at Anime Pasadena, I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping out on any future events from this company.

Never heard of this con until my friend invited me to share a table with them. We both did really well, which is odd because this con is so local and small. The only bad thing is that the non artist-alley vendors were placed in another hallway next to the stage with rave lighting (aka good for partying, could barely see anything if you're selling stuff).

I personally had fun here and made good sales compared to other bigger cons, so I plan to go again!

I didn't do Anime Pasadena 2018 (their first year), but I heard it was good for locals so I signed up for 2019. When signing up, you can view the floor plan/layout and pick your spot. I signed up for an exhibitor booth to be in the main hall with the main stage. Normally I would sign up for an artist alley table but I knew there would be less foot traffic there-- AA was placed in a separate small room with a single door entry way-- while an exhibitor booth was only an extra $20 at the time.

Early bird price: $105 exhibitor booth + 2 badges
Early bird price: $85 artist alley table + 2 badges
Price increased about every month as the event date approaches.
Each additional badge was $10.

Location: Pasadena Convention Center
Event date: April 20, 2019 (Saturday)
My commute: 50 minute drive
Convention parking: $13

My gross (NOT net profit): $900 - $1K
My friends (who also bought an exhibitor spot) also did very well.
I estimated 3,000+ attendees.

For a 1-day, 6-hr con, I was very impressed with sales! I made more here than other 3-day cons (with similar attendee size/count). The crowd was mostly families and teens and I mainly sold stickers.

The event was fun. I had a great time watching the performances and listening to karaoke happening on the main stage. Yes, it's loud being in the main hall but the main stage brought in foot traffic. I'm positive tabling in the main hall significantly drove up sales.

I was about to sign up for Anime Pasadena 2020 BUT they're expanding to a 2-day con and thus booths/tables are twice the cost. And they are doubling the size of the main hall as well!!! The 2020 layout is on their website and as of today it shows 183 exhibitor booths and 40 artist alley tables. 2019 had 89 exhibitor booths and 20 AA tables. I highly doubt attendee count will keep up-- it will most likely remain the same. Customer spending will spread so thin that I don't think I'll even reach $500 in sales. It's not worth it anymore when factoring in cost and time (2 days!).

I plan to wait and see. At this point it really depends on their guest list.