On top of this, there was just very little attendance and the people who WERE there weren't interested in buying things. I made FOUR transactions on Friday. I made like ten transactions Saturday before I decided to cut my losses and leave. Didn't break even. I have only left one other con mid-show in over a decade of doing AA which should tell you how bad this was. STAY AWAY.
Foot traffic and profit was overall decent for someone who was out of state. My only real gripe was that there was an artist who just painted anime screenshots on canvases and staff didn't really do anything about it even though it kind of went against their rules.
Staff was overall wonderful aside from the disorganization at the beginning. I fell ill on Friday night with a condition that may have resulted in an ER visit. They had a staff member make sure I made it through the convention area okay and someone checked up on me the following day. They went above and beyond for someone they didn't really owe anything to. The convention was not what made me ill, they were not liable if I had to go to the emergency room.
Atmosphere of the con was very cheery and fun. A lot of people were just excited to be there.
Overall if you can afford it, get in, and know you aren't a bad person if you're selling at a Kopf con because they're just another location to vend at, I say you should.
I do not condone anything Kopf has done. But people need to understand artists need to be able to pay rent, pay bills. If we can get a guaranteed table by registering for one of these cons, we sometimes have to. The artist alley business is getting more and more competitive. Sometimes we need to take what we can get. You can still not like it, but please do not automatically demonize artists who are just trying to get by.
