Trade Shows

In a little over a week, I'll be in Chicago at Wizard World Chicago, where for the first time since we started selling comic books, Mound City Auctions will be setting up a booth. I'm really, really looking forward to this - for the past 2 years, attending the Chicago comic con has been a big highlight of my summer months.

As of this evening, our August comic auction catalog is finally finished - all the written description of the lots is managed, and all I have left to do to fully realize the sale (aside from the advertising & the auction itself) is to take pictures & upload everything. The upload of the text will happen tomorrow morning, hopefully by the time noon rolls around I'll have the text for both days up on Auctionzip, and I'll have the catalog (at least the text based portion) uploaded onto the two platforms we are using for the sale - Proxibid & Auctionzip Live.

The next step after that is the advertising. With the completion of the text for the catalog, and the final upload process accomplished, we can create an adwords campaign targeted to the sale, using long tail search terms lifted directly from the catalog itself. This in turn will lead to increased traffic on the comic landing page, which in turn will direct interested parties to either of the two bidding platforms. The traditional media portion will include fliers for the trade show, signage & banners for the trade show, and a raffle we will hold at the comic convention, with the prize of an iPad 2. The raffle form will be used as a collection point for future bidders, with an included acceptance of advertising from us for future events & requests for consignments.

As far as the convention goes (and to get to the point of the title of this update) we are beginning what will hopefully be a long, successful showing at various trade shows. Our display was delivered today - a 10 foot sectional piece of curving backdrop with velcro/carpet backing, magnetic attachment points, lighting, and a small matching table. Our plan is to have a variety of banner style signage attached to the backdrop, and to have a flatscreen tv displayed on the table showing a looping video advertising our services.

The planning portion of the process for this upcoming comic auction is nearly done - and with not a moment to spare. I've been pulling 10 to 12 hour days, and that is probably going to keep up until the convention starts.

Oh well......at least this year I'll (hopefully) be able to get Patrick Stewart's autograph.