The grab bag. The blind bag. The blind box. The loot box. All different names for essentially the same thing; paying for one or more items without knowing exactly what you're getting. The allure even appeals to buying a pack of trading cards. It's been likened to gambling and it's not a surprise to see a connection. While this phenomenon is as old as people trading for goods, it has had a surge in recent popularity due to youtube and unboxing videos where someone will open these items and you get to enjoy their reactions to whatever is inside. So how can you use this tactic for your convention business?

First, let's talk about some of the bad sides to grab bags. I'm sure we've all seen different booths that have big boxes made to look like companion cubes or mario coin boxes or dragon eggs. They cost about 30 dollars and inside is usually an assortment of junk, sometimes a gem or two, that is not worth the cost. You're usually just paying for the box or egg. Which can be worth it for great nerdy conversation pieces. But you don't want to scam anyone and I've unfortunately seen that happen, mostly with the eggs.

There's also dealers booths that will have bags for varying amounts sometimes up to a few hundred that'll put what is essentially more than the dollar amount on the bag from what the items were first priced, but are items they can't get rid of and so it's a deal for the guest and moves product they couldn't otherwise. This is how I first started.

I was selling at a convention where I had not hit my mark with predicting what would sell. So a thought occurred to me; grab bags! I went to walmart and bought a pack of 50 lunch sacks and drew pictures on each bag and put a plush, button, and bell collar in each one and charged $10 each. It was the easiest money I've ever made. I did this at my next con with some plush that hadn't sold at the previous one and they all sold day one. I tried a version of smaller bags with just buttons inside for a cheaper price and they didn't do as good without having a guaranteed plush. So I returned to the plush model. One good thing is with my jellyfish keychains, I have a good way to keep the grab bag cashflow going by keeping this option open so as to not lose out on the grab bag crowd and still make a profit.

You also don't want to over saturate your booth with grab bags. I keep them to one cube or one section and make sure they don't take away from the plush I have. I made this mistake once and now I avoid doing that. I see some artist booths that have many tiers of grab bags and it gets confusing and not only that, but it takes up space that actual product can go that will draw people in. You never want them to take up too much space. Drawing something on the bag or getting colorful or fun bags definitely helps draw the eye in. As an artist in the artist alley, grab bags shouldn't be your business unless you built around them. They should be a good way to make side income and get rid of product that doesn't sell.

End of the day, you want your buyers to be satisfied with their purchases and to not feel they were ripped off. The same goes for the grab bags. Even if they get a show or something they may not like or be familiar with, the experience of opening the grab bag and the lower cost of them is what will still leave them feeling they didn't waste their money. After all, the more cons you do, the more repeat customers you may start to see. You don't want to do anything that'll deter that return business.

Welcome to the first blog post on Hibiscus Stitch. This will be updated with many resources about selling art, making art, and general convention selling information. The goal here is to teach and inform and share anecdotes that can hopefully be useful to you in your endeavors. Or, at the very least, entertain. This will update at least once or twice a week. The first topic today is the art of selling. Of note; I am speaking strictly from an Artist Alley perspective. Online selling will be a topic for another day.

I have ran into many booths that have told me they aren't doing well at cons. It can be daunting to sell at a convention. Sometimes there's not many booths if it's a small or local convention. Then there are shows like Anime Weekend Atlanta where there are rows and rows and rows of tables. While I can't speak from a print artist standpoint as I only sell plush (and patches and buttons) at cons, each booth presents their unique challenges in standing out. For print artists, walls of prints can get repetitive and tiring for the shoppers (one reason I don't agree with the 2D and 3D art split some cons do is because interspersing them helps break things up and is easier on the eye) while the plush artists can get passed over for dealers plush or when right next to another plush artist, people can mistake the two tables as one and pass one over.

So how do you make it in such a competitive environment? First you always want to provide the best products possible. People can tell the quality and it's a great way to get return customers or turn convention goers who didn't have money at the show to customers on your online store when they do have more cash flow. Second how you display the product is key. I always try to make sure I have some sort of big attention getter. Most customers will look straight ahead and it's hard to get people to look up. This is why video games will often do a light trick to get gamers to look up. People do not want to look up. I've seen a lot of print artists use flowers or lights to draw the eye up. Themy most recent con at the time of writing, I used my jellyfish, fishnet, and sea weed type plants to create display. This also served the similar goal of drawing people in and standing out from far away or on the aisle behind me. At this con, I was also sharing a table so I had an additional challenge of standing out from my table partner.

While my display may look cluttered, which is mostly because I had three feet to work with, I try to do my best to also keep things simple. It can be a challenge to juggle because one absolutely crucial thing about displays is that people cannot buy what they cannot see. I've seen this before. People will have make up bags or certain prints and have them either not displayed or a sign that says asks me for more options. The sign can be fine in certain situations, but often time unless someone is really drawn in by your aesthetic or is already a fan, they may be too shy. One way print artists can get around space issues is to have a binder on their table with their prints inside or a basket of prints and have their best displayed. That's prefectly fine and works. with non-print 3D items, it does not work.

I've received the advice that my displays are cluttered and I should have a binder that shows what plush I've made. The thing is, seeing a plush in a picture and actually putting your hand on it are two extremely different experiences. If a customer is torn about buying a plush or not, getting them to pet it and feel how soft it is can often sway them. Pictures also give a bad idea of size (even when stated). Just another example of how things are different for different artists.

As you can see here, the picture really doesn't show the true life-size nature of the plush. (these are two different biyomon plush, but they were both made with the same pattern) The key is to display just a few of each plush. You may have ten fish plush, but only display three so you have room for other products. You can refill the display as fish sell. Similarly, if you have sea creature plush, but don't have fish on display, you may have a few people ask, but you will miss on so many sales vs having them on display. I've seen people that sell skirts or bandannas or bags use a bar they are hanging between cubes or on a similar clothing display and allow people to flip through them. Whatever you want to do, make sure it works with your display and gets the most product into people's hands.

Another way to make your art be the best it can is to make what you're passionate about while finding a balance with what is popular. With selling in the artist alley, you want to be aware of what's trending while also making what you want to make. People can tell if you don't know anything about a subject they try to chat with you about. But at the same time don't let that scare you from making something you know you can put your spin on and sell. There's also those classics that will be a hit especially if your passion and love for that thing that may not be a normal sight at conventions shines through. Recently a fellow artist made a print of Good Burger and it was a hit because she showed obvious love to the source material and it was very unique. At Magfest, I sold Hollow Knight plush. I had just bought the game and hadn't had time to play with preparing for con.I had people wanting to converse and I would say "I love the character and art of the game! I just got it but haven't had time to play with con coming up. Can't wait to finally tackle it after con!" Which was true and also showed that while I wasn't extremely familiar with the game, I was excited for it. Vs saying "Well I haven't experienced this thing at all." You should be able to have some sort of small conversation about the items you are selling. It's not a rule, but I feel it really helps with customer relations.

My Hero Academia is extremely popular right now. Every single booth will have something MHA related. I don't mostly because I'm still not the best at making humans. There's nothing wrong with getting in on the trends just, like I said, do your homework. It will help inspire you and it'll show in your art. With all the MHA cosplay out there, one would be remiss to not join in the fun.At the same time, it can get tiring to go from booth to booth to booth and see the same subjects. Another reason to do your homework is so you don't misrepresent the characters. The fans can tell and will pass your product by.

Really the best thing to do is to make mistakes and learn through experience. Everyone has that one print or plush they're stuck with. That brings us to the topic for next time; grab bags. I will stop here for the art of selling. This has run long and there's still so much to say. Hopefully there's some helpful advice in here that will make your artist alley displays shine!

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