The TOYCON That Was
A TOYCON 2005 Diary

I can't believe it's finally over.

Ever since I knew that there was going to be a Toy Convention (or TOYCON for short) this year, all I could think of was participating. Y'see, this past TOYCON was my third endeavor in selling on a such a grand scale. The first was during the 2004 FILBARSCON (held in May at the Glorietta Activity Center) - now that was fun! I barely sat down, I didn't take a piss break for like 8 or 9 hours, and I sold more than what I expected (and my goal was just to sell a lot so I would have a little more space in my room!).

Now given this, imagine my enthusiasm when I went on my second endeavor - the A.I.M. fair (held in December at the A.I.M. school, in front of Greenbelt One). I contacted my friend Raffy and we partnered up, sharing the cost of the booth. Now that was one huge fiasco! For the entire day, I only made a grand total of 60 bucks! I guess the crowd and the place wasn't right for the stuff we were selling. 8-(

Now comes the 2005 TOYCON. When reservations became open around May, I contacted my friend Raffy and asked if he wanted to pair up again. He said yes and I had my friend Ricky (alias Freefall) reserve a single booth.

The event was held last June 26 at the Megamall, in Megatrade Hall 3. Official convention time was 10AM but exhibitors can set up their booths as early as 9AM. My father and I, along with my friend Shiela and about 7 boxes of comics, left the house at 8:30 but when we got to Megamall, there was a long queue at the parking area. Fortunately, it took us only about 30 minutes of waiting so by 9:30ish, we were already setting up our booths in the convention area.

It was a surprise that each booth had 2 tables, whereas I was only expecting one ('cause in the FILBARSCON, I only had one). However, due to the sheer number of toys and comics we were selling, we had to put some boxes underneath the tables. Toys were displayed on boxes-turned-walls behind the booths (on which a little bump can have the same effect as the trumpets were to the walls of Jericho).

Eventually, when 10AM came and the convention doors opened, we were ready. We were a little crowded behind our booths - aside from Shiela, Raffy and myself, we also had Boss Jules and Rey. Boss Jules is the representative of Druid's Keep, an excellent hobby store in Magallanes that we partnered up to sell some toys. Rey is my best friend, who along with Shiela sold some comics along with me. Jabe, a fellow collector, also dropped by a bit later to put some of his comics for sale in our booth. Magee, Raffy's girlfriend, also dropped by, as well as Joy, Shiela's friend.

All in all it was a tiring day, but fun nevertheless. I met some members of my yahoo group The Comic Brook, including Oliver Pulumbarit (an excellent local writer/artist), and I liquidated some inessential stuff. I didn't make as much as I expected to but I made more than I did than in the FILBARSCON so I guess I don't have anything to complain about. Boss Jules made twice than I did while Raffy made thrice, but I guess that's to be expected as toys are more in demand, not to mention more expensive, than comics.

We packed up around 9PM and went to Starbucks Magallanes (Raffy, Jules, Shiela and I) to do some accounting, after which Raffy drove me home. I left my boxes in the sala, as I didn't have anymore strength to carry them back up to my room, and retired for the day.

Now it's back to comics buying for me. I didn't buy anything in the TOYCON (well except for a Fudge magazine, but only because it came with a Batman Begins poster) as I didn't find anything I wanted that badly to buy (well except for Ricky's box of chromium WildC.A.T.s cards, which I stupidly let go to an interested buyer).

Next year I will definitely be back with the same amount of enthusiasm and same set of expectations - I just hope it'll be at least as fun as the convention this year was. 8-)