A little disappointed with TFCon dealer room this year

[Shockwave 75]

Not with the con itself, it's still fantastic!

But more with the selection of stuff available.
There seemed to be A LOT of new stuff and a CRAP TON of 3rd party stuff.

Why would I buy a deluxe class TR figure for $30 at the con when I can just wait a few weeks and get it at regular retail for less?

And the tables and tables of third party stuff. It was almost hard to find legit figures!

I don't want to suggest a 3P ban, like Hasbro did with Botcon, but maybe dealers should have to have a certain percentage of actual Hasbro/Takara product.

[DCompose]

I agree with the 3P stuff. It was a tad much. However, still better than empty tables. The problem is that smaller dealers don't get legit stuff because of wholesale availability. 3P products are far easier to obtain. It's a tricky balance.

[wervenom]

Well I can only speak for me and I had nothing to be disappointed over at all. Went all 3 days had a blast, got everything I planned on, even got to know some things of my wanted list. Met Frank Welker, embarrassed myself at the charity auction by being late. I had a blast and was my best TF Con to date

[Socko76]

I gotta agree with the Shockwave75. Way too much 3rd party stuff. The fact that there was so much 3rd party stuff left as of 4 pm today means something

[optimusb39]

Inperso ally went there specifically for 3p stuff. I cant really get it anywhere else so this was the oppurtunity to get it. Just wish i had more money to get the rest i needed.

[TRUCKvsGUN]

To the OP, its like you said, why put a TR figure on the table for 30 when you can get it for cheaper at a retailer later? 3P doesn't sell at retailers though, so I'm sure I'd have appreciated seeing a lot of them there, had I been able to attend.

[canprime]

I agree with the OP about 3P product.

However my bigger problem is dealer burnout. I go to a lot of local shows over the course of a year. So while TFcon and Fan Expo bring in a wider range of dealers, the dealer room is starting to become more like a greatest hits album, same songs over and over again.

That is by no means a dig at TFcon, they can only offer tables, they can't make more, or new, dealers commit. However for me it seems like the shows are becoming Same Stuff Different Day. It has made me question continuing to attend regularly as it seems I spend less and less each time.

[teruo313]

IMO it seemed pretty much similar to previous years. The last few years have always had a very large portion of 3rd party figures and Masterpiece figures at dealer tables. With the larger dealers though it's expected, since that's where a lot of the demand is.

My table as well as others in the aisle were comprised of mostly people just looking to sell out their own personal collections. So the overflow area is always hit or miss and dependent on what people are getting rid of. Being my 5th year selling, my collection has run pretty thin so it was mostly just CHUG figures for me.

This will probably be my last year selling so hopefully someone will else will grab a table next year to sell of some of their figures and add more variety.

It was really great to see Artfire's Japanese G1 figures there though. Seeing some of those figures in person was fantastic.

[Dynamo.Dave]

3P overload is as much about having more 3P available as it is the TFCon collection.
There's so much out there now!

Loved the show (only went Sunday), but it seemed busier than last year. I hope that's true!

[Xtreme987]

I thought there was a good mix of 3rd party & official. I really only was looking for 1 3rd party bot (Seriphicus Prominon) but no dealer would sell just the bot alone. They wanted me to buy the useless (imo) cradle to go with it adding on an extra $100. No thanx. I'll get it somewhere online then & save my money. I still had a good time buying what I did, running into & meeting some boardmembers & talking to a few dealers along the way.