ComicsBeat "NYCC ’24: The High Cost of Artist Alley at New York Comic Con"

 

The New York Comic Convention, or NYCC, is a big, annual event -- whose prices are increasing substantially for its artists, as well as other exhibitors and fans. Billy Henehan writes about this in "NYCC ’24: The High Cost of Artist Alley at New York Comic Con" for ComicsBeat:

"It’s been common knowledge for years that New York Comic Con is an expensive convention, both for fans and professionals. Fans wandering Artist Alley at NYCC are not surprised to see artists charging more for sketches and signatures at NYCC compared to smaller shows like HeroesCon, Baltimore and Terrificon. The 'NYCC tax,' as it has come to be called in the sketch collecting community.

"It’s rare to find out just how much more artists are paying for their NYCC Artist Alley tables. ReedPop, the owner of NYCC, publishes the Artist Alley price right on the application on the NYCC site. But few people outside of artists applying for a table head to that part of the NYCC site. So when artist TC Ford announced on his Facebook that 'Artist Alley NYCC is $565…IF they accept you…', the community woke up to just how much artists are paying to present the products of their labor there.

 

"And that all caps 'IF' is very prescient. Despite the higher than ever Artist Alley table price, ReedPop will likely be turning people away when it comes to booking a table in Artist Alley at NYCC this year, as it has it years past.

"The Artist Alley table is just one of many costs involved at tabling at NYCC. Out of town artists have to contend with paying for hotels, travel and food. These costs will no doubt be passed down to fans, the ultimate consumer at NYCC, who may find their favorite comics pros charging even higher prices for signatures and sketches at NYCC compared to other shows or previous years.

"Artist Alley cost $525 at NYCC in 2023. This isn’t the only cost increase to happen at NYCC for 2024. Professional badges increased $15 from $85 to $100. And it’s not just professionals feeling the hit. Ticket prices went up across the board. Compared to last year, Four Day passes increased from $230 to $240. Individual day passes increased from $70 to $75. Even kids aren’t immune to the price hike. A NYCC Sunday Kids pass cost $25 in 2023, but was bumped up to $30 for 2024. Even the per ticket service fee that NYCC charges on each ticket went up this year, from $3.25 in 2023 to $3.50 in 2024. Four Day pass holders pay an even higher service fee. If you a bought a Four Day pass this year before they sold out, a service fee of $9.50 was tacked onto your order, bringing your cost up to $249.50 before tax and shipping charges.

"New York City is an expensive city for sure, but it wasn’t that many years ago that NYCC cost $65 for a Three Day pass. Now you can’t even get in the front door one day at NYCC for that price. Unfortunately, for both comics pros and comics fans, NYCC ’24 is shaping up to be the most expensive one yet."

I have tabled at a couple of conventions through the years. If you are fortunate enough to be in the National Cartoonists Society, you can have a space at their table and that helps solve that return on investment equation. A lot of people I met who tabled had a full-time non-comics job and that was how they paid the thousands of dollars in overhead. But with that formula, you are forever tethered to your job.