For Business Owners, Convention Traffic is Key

Among the draw for the thousands who turned out for I-CON over the weekend was the Dealer's Room, a marketplace of heroic proportions where fans could buy movies, games, cards, comics, costumes and accessories, posters, Japanese snacks and lots of other things they might only otherwise be able to find online.

But for many of the hundred-plus vendors who set up shop in the Dealer's Room, the convention scene is their bread and butter – and many this past weekend said customer traffic appeared to be down and people weren't spending much money.

"Business is a little slow this year, but that's just the economy," said Virgil Jones, owner of Crimson Chain, a Toledo, Ohio-based retailer of attire and accessories appealing to lovers of medieval, steampunk and fantasy styles.

Shows like I-CON make up 100 percent of Jones' business. He has a Facebook fan page on which he lists the events he will be attending, but he has no storefront.

"We found that a storefront wasn't a good idea," he said. "If I put a storefront in Toledo, people in New York aren't going to see it."

Like Jones, Lyla Nichnevin of McGraw, N.Y., also doesn't have a storefront. The owner of Designs by Fantasia supports her business by attending shows and selling her Renaissance, Victorian, steampunk and fantasy wares online. She paid more than $500 for her first-ever booth at I-CON this weekend.

"We were told it was a really, really good show," she said, "but we're finding that our sales are really low to be able to offset the expenses of the show."

Selby Johnson, owner of movie retailer Disco Tek, attributed his slow business to convention attendance, which he said appeared to be down from previous years.

"If there were more people, it would be fine," he said.

On Sunday evening, a convention spokesman said official attendance numbers were not yet available. In the past, as many as 6,500 people have attended I-CON at Stony Brook University. The Dealer's Room was located at the indoor sports complex, where the convention's box office was located for many years. I-CON organizers began using the Student Activities Center as its box office venue last year.

But sluggish traffic wasn't the universal vendor experience. Some tables selling gaming products attracted such dense crowds that passerby could barely even see what they were selling.

Russ Colchamiro, an author who set up a table to sell copies of his new backpacking adventure novel Finders Keepers, was among those who said business was booming.

This weekend marked his first I-CON appearance as a vendor, and he said he had no idea what to expect beforehand.

"They're cleaning me out," said Colchamiro, a Merrick native who now resides in Queens. "Fans have been very great, very receptive, very positive. ... I've found this convention to be very good for me."