Dealers room suggestion and changes to what dealers WE wanna see

[nemisis47]

I have been going to NDK for the last 5 cons and I love going to the dealers room a lot, however it for the last 2 or 3 years have been kind of stale due to the fact there are hardly any new dealers and normally its the same dealers we see year after year which makes sadly your guys's dealers room kinda stale. What you guys need to try to do this year aside from the traditional DVD's and manga dealers you need newer dealers and newer kinds of dealers that sell different things. My suggestion to what kind of dealers we wanna see is simple.

Cosplay Dealers-The guy that was selling cosplays last year really don't count as a cosplay dealer. What we wanna see is genuine cosplay dealers that deal in usually wigs, cosplays in general, props or whatever. A few that are usually good in that department is usually Arda Wigs, Epic Cosplay and maybe a few others people here on the NDK forums may have to say. But generally adding some good cosplay dealers could help make the room a bit diverse.

Games dealers- Not talking just game leagues that sell shirts I'm talking like dealers that sell Video Games, and even Import Video Games. The first or 2nd NDK I went to the dealers there had import games and I generally would love to see some import dealers sell games.

Industry dealers- When I say industry dealers I mean people like Funimation, Aniplex, Tokyopop etc. All coming to our room to sell newer stuff early to us fans, and exclusive merch too. Cons like Sakura con, AX, Otakon and many other cons have that part beat big time. Since NDK is starting to become a big con with being added to the World Cosplay Summit, its high time we added some Industry people too.

These are a few dealers ideas I have in mind and more will come on as we further go in the thread. If you guys from the community have ideas, put them here.

And as for the staff, my question is What changes will we see to the dealers room this year and will we see better and more diverse dealers this NDK?

[Amadis]

I'd love to see a booth by Copic; markers mostly, but screentones and other supplies for making comics would be really cool. People complain every year that the artist alley doesn't have enough doujinshi or comics, and manga is still important within anime culture, so why not maybe get some budding artists started with legit supplies? Also if I need an ink refill during the con I can just run to Dealers haha

[rising full moon]

I second the wanting to see both good Cosplay dealers and Industry dealers. I am really hoping Funimation has a booth again, I missed them last year. I don't know if Cosplay House dose cons or not but they would be awesome.

[Sarge]

I would like to mention something about your industry dealers suggestions.  For those who don't know, I ran the Dealer Room for many years (ie. 6) at NDK.

When Funimation, Tokyopop, etc come to cons, they sell things early, and usually cheaper. The sheer act of them doing this usually violates their own street dates (when a title is allowed to be put up for sale) as well as sells at wholesaler/distributor prices, undercutting *actual* dealers.  While we love those booths and the people who run them and the companies they represent, this will usually encourage DVD/Manga dealers who carry more than one publisher of titles (or more accurately, dozens of distributors) to not come to a convention, because they lose a pretty fair amount of money, and they cannot compete with their own distributors...and nor should they.

Please note I have absolutely no control nor say in who is present in the Dealer Room and have not for about 4-5 years now (I now run Security).

One other piece of info...while asking for those dealers is great (please, keep the suggestions coming!) we can't always oblige simply because there are often no dealers in that category interested in coming to NDK.  Trucking their stuff to NDK, setting it up, buying the booth, paying for power, phone, etc, staffing their booth for long hours with no breaks and then tearing it down and trucking it back is not always a profitable or desirable arrangement for some dealers.  Many of the ones you see in the DR spend almost all of their time at cons, not in local stores. It's a pretty brutal life for those folks on the road.  This has been particularly true for games dealers.  You'll see one or two "add-on" dealers of imports/other games attached to bigger booths which have come and gone over the years, and this is often because it's hard to make money in such an industry.  I sincerely hope a successful business in this can make it enough to attend NDK in the near future.

[rising full moon]

interesting I did not know that about the industry dealers.

[nemisis47]

Industry dealers I can see in that case, but main issue is the dealers room needs to get some newer dealers. Putting in the same dealers practically every year does get stagnant after awhile, even though some are nice to see again, but still its really nice if we could have some diversification in dealers and some newer dealers this year rather than seeing the same folks year after year. Local stores are still good, I have no problems at all seeing Gimme Anime and Rainy Day at NDK.

[Jinnie]

One addendum to industry dealers: like them or not, they do bring credibility. If they choose to give their fans an advance treat, they are also fully within (their own) rights to do so. It's also a matter of space, as far as their attendance.

Some of our dealers have been with us for years and have become part of the family. It is a constant balance.

[rini]

another thing to add about some dealers: cosplay dealers, ones that actually make costumes, are a no-no, as much of that is licensed in the US. they can be in AA, but not in a dealers room. any naruto, bleach, death note, sailor moon, fairy tale, trigun, GitS, etc., essentially anything that's sold as a wallscroll, is licensed.

re game dealer: what about game force boulder? they specialise in import games (or at least used to). i wonder if it's even occurred to him to come out to NDK?

[JoadJoVae]

We have brought in industry dealers before like funimation and would like to do so again.
As far as getting new dealers, we do have new ones but like to keep the oldies that are a part of our family around for multiple reasons. Mainly, the majority of people who come into the room have at least one favorite that has been around for years and replacing them wouldn't be a smart move on our part. We had at least two new dealers last year and will probably have two more this year. As Sarge mentioned, it is a matter of who applies and wants in the room and is willing to go through the application process. We try to keep variety but a lot of the dealers that apply are similar in nature to the existing ones. However! Last year we had 400 fps which specializes in tactical gear and things of that sort that a lot of people really enjoyed. So its not that we never get other types applying, just that we are limited by the ones that do. Hope this helps!
Also feel free to keep the suggestions coming. When we do get applications in unique areas it helps to know what our attendees ultimately would like to see in the room.

[Hellsing365]

*reviving old topic*
I know I'd like to see more than one place to get the diverse snacks (Not just pocky and ramune) as often I'll just keep walking since I don't want to cram into that very packed area.

Also, I do miss the music vendor, they weren't there last year and it made me quite sad... But I'm with the others, I'd really just like to see some newer things or different vendors.  I understand NDK has a relationship with some of them, but I didn't purchase a single thing at NDK last year.  Nothing was in my tastes. That was a huge shame.