This past weekend, I returned to exhibit at the Thought Bubble convention, following on from a successful experience in 2023. Thought Bubble is a comic art festival held annually in Harrogate, UK and I’ve been a regular attendee since 2015.
Thought Bubble is primarily for comics and comic art, but there’s a growing contingent of TTRPG-adjacent tables, this year including Montford Tales, Daniel Locke, Slowquest (Bodie H.), and Will Kirkby (among others). There seemed to be fewer TTRPG tables this year, and I’ve heard a lot of people mention they applied but couldn’t get a place.
As previously, I wanted to document my experience as a TTRPG exhibitor, covering the highs and lows, expenses, revenue, and set-up/breakdown process.
Costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Table rental (full size) | £185 |
| Hotel (2 nights) | £288 |
| Parking | £24 |
| Dice | £104 |
| Total cost of expenses | £601 |
These are the costs solely attributed to Thought Bubble 2024 and don’t include things like the new buttons and t-shirts I bought or meals and petrol. Like last year, we stayed at a closer and more convenient hotel which helped with keeping things running smoothly.
Sales
| Title | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Colossus Wake | 3 |
| HOWL | 1 |
| Howling Caverns | 4 |
| Runecairn Beneath the Broken Sword | 0 |
| Runecairn Bestiary | 5 |
| Runecairn Core Rules | 0 |
| Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered | 9 |
| Runecairn: Advanced Rules | 1 |
| Runecairn: Into the Nine Realms | 5 |
| Watch and Warrant (Cassette) | 2 |
| We Deal in Lead | 7 |
| We Deal in Lead: Omega City (Ashcan) | 2 |
| Button Badge | 4 |
| Dice Set | 24 |
| Patch | 3 |
| Print, A4 | 1 |
| Print, A5 | 4 |
| T-shirt | 0 |
Total amount of revenue: £979
Some interesting things to note:
- Dice continue to be the biggest seller, as expected. This is a bit of a double-edged sword, as I’ll get into more later.
- The remastered version of Runecairn Wardensaga also proved popular, thanks to another stunning cover from CROM.
- I was selling both Runecairn hardcovers (Wardensaga and Bestiary), along with a copy of Into the Nine Realms, in a bundle for £50.
- T-shirts were a non-starter and we didn’t sell any.
- I didn’t sell as many button badges or patches as I’d hoped.
Profit
| Expenses | £601 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | £979 |
| Profit | £378 |
The charge for a full table increased by £10 since last year.
My wife and I worked both days of Thought Bubble (8 hours on Saturday and 7 on Sunday), plus 2 hours setup Friday night and Saturday/Sunday mornings, and 1 hour breakdown on Sunday night.
So, 18 hours worth of work (not including travel) per person is 36 hours.
£378 profit / 36 hours = £10.50/hour
UK minimum wage is £11.44/hour so we didn’t quite make that.
Setup/breakdown
We took the day off work and drove down from North Yorkshire Friday afternoon. We picked up a delivery pass from a local carpark/staging area and drove to the Harrogate Convention Centre. We weren’t in one of the first halls (more on this later), so we could use the back entrance. We unloaded just after 16.00 on Friday and, thanks to an earlier investment in a hand truck, only needed to make one trip from the car.
This year I took the smallest amount of stock yet and didn’t sell out of anything, so that either means I’m learning how to estimate supply and demand better or that my products aren’t in high demand.
I invested in a new MDF book stand this year from DecoBlank and that worked really well. I think I’ll grab a second one for Dragonmeet and UKGE, since I have more space at those conventions.
As last year, we had plenty of time to setup on Friday night and it was pretty painless.
Breakdown on Sunday was also painless, especially considering everyone else was loading up at the same time.
One improvement I should mention is using a comic bin for zine storage and hauling. This came in really handy and is a great fit for A5 zines and hardbacks.
Observations
- For the first time this year, Thought Bubble opened a second entrance and had 4 halls in total. We were in DSTLRY Hall, one of the internal halls, along one of the walls. This year felt slower and quieter than last year, both for attendees and for people stopping to chat. I don’t know if this is because they added a 4th hall or if folks spent most of their time in the two externally-facing halls. The Sunday was absolutely quieter than last year.
- The dice I ordered (from Tabletop Dominion) sold really well and helped to draw people in, which is always good. However, the majority of my sales were from dice alone so if I didn’t have them, my expenses/revenue breakdown would look really different. As well, most of the people who bought dice didn’t look at the books or other items on the table. However, bearing in mind that the Thought Bubble audience is primarily there for comics and art, I’m not worrying too much. Dice essentially paid for the table and helped get my books and name out there.
- The Runecairn stapled zines (Core Rules, Advanced Rules, and Beneath the Broken Sword) didn’t sell very well. I usually sell at least one copy of the Core Rules, but I think I’m putting most of my energy into the Runecairn hardcovers so the zines are getting left behind. I plan on phasing out Advanced Rules and Beneath the Broken Sword (since they’re collected in Wardensaga) and just sell zine copies of Core Rules.
- I definitely need to rethink my approach to t-shirts; I just had them in a stack on the table, shrink-wrapped, and nobody asked about them, let alone bought any. Next time I’ll have one out on display (along with wearing one, like I did this time). I think I’ll see more t-shirt sales at Dragonmeet and UKGE, along with the buttons and badges.
- Something felt off about Thought Bubble this year and I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe the 2nd entrance and 4th hall threw off the equilibrium too much and it’ll take another year to settle in. Some folks that I spoke to said the majority of attendees ignored the second entrance altogether, instead queueing at the primary entrance.
- While I like the ease of loading and unloading at the rear entrance of Harrogate Convention Centre, I think I prefer having a table in the first hall (Redshirt Hall, this year). Increased footfall translates to more sales (ideally).
Improvements for next time
- Find a way to showcase the t-shirts better.
- Consider bundling dice with books to increase cross-selling.
