Lots and lots of playmats, presumably going with all the MtG artists selling signed cards. EVERYONE had a QR code linking to their website or Patreon.
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Everyone has the big high-rise booth displays, loaded with prints. The “me at a table with a book of prints and small sign we used to do no longer cuts it. Dealer’s tables—proof that the Red Queen hypothesis doesn’t just apply to animals.
sep 1, 2025, 7:56 pm • 188 1 • view
Pretend I closed those quotes.
sep 1, 2025, 7:56 pm • 210 1 • view
Lots of bookmarks. Printed wood, mostly. One very fancy stamped metal set that I admired. Pins have gotten incredibly large and complex to the point where I can’t really imagine wearing some of them. It’s definitely possible to overdo the metallics there—some turned into a stamped gold visual mush.
sep 1, 2025, 7:59 pm • 176 0 • view
how are the patches on offer
sep 1, 2025, 8:01 pm • 4 0 • view
Nearly nonexistent.
sep 1, 2025, 8:05 pm • 4 0 • view
Your pin now comes with a printed backing card, often in foil. Somewhat intimidating.
sep 1, 2025, 8:01 pm • 129 0 • view
Very few patches in the artist area, but some in the dealer’s room, though those tended to be along fandom property lines.
sep 1, 2025, 8:03 pm • 119 0 • view
Artist tables very light on T-shirts. Dealer’s room, as ever. Saw a very handsome printed scarf display, notable for being the only one.
sep 1, 2025, 8:05 pm • 139 0 • view
I am completely unwilling to embark on the Discourse involved in people with a table full of Pokémon fan-art merch for sale and a sign that says AI violates copyright. I shall let the Discourse pass through me and only I shall remain.
sep 1, 2025, 8:09 pm • 359 13 • view
A few people valiantly trying to sell art of their OCs. Didn’t work in my day, doesn’t work now, unless your OC is a naked woman, a dragon, a pre-teen witch, or a black cat.
sep 1, 2025, 8:11 pm • 213 2 • view
Cryptids still intensely popular, with Mothman leading the pack.
sep 1, 2025, 8:18 pm • 182 0 • view
As he should. As he should.
sep 1, 2025, 8:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Good to know Mothman still has it. What a guy.
sep 1, 2025, 8:26 pm • 2 0 • view
OUT: “Not all who wander are lost” and the line about meddling, affairs of dragons, ketchup, etc. (I suspect everyone who ever wanted one has several) IN: Resist slogans ETERNAL: Anything implying that coffee is the only thing standing between one’s co-workers and dismemberment
sep 1, 2025, 8:26 pm • 330 23 • view
Surprisingly I’ve been seeing a rise in “Fresno Nightwalkers” too, which are literally just sentient jammies
sep 1, 2025, 8:34 pm • 5 0 • view
Mothman shmothman.
sep 1, 2025, 8:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes I have a naked woman and a dragon. All I need to do now is learn how to art!
sep 1, 2025, 8:55 pm • 0 0 • view
I did okay with Jetpack Turtle OC, but yeah, it only really works if the art is generic enough to be broadly appealing and/or you have a REALLY sick character design.
sep 1, 2025, 10:49 pm • 3 0 • view
This like a comic convention right?
sep 1, 2025, 9:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Dragoncon!
sep 1, 2025, 10:54 pm • 3 0 • view
Do they make comics of the OCs or is this just like prints& stuff? Make comics folks.
sep 1, 2025, 8:15 pm • 5 0 • view
Just prints. If you make comics, that’s something else.
sep 1, 2025, 8:19 pm • 7 0 • view
OCs also sell if they are a T. rex, but I'm not sure if that counts as 'dragon'
sep 1, 2025, 11:58 pm • 3 0 • view
Would have been all over the scarves. Love
sep 1, 2025, 9:16 pm • 0 0 • view
I will admit that I appreciate a backing card, although it doesn't have to be fancy. I have a few pins that don't have a back stamp and didn't come with a card and dang I wish I could remember who made them
sep 1, 2025, 11:55 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, pins took over the furry cons a few years ago. There's one company what does them of your fursona, but just in general it's been an explosion. Biting pear pins would sell, just saying. Have the full art as the backing card, boom done.
sep 1, 2025, 8:06 pm • 6 0 • view
Did a run once already!
sep 1, 2025, 8:12 pm • 5 0 • view
I know, I have one! And the resin figure. With signed butt. ...I am now imagining a Biting Pear Funko Pop, oh jeeze...
sep 1, 2025, 8:14 pm • 7 0 • view
No! Bad! Bad bobcat! *shakes newspaper at you*
sep 1, 2025, 8:23 pm • 4 0 • view
It'd never work! Funkos are known for big eyes, which the pear doesn't have, and no mouths, which the pear does!
sep 1, 2025, 8:29 pm • 2 0 • view
They bend that rule sometimes! (Example that I am definitely buying: funko.com/pop-derpy-wi... ) But they do kinda require a big head and small bodies, which is the opposite of a pear.
sep 1, 2025, 11:24 pm • 2 0 • view
I haven’t been to PAX since COVID (bummer to think that was going on this past weekend, oh well) but pin trading got huge there a while back. I can sort of date it back by which games I have pins for. I think my oldest is 11 years old.
sep 1, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
(As for why I bowed out of cons, let’s just say I already got H1N1 the year that went around, and once was enough ;)
sep 1, 2025, 11:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, con crud is bad enough, but PaxPox was nasty, and nobody wants the plague...
sep 1, 2025, 11:22 pm • 1 0 • view
I backed some pin crowdfunding campaigns last year without paying any attention to size and I was VERY surprised by how big some of them were when they arrived. I don't think they'll ever leave my cork pinboard!
sep 1, 2025, 8:46 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, KittyUnpretty over on Tumblr has been complaining about the upsizing of pins lately as well.
sep 1, 2025, 8:01 pm • 5 0 • view
I still like some of them as art, but they’re definitely display pieces.
sep 1, 2025, 8:04 pm • 9 0 • view
If you’re of the age that you can pull off Large Broach, they fit that niche but yeah
sep 1, 2025, 8:05 pm • 5 0 • view
oh, to be a thrice-divorced pigeon of a woman sitting at brunch, sporting a six-inch dandadan pin on my fancy fur coat
sep 1, 2025, 8:16 pm • 13 1 • view
… I suddenly pictured a Biting Pear of Salamanca pin. How had i never thought of this before
sep 1, 2025, 9:48 pm • 2 0 • view
one of my boyfriends collects pins! the really big ones are basically just art pieces for display on a banner or corkboard, but some people put them on bags with locking backs or in windowed itabag inserts. i have a big one that's howl from howl's moving castle as an angel.
sep 1, 2025, 11:51 pm • 2 0 • view
I've got a very large vulture pin (from foxfeather!) that just lives on my tabletop wargaming bag because it's too big to wear
sep 1, 2025, 8:56 pm • 6 0 • view
I saw some that were like half again the size of Fox’s.
sep 1, 2025, 10:15 pm • 6 0 • view
Oh, they get bigger, oh boy! 😯
sep 1, 2025, 10:23 pm • 0 1 • view
Oh yeah, I don’t usually see people wearing these pins on their clothes, they go on ita bags or pin banners/cork boards at home! (Means you don’t have to keep taking them on and off, remember to pack them, and itabag clear vinyl covers means that even if one pops off it’s not lost to the con floor!)
sep 1, 2025, 8:09 pm • 13 0 • view
I’ve seen quite a few of those big pins around New England this summer, mostly political or touristy. People seem to be wearing them on their backpacks and purses.
sep 1, 2025, 8:51 pm • 0 0 • view
It was a pleasure to meet you, thank you so much for stopping by the table! I didn't realize that you had done Digger under a different monicker; looking it up and realizing I wasn't misremembering its authorship made me feel much less worried about my memory.
sep 1, 2025, 8:05 pm • 13 0 • view
Totally! Loved your stuff!
sep 1, 2025, 8:13 pm • 7 0 • view
"
sep 1, 2025, 7:58 pm • 8 1 • view
Fandom in general is just so much more professional than it used to be, I feel. It’s a little bit strange.
sep 1, 2025, 7:58 pm • 9 0 • view
Yeah I'm intimidated by the stuff people are doing, now. I just wanna sketch peoples' fursonas/dnd characters for $20 and call it good.
sep 1, 2025, 8:24 pm • 11 0 • view
Which convention?
sep 1, 2025, 8:13 pm • 0 0 • view
DragonCon
sep 1, 2025, 9:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Ugh I hate that so much, I hate the idea of designing it, hauling it in, setting it up, and tearing it down. So, so much. I keep thinking I should start showing at cons again but, ugh. I don't have that kind of energy any more.
sep 1, 2025, 9:38 pm • 9 0 • view
I’ll probably never do it again. I’m at a stage of my career where I don’t have to, and at a certain point I was just bored with it.
sep 1, 2025, 11:45 pm • 4 0 • view
I usually like the idea of designing it for about ten minutes, and then I hate everything forever.
sep 1, 2025, 11:43 pm • 5 0 • view
Oh yeah that kind of print heavy display has been the norm since, 2015 at cons I go to? Last time I’m positive that wasn’t the prevailing style would’ve been around 2011, maybe. And I think I first saw the “menus” being used at events in Asia, it’s a handy idea for sure!
sep 1, 2025, 8:06 pm • 1 0 • view
We were told at a recent event that QR codes have supplanted business cards, because business cards are both a recurring cost and a physical item that has to be managed. I'm a little sad because a business card on my desk bar/bulletin board is more likely to make me go look regularly, but I get it.
sep 1, 2025, 8:12 pm • 16 0 • view
And it's not just artists at cons; we're seeing it at our farmers market as well, for all the types of businesses that vend there. Fascinating that this thing that has been around for more than a decade with little uptake has gotten such a huge boost in the wake of the pandemic.
sep 1, 2025, 8:13 pm • 7 0 • view
It is a pity, business cards were often a printed sample of the artist in questions best art.
sep 1, 2025, 9:55 pm • 1 0 • view
the QR code is bittersweet to me. they were the rage - amongst graphic artists, in my area - so we all put them on our business cards only to see that nobody we handed them to knew what they were 🙃
sep 2, 2025, 11:28 am • 1 0 • view
One thing we can thank the covid pandemic for is popularising QR codes again. (And mrna vaccine tech i guess that's cool too)
sep 2, 2025, 9:40 am • 1 0 • view
I haven't done big cons, but at small stalls I do find QR codes useful for linking to more info about complicated items like my custom morse code bracelets.
sep 2, 2025, 9:47 am • 1 0 • view