I just got home from my first Comic Con, Granite State Comic Con and I'm pretty happy with the result. While I didn't sell exactly as much as I might have at a larger Comic Con (unfortunately, Boston Comic Con, due to Massachusetts Law, requires a lot of hoops to be allowed to sell food/candy), I still did pretty well and I learned a ton! I sold probably 100 Minty Memes Mints (mintymemes.com), about 70 being the pocket-sized tins and 30 being the peppermint jars. The most important thing that I gained though was insight into the customer experience and the way that potential customers reacted to it.
A lot of people were enthusiastic and I found that I appealed most to people between the ages of 12 and 30 (of course, this is just one comic con, and I may find a different trend later). Additionally, as I expected, some older parents in the 40-50 range who wanted to get their kids a 'cool' present, thought it was a great gift for them (this may be good for the Christmas season) and I pointed them to the right meme depending on the age group (although all are family friendly, some have implications that are less than family friendly and would appeal more to older age groups). It was great interacting with people, talking about the product, selling other stuff, and seeing all the great costumes and products from other vendors as well!
I also learned a lot by talking to other vendors. They explained that turn-outs and the amount of people looking to buy items vary heavily from comic con to comic con and they gave me some great information regarding other ones around the New England Area. They told me about their past experiences, how they started, and were eager to learn about my product, a camaraderie that was really enjoyable for me. There are different ways that they prepared that I didn't think of (although all of my important bases were covered) such as changeable signs for product prices, which allows you to vary prices throughout the day if it seems that you misread what a good pricing point is. My fidget spinners and pokemon figurines were my best sellers, making me the majority of the money that I made. People loved the Marvel/DC Fidget Spinners, especially kids, and offering them at $5.00 or 2/$8.00 worked out great for me.
The Minty Memes brand is about bringing memes off of just the internet and letting them join us in our daily lives. When I created the brand, I thought to myself "Clearly the person who said puns are the lowest form of humor never heard of memes and if I may so myself, Shawty, it's time to get low, get low, get low, get low.". I want to make my memes mintier and mintier and will likely be having fan submission contests to create a meme that will be part of the main collection. Additionally, I'll be offering customized mints in the near future; you send the meme, I supply the candy. I'll send it to your door so you can show your friends or family and be the belle of the friggen ball. Some of the memes can be seen below here in the pictures:
