The Blockbusting Baltimore Comic-Con

Hindsight is always 20/20, right? Maybe it was the amazing line up of talent that Mark Nathan & his Baltimore Comic-Con crew gathered, maybe it was the timing of the show that wasn’t on top of any other comic-con or maybe this was just the year that Baltimore would explode - whichever it was, CGC was not expecting the huge crowd of Baltimore fans. There are always shows that CGC does great at; NYCC, Wizard World Philly & Chicago, WonderCon & San Diego Comic Con. We even have some surprises like Emerald City in Seattle. We have always done well at Baltimore, even past shows when we did onsite grading, but that was nothing compared to how busy we were this year. Paul Litch, Shawn Caffrey, Joe Pierson, Ryan Caffrey & Kevin Boyd were the unknowing five on hand to secure the tide of customers wishing to submit their books for CGC certification. In hindsight, we should have sent two more people.

“It felt like we were working the booth at New York Comic-Con.” said Shawn Caffrey, CGC’s Modern Finalizer. "There were times when we were four people deep at the booth. It's such a great feeling to see a two day show pack that much punch.” Vintage seemed to be the submission focus for most customers, which is not much of a surprise. Vintage books almost always seem to be the top type of book submitted in the Northeast as opposed to MegaCon or Wizard World Texas, which almost always is mostly Modern.

Every show has one thing in common submission wise - the prestigious CGC Signature Series. Baltimore was no exception, in fact Signature Series submissions exploded. Luckily, Kevin Boyd had many CGC Signature Series Witnesses on hand to help him obtain all the autographs our clients requested.

“Crazy show - attendance seemed way up. We were slammed all weekend long with submissions and requests and we had a great focused crew. Our Signature Series line did not lighten up on Saturday until around 3:30. I don't think any of us were expecting this to be as busy as it was.” said Kevin Boyd, CGC Signature Series Director. “We were pretty successful as far as getting signatures go - only one guest we couldn't find for approximately 8 books (however on most he was to be the second signature). Otherwise, 99.5% successful completion rate and one of the most successful Signature Series shows of the year.”

Baltimore Comic-Con 2008 did one thing no other Comic-Con this year has done. Submissions in Baltimore caused CGC to run out of invoices. “We ran out of invoices on Sunday around noon. Joe had to go run a photo copy our last invoice and make new invoice numbers. It was wild.” said CGC Vice President, Paul Litch. “Thankfully we had a great crew in Baltimore. Shawn, Joe, Ryan & Kevin did a great job. Our witnesses went above and beyond. We’d like to thank, Chandler & Sharon, Kris, Will, Jamie, Ben, Danny, Cosimo, Brian, Steve and Chris all for helping us out. Also, a special thanks to Rich Henn for bringing us lunch on Sunday. Baltimore was a great show. Thank you Mark Nathan & crew for putting together such a blockbuster.”