It's been a few days now and I've had time to process the amazing day we had at the Richland Vintage & Antique Show this past weekend. To summarize, this is an outdoor show, held twice a year at Shoreline Vintage & Antiques in Richland, NJ. They've grown steadily in the 3 years they've been holding this event with this year's show hosting over 125 vendors (comic books, toys, cards, video games, vinyl, memorabilia, etc.) food trucks, and even cosplayers!
My family visited this show last year and we had such a wonderful time. We all knew we wanted to come back some day as vendors (though Mutation was only in its early planning stages at the time). I couldn't have imagined that we'd be back a year later in a booth of our own.
Spaces are free to vendors and admission is free to customers, which is both amazingly generous and completely brilliant. Ben & Becky, who own Shoreline Vintage & Antiques run the show with a crew of family and friends. The whole event is so welcoming and positive, and it starts with the folks I just mentioned. I cannot thank everyone there enough; you have something special going on there. We loved being a part of it and we are looking forward to doing it again!
Our booth was 3x the size as it was last month at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market last month. It was a challenge ramping up, but I was very happy with the results. We had lots of $2 Comics, Priced books, Variants, Sets, Kids Comics/Graphic Novels and Action Figures for sale. We even had a bunch of Kid-friendly FCBD leftovers that we were handing out. I'm proud of what we were able to put together and I'm more determined than ever to keep going!
Thank you to everyone who visited our booth whether you bought something or simply browsed around. I had such a nice time chatting with folks and seeing what books interested them. If you have any critiques of things that we could do better, I would be happy to hear them! You can always drop me a line directly!
My biggest regret from the day was that I did not have the opportunity to visit other booths and speak with some vendors I'd previously only interacted with online. This is, of course, because we had a steady flow of wonderful customers all day... so it's hard to frame it as a negative. My family did some serious shopping at the show, and they got some truly cool finds!
Both of my neighbors were awesome, and I got a chance to chat with John from NJ Comic Stop whom I have bought from several times at local conventions. He's someone who's business ethic I respect very much and he's just a super-nice guy to talk to. It's one of the reason his table is first on my list at any show I'm attending. He also recently hosted his first show, and it was a blast too!
I did manage to catch a comic guy (who's social media is eluding me, or I would link it here) who had not packed up yet at the end of the day and got myself a handful of Mister Miracle issues. Now that I finished Miracleman Volume 1, I'm working on completing Mister Miracle Volume 1 for my personal collection. I got a great deal on these!
So, that was the second show for our modest Spring Schedule (and our second show ever) and finally we have the Trenton City Charity Comic-Con on Sunday June 2nd from 10am - 5pm. If you're in the area come on out and support these kids as they raise money for a fantastic charity.
My goal was to do 3 shows in our first year and I'm proud to say we are close to meeting that goal. So, I'll wrap up this post with some pictures of the booth and the people who matter most to me. Their love and support are what keeps me going!
