From Sketch to Convention Floor — How concon Actually Works

Q: How do you become a vendor at anime conventions like FANIME or Anime Expo?

Most conventions have an Artist Alley or Dealer's Room application process that opens months before the event. You apply with photos of your products, your business info, and sometimes a portfolio. Popular cons like Anime Expo sell out fast — apply the day applications open. Smaller local cons are easier to get into and great for starting out.

Q: How much does it cost to vend at an anime convention?

Table costs vary wildly. A small local con might be $50-150 for a table. FANIME Artist Alley runs around $150-300. Anime Expo Dealer's Room can be $800+ for a booth. Add travel, hotel, food, and product inventory — a single convention weekend can cost $1,000-3,000+ total depending on the event.

Q: What sells best at anime convention booths?

Stickers and small accessories ($3-12 range) are the highest-volume sellers — low commitment, impulse buys. Apparel ($25-45) has higher margins but people need to love the design. Card stickers and lanyards do great at conventions near Round1 locations. Niche items (rhythm game merch, specific VTuber designs) attract dedicated buyers who spend more per visit.

Q: Where does concon source their merch?

Every design is original — created in-house by a trained designer. Manufacturing is done through established partners, with quality control before shipping to the US. The combination of original design + professional manufacturing keeps costs reasonable while maintaining quality that mass-produced print-on-demand can't match.

🏪 Behind the Booth

From Sketch to Convention Floor: How concon Actually Works

I've been making and selling merch at conventions for years. Here's what that actually looks like — from the first sketch to the convention floor.

People see the booth at FANIME or Anime Expo and think it just... exists. Like the merch materialized from the anime dimension fully formed.

Nah. There's a whole pipeline behind every sticker, shirt, and charm you see on that table — and most of it happens months before the convention. I want to pull back the curtain because (a) I think it's interesting and (b) if you're thinking about starting your own merch line, this might save you some pain.

📖 How I Got Here (The Short Version)

Short version: I studied design in school. Learned to draw, learned color theory, learned how to make something look right. But school wasn't for me — I wanted to make my own stuff, not someone else's assignments.

So I started small. Sold some things online, figured out what people actually wanted, and eventually landed on what I know best: merch for the games I play. I'm at Round1 constantly, I've been in the anime/gaming scene for as long as I can remember. The designs came naturally because I was making stuff I wanted to own.

🎨 How a Design Gets Made

Every product starts the same way: I'm playing a game, watching a stream, or standing in line at a convention, and I think "I want this on a shirt/sticker/charm and it doesn't exist."

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1. Sketch

Usually at 2am after a gaming session. iPad Pro + Procreate. I iterate fast — 5-10 rough concepts for every 1 that makes it.

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2. Digital Polish

Final art in Illustrator/Photoshop. Color separation for printing. Die-cut outlines for stickers. Mockups on product templates.

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3. Manufacturing

I work with manufacturing partners in China — they handle the actual production. I send specs + art files, they send samples, I approve or adjust, then production runs.

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4. QC + Inventory

Products ship to me. I check every batch — colors, cuts, print alignment. Then it's packaged and stocked for the website + conventions.

From "I want to make this" to "it's in my hands" is usually 6-10 weeks. Which means I'm planning convention inventory months in advance. The FANIME lineup started as sketches in January.

🏪 Convention Day: What It's Really Like

Convention weekends are my favorite and most exhausting days of the year. Here's the real schedule:

📅 Typical Convention Weekend

🌅 Friday 6:00 AM — Load the car. Somehow everything that fit in my room doesn't fit in the trunk.
🏗️ 8:00 AM — Setup. Tablecloth, display stands, price signs, product layout. I've done this enough that I have a system, but it still takes 2+ hours.
🚪 10:00 AM — Doors open. First rush is always the most intense.
🗣️ 10 AM - 6 PM — Talk to literally hundreds of people. "Yes, that's an IIDX design." "Yes, I play DDR." "Yes, those are card stickers for e-amusement." Repeat x200.
🍜 6:00 PM — Close. Count inventory. Try to eat. Fail. Pass out.
🔁 Saturday & Sunday — Repeat. By Sunday I've lost my voice but my inventory is (hopefully) much lighter.

The best part isn't the sales — it's meeting people who actually play these games. Someone will walk up, see the SDVX charms and their eyes light up. They'll ask "Wait, do you play Voltex?" and suddenly we're talking about our favorite charts for 10 minutes.

That's why I do this. I'm not just selling merch — I'm part of the community. I play the same games, go to the same Round1, watch the same streams.

💰 What Actually Sells at Conventions

After doing more conventions than I can count, here's what I've learned about what people buy:

🏷️ Stickers — The Gateway Drug

$3-8 price point. Lowest commitment. People buy 5-10 at a time. Die-cuts, minis, doro stickers — all move fast. hundreds of sticker designs in the store right now.

💳 Card Stickers — The Secret Weapon

$7 each. These sell incredibly well at conventions near a Round1. People tap their card, see the design, and want one. dozens of designs for e-amusement and Aime cards.

🔑 Charms — The Mid-Range Star

$8-12. Double-sided acrylic, clip onto bags or lanyards. Tons of designs. People love the chibi art style. SDVX and VTuber charms are consistently the top sellers.

👕 Shirts — The Statement Piece

$35-45. Higher commitment, but people who want them really want them. DDR song jacket shirts and IIDX designs are the most popular. Sports-mesh fabric is a genuine differentiator — customers feel the material and go "oh, this is actually for playing."

📅 Where to Find Us in 2026

I'm at basically every major SoCal/NorCal convention plus a few others. If you want to see everything in person, touch the fabric, try on sizes — come say hi:

🌸 FANIME — San Jose, CA (May)
🎮 Anime Riverside — Riverside, CA
🎪 Anifest
🔥 Anime Expo (AX) — Los Angeles, CA (July)
📢 More dates TBA — follow us on socials for updates

Can't make it to a convention? Everything I sell at the booth is also on the online store. Same products, same prices, ships from the US.

💡 Advice for Aspiring Vendors

People DM me about this constantly, so here's the honest version:

✅ Start at small local cons. Tables are cheap ($50-150), crowds are forgiving, and you learn what works without going bankrupt.
✅ Make what you genuinely love. Customers can tell the difference between "I designed this because I love SDVX" and "I googled trending anime and made a sticker."
✅ Have stickers. They're cheap to produce, easy to display, and they bring people to your table who might then buy the bigger stuff.
⚠️ Budget for everything. Table + travel + hotel + food + product cost + display materials. Your first convention might not break even. That's normal.
⚠️ Get comfortable talking to strangers for 8 hours straight. If you're an introvert (hi, me), this is the hardest part. But every person who stops is someone who shares your interests. Remember that.