Jul 08 2009
How Much is Too Much? The Increasing Costs of Conventions
It is probably the understatement of the year to say I was excited when Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard of Star Trek, Xavier of X-Men) was added to the 2009 Dragon*con guest list. But as happy as I was at the announcement, I cried a little when I saw how much a photo with him would be. To get a photo with Stewart will cost you $200. Two. Hundred. Dollars. (Still no word on the cost of the autograph.)
I still lack the words to adequately describe my feelings on the matter. I am angry, but I’m not quite sure at who. Is this Stewart’s doing? His agent’s? Why is he charging so very very much, when others are charging much less? Doesn’t Stewart himself realize how much money this is for his fans? Does he really need the money that badly? Isn’t this a bit like biting the hand that feeds you?
And Patrick Stewart isn’t the only celebrity charging outrageous prices. You may recall my report about Leonard Nimoy’s appearance at Florida’s FX International convention. If you don’t, the short version is that the exclusive Nimoy panel was an extra $125.00 - $250.00 to attend. And Nimoy charges about $65 - $75 for his autograph at cons these days. It was reported that Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill was charging $100 for his autograph at WonderCon ‘09 (and this fan refused to pay it - good for him!).
Even the conventions themselves are getting increasingly more expensive. Remember the big fuss from the TwiCon attendees back in June about the prices and autograph policy? It isn’t an isolated problem. Cons keep getting more expensive. Autographs and photos keep getting more expensive. And to top it off, the quality of the cons don’t make up for the increased prices in a lot of cases. Yeah yeah yeah, the economy and inflation and all that. I get it. But these prices have exploded far past the rate of inflation for that to be used as the sole excuse.
So the question I have for all of you is this: how much is too much? At what point do the fans stop attending these cons, and start telling these guests and/or their agents that they won’t be paying these prices anymore?
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m not paying Creation Entertainment’s inflated prices for any of their conventions (which means I won’t be going to their convention in New Jersey this summer as intended). I won’t be buying the photo with Stewart at Dragon*con. To quote Captain Picard: “The line must be drawn here!” I simply won’t continue to pay some of these absurd prices.
Where is your line? How much is too much for you? Post a comment and share!
I’m pretty good when sticking to my principles. Last year at D*Con, Edward James Olmos was signing.
I’m a fan of BSG, just finished getting an autograph (and picture for free) from Mike Hogan (who was next to EJO) so I got in line for an autograph with Eddie.
Thinking it was gonna be $20 like everyone else, I was shocked when the person in front of me forked out $60!
Now, I had the money for that and alot more, but the stones to demand $60 when most others are asking $20! You can keep it-so I walked out of line saying loud enough so everyone in a 25 foot radius could hear (including EJO) that I wasn’t coughing up that kind of coin.
Instead, I walked 4 feet over to the left of EJO and spent $60 on James Callus for 3 autographs for family and friends.
This is an interesting discussion. I remember the first convention I went to - Megacon in 2002. I was so excited just to see all the people in Star Wars costumes (I soon realized that there was a nationwide costuming group and I’d see them at all major events). There were three Star Wars guests, and I got their autographs at $10 a piece. I didn’t mind paying that much. At Celebration III, I set aside $100 for autographs and that got me 8 total - Jeremy Bulloch and Daniel Logan charged $20, the rest were $10, which I thought was reasonable.
Now, whenever I go to a convention, I hardly ever get autographs, ESPECIALLY at Dragon*Con, because I want pictures with them and I’m not willing to pay extra for it. I think it’s incredibly silly to pay for an autograph and also be charged for a photo with your own camera.
I’ve still had fun at the two Dragon*Con’s I’ve attended, because there’s so much to do there besides get autographs and pictures. But when it comes to autographs and pictures, convention prices are just ridiculous nowadays. And like you said, it’s hard to know who to be mad at - the celebrities or their handlers.
$200!!!!! Geez, I got a free photo with him at the stage door of the Old Vic in London!!
No way I’d pay that for a photo with anyone.
Personally, I don’t feel that ANYTHING should be paid… you’ve already paid by watching the show and sitting through the advertisements during the show… if you were REALLY a fan, you’ve used the products of those advertisements… thus, you’ve already paid. Even the big “Studio Machine” in Hollywood’s Heyday didn’t charge for photographs and autographs…
First Mistake: Considering travesties such as creation cons conventions.
When I go to big cons it’s generally about costumes and hanging out with my friends, so it’s pretty rare when I will actually wait in line and pay for an autograph. And even then, since I’m working on a pretty tight budget, I generally only have so much I Can spend. I actually go to smaller cons specifically for autographs because they are local and the entrance fee is pretty cheap, so I can usually afford to “blow” some money on an autograph.
I would say that $35 is my limit. $25-$35 seems to be the average I’ve been charged and I’m ok with that. $200 is just highway robbery. I don’t care how infrequent the celebrity comes to cons. And frankly, I find it completely disrespectful to their fans. How many of these people who are absolute die hard fans will skip a bill payment or even not eat at con just so they can afford that autograph? Yes, it’s crazy, but you Know there are people who will do this!
I don’t have a problem with paying for an autograph because I understand that this could very well be their current source of income at the moment. And that in some cases these celebrities are brought in, but still have to spend their own money for things at Con. I am ok with compensating a celebrity for their time at con, but I’d say anything above $80 is just flat out exploitation. I expect that from Creation, it makes me sad to see it individually. And I can only hope that the reason is behind an agent or management contract and not the celebrities themselves.
That’s just insane. I’d rather have tiered pricing for a con–a ridiculously expensive all-inclusive all the way down to a bare bones option.
I have been attending Con’s since 1996. I will not be attending Dragoncon this year because I refuse to pay $100 just to get in the door. I would much rather attend smaller cons and pay less. Alot of people in my circle of friends are boycotting DC this year because of the outrageous prices and the lack of respect that the DC managment shows their attendees.
The autograph/photo opps are out of control. Last year at DC, I took a Monkees album to be signed by Mickey Dolenz, he was charging $60 for an autograph, there was no way I was going to pay that. Richard Hatch from BSG, signed my original BSG poster for free.
Back in 2003 I paid $50 for a photo session with James Marsters and spent most of my DC weekend waiting in 3 hour lines for panels. Im so done with that. I go to cons to party and hang out with my friends, I used to be a total fanboy all about autographs and pictures but no more I refuse to give my hard earned money to these “wranglers” who come to the con with the guests.
I don’t mean to defend the outrageous pricing, but I do think it’s fair to consider a few things:
1. Most of the pricing for autographs is set by the talent agent. They look at the market and the attendance and decide what they can charge. They know that many attendees will be alienated by exorbitant prices, but with attendance numbers high enough, there are enough people there to make a pile of money just on autographs. It is the responsibility of the convention — not the talent or their agents — to make sure that these prices don’t get out hand. So often, that doesn’t happen for the following reason.
2. Conventions avoid paying high honorarium fees (often quoted at over $10,000, averaging around $4000) by allowing the talent to make their own money selling photos and autographs. Sometime the convention doesn’t give them the choice, but even when they do, the talent may still opt out of a hefty fee if they believe that their popularity will allow them to make more money selling their wares, and many of them do, by orders of magnitude some times.
Conventions like DragonCon pay the majority of their guests next to nothing, not even travel expenses. The talent makes almost all of their money based solely on their popularity. A simple market analysis can determine where these prices come from, and the simple truth is that as long as some people are willing to pay them, they will continue to be the norm.
The cost to get into a con is always incidental. Between travel arrangements, hotel costs, and food, the ticket to get in was always the cheapest thing about a con. Be glad you don’t have to always travel 150+ miles just to get to a con, any con.
P.S. People still get autographs these days? Crazy.
We, too, are trying to boycott Dragon*Con, but I can feel my husband’s resolve crumbling. $100 to get in x 50,000 attendees and this Con can’t pay the talent? Um, yah. The party line is that poor little Dragon*Con has NO MONEY and therefore must rely on guests paying their way and volunteer staffing… It doesn’t sound right to ME, either. :-/
The seamy underbelly of this particular con aside (and there IS one), I think the real problem is simply the lack of investment in the guests by the con and the lack of rules for the guests. At San Diego Comic Con (the MOTHER of them all), all guests MUST sign whatever you bring them FOR FREE. It’s in their contract. There are exceptions to this, such as Tori Amos, who was given ROCKSTAR status and required a lottery AND a surcharge to see her, but she’d sign your stuff for nothing when you got there.
Dragon*Con is run rather badly and unfortunately it’s so big that it creates a vacuum in which other cons really can’t live. We are attending ALL small cons in the metro area to try to encourage people to put their money towards new cons with new energy. Dragon*Con is tired, mismanaged and slowly collapsing under its own weight. I think this is a good thing for all genres in the metro area.
So, spend your money at the smaller cons and sooner or later Dragon*con will die. When it does, we can all enjoy some wonderful smaller cons that will cater to each genre in a far better way than one huge con with too many people.
The prices went out of control once the commercial interests looked at cons and realized they could make money off it, especially if they contracted the popular actors and personalities so that they would then have a monopoly on their appearances and shut out the older, cheaper, fan-run cons. Yes, I’m talking about Creation and its ilk. I went to one commercial con because I really, really wanted to see an actor. I stood in line for two and a half hours for his talk, and the room filled up before I got to the door, so I never got in to see him. He wanted $100 per autograph and woudn’t even personalize it. That’s when I threw up my hands in the air and started boycotting all commercial cons.
Unfortunately, autographs are now market-driven. Maybe if we all boycotted Creation and the other commercial cons, and refused to pay for any autograph over $20, then the prices would start coming down from lack of sales….
Yes! Yes! and Yes!
1. Only once have I paid for a photo op with a guest. That was $25.00 at Toronto Trek in 2006 for Michael Shanks. I thought about it last year at DC with Gareth David Lloyd, but in the end did not pay the money. There is NO WAY I would pay $200. That is insane.
2. I refuse to pay any money for autographs or photo ops to guests who are handled by Julie Caitlin Brown at DragonCon. She is rude to members and guests.
3. I would like to say that a couple of years ago I paid $20 for an autograph from William Katt. He posed for a photo right there for free. My niece and her best friend, both in dance/theater, went to see him. They didn’t have money for autographs and after talking shop (ie, theater) for a while, he GAVE them autographs for free.
4. I absolutely refuse to attend a creation con for any reason, for any guest. It’s a total scam to get as much money as possible from the fans. Have never been and never will go.
5. I am attending DragonCon for a while this year. I don’t stand in line for hours to see panels. I don’t plan on spending more than $20 for autographs (okay, the only one I really want is John Schneider!) and am not getting any photo ops.
6. Lastly, my favorite conventions are smaller fan media cons such as Media West Con. Those are the best!
I totally, and I mean, totally agree with the person that astutely pointed out that the fans have ALREADY paid for the priveledge of getting these starts autographs. If not for the fans, and their literally years of continued devotion, most of these people would have NO careers! Its ironic that most of them will say at cons that they owe everything to their fans, but to quote a phrase from the 80’s, “Wheres the beef?”!
If they want to charge more to get into a con fine! BUT even there, there’s the exclusive events, reserved seating, yada yada yada, and before you know it, you’re in for hundreds if not thousands of dollars!
What about the tons of cash I have spent on going to see movies, CD’s, endless new versions of things on DVD, action figures, toys, tons of other products, time watching commercials during the shows????? Maybe its me being a little sensative, but where’s the love here?
I dont want to hear its all in the talent agents hands, higher expenses, etc etc etc, the stars do have something to say about these things. AND HEY, even if they attended a con for free, isnt it in their best interest of their career and image to do so, if not out of respect for the fans?
In a word, or a few words, the fans have a right to be pissed about the autographs fees, and should not be ashamed to vent and show outrage, and just stop attending cons. Trust me, someone WILL start getting the message! Nuff Said!
Anyone who is feeling that conventions are turning into greedy ripoffs & autograph lines are fleecing their fans needs to read this Usenet article about a fan’s experience at a con several years ago.
His form of justice was, shall we say……….straight out of a Kevin Smith film.:
http://tinyurl.com/kqafrv (tinyURL of Google link)
PS,
Well, it looks like Google played a goofy on me, so I guess I gotta post the whole longish URL (sorry about that, folks. Trust me. It IS worth the read):
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.shenanigans/browse_thread/thread/f43ab7e0f28e93bb/714ba410f3c86bdd?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=furplay+vs+tony+the+twat#714ba410f3c86bdd
I came across this page via another site, but while I only collect sports autographs, I completely agree with you. The same exact thing can be said for sports stars.
A few years ago I remember prices were getting high, and sadly, they never stopped. Mickey Mantle signed back in 1992 for $12 at a show, I know because I still have the ad. Today, if he were alive, based on the prices of others like him, he would be $300.
Some retired players today are charging $200-$300, when $75 is about the most it should be. Heck, there is a basketball HOFer that charges $1,000.
Things are out of control at all conventions. I blame everyone. The players for letting it happen, the promoters for being greedy, and the fans for paying it. Until all of the fans quit paying it, they will keep doing it. Sadly, there will always be some obsessed fans that will fork over the money.
I saw Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson (Sisko and Garak from DS9) recently here in the UK at a similar event. After reading about the amount some of the guests charge I was preparing for the worst, admittedly DS9 wasn’t as popular as TNG but I still thought they’d charge a bomb.
I was pleasantly surprised that the both only charged £20 ($33), and as Avery Brooks came into the room as Andrew Robinson was just getting ready to leave, they let me have a picture taken with both of them free fo charge (well I say free, I’d already paid for a photo with each of them, but this extra one was free).
Not sure I’d ever fork out more than about £50 ($85) for a photo/autograph. That might seem like more than other people would pay but obviously the difference in salaries here makes that £50 more akin to about $50.
First of all, the article posted above stated $200 was for the photo op with Patrick Stewart, not an autograph. That is still steep in my opinion, but wanted to clarify that was not the price of a mere autograph. I was one of those that shelled out $60 for Edward James Olmos’ autograph at DragonCon last year. I thought that too was a bit steep, but not overly so. This year at DC, I expect to pay through the nose for William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy’s autograph, but those are sci-fi icons that in my opinion are set apart from the rest. As far as someone’s comment about DragonCon dieing, don’t hold your breath! It’s getting larger every year and now they have to include a 4th hotel, the Sheraton, to contain it all. At least the door price gives you free access to the panels. I heard ComicCon, which is far more expensive, charges a door price PLUS you have to pay for the more popular panels. As the saying goes, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game!”
I went to Fan Expo 2009 in Toronto and it was the first time I went to one of these conventions. The whole experience exceeded my expectations.
However, I paid just 30 dollars for Lou Ferrigno’s autograph and I didn’t mind that. What bothered me though was that he was only gonna sign the pictures he had on his table and not the Hulk T.V. series DVD I had in my bag. Also, he wasn’t engaging at all and at one point began trying to up-sell when I was deciding on what picture I wanted him to autograph.
In conclusion, I think the highest price an actor should charge for an autograph is 50 dollars. They should also show that they actually care about the fans by not appearing so withdrawn the way Lou was.
Thank You.
For $200 I expect a hand job to completion. For $25, I’d be willing to settle for a few quick tugs, or maybe a lick, but that’s as low as I’d go.