Down To The Dollar: How To Save Money At Comic-Con

In my everyday life, I’m a pretty thrifty person. I’m good at saving my money and only buying things that I need. However, that mindset completely goes out the window when it comes to comic-cons.

I’ll be the first to admit that literally everything I see at comic-con I want. Whether it’s posters, Funko! Pops, or artwork, you can guarantee that I am stopping myself from reaching into my wallet to buy it. But after throwing away a hefty amount of money at my first comic-con, I’ve figured out a few ways to spend my money more wisely when it comes to conventions.

I forced myself to figure out how to control my buying when I went to New York Comic Con (NYCC) with my friend Andy. My boyfriend, Joe, is usually my watch dog when it comes to comic-cons. He’s able to talk me out of buying the $150 Tony Stark arc reactor replica pretty often. However, Joe wasn’t going to NYCC and I knew Andy would persuade me into buying whatever I picked up. In order to stop myself from giving into temptation, I consulted Joe and we put together a nifty list of ways to stop impulse buying and save money at comic-cons.

Tip #1: Only use cash

If you’re going to listen to only one tip on this list, let it be this one. Only use cash at comic-cons. Why? It’s too easy to lose track of how much you spend when you’re just swiping a credit card.

Prior to the comic-con, take out the certain amount of cash you want to spend. Let’s say it’s $200. Take out that $200 in cash, plus an extra $100 or so to help you pay for food and transportation. Be sure to separate those two bundles of cash from one another so you don’t mix your funds up. Now when you’re at comic-con, only use that $200 to pay for merchandise for yourself.

The cash-only method helps to stop you from spending a ton of money because you can literally see your funds depleting. Once that money is out, you know exactly how much you have spent. If you’re going to a comic-con for a single day, this works out really nicely because you can’t be tempted to dip into funds for your other days at the convention. If you’re going for multiple days, do this method per day, meaning you give yourself $200 per day to spend. Once that money is out, you’ve hit your limit for the day. This helps you think about your purchases for the next day, letting you sit on if you really want that next item or not.

Tip #2: Don’t buy it right away

Going off of the final idea of tip #1 of “sit on what you want to buy”, this tip means to not buy what you want on the first day. Really, this tip works the best for when you’re going to a comic-con for multiple days. There’s two main reasons that this tip is helpful: you can figure out if you really want the item and the prices of merchandise go down on the last day of the comic-con.

I’m guilty of impulse buying. I see literally anything involving Loki and I’m on my way to buy it. However, there are some things I want just because it’s at the comic-con. For example, do I really want every single piece of Loki art there? Yes, but also no. I love the pieces but it isn’t realistic for me to buy all of them. So, I don’t buy anything the first day. I’ll go back to my hotel and really think about what I liked. Whatever pieces are most memorable, I’ll buy the next day.

As I said before, the prices usually go down on the last day of comic-con. All of those vendors shipped their merchandise out to the comic-con, they don’t want to ship it back. Because of this, a lot of merchandise will drop in price or go on sale in a “buy 2 get 1 free” sale. This happens a lot with Funko! Pops. If you’re okay with waiting a couple of days and taking the risk to see if the item is still there on the last day, put off your buying until the final day of the comic-con and trust me, you will save a ton of money.

Tip #3: Check out all of the booths before buying

A lot of vendors of Funko! Pops, comics, and clothing will have very similar products at their stands. This method is a lengthy process but it will help you save money. Grab a floor map and start walking around every booth of the comic-con. Write down the booth number, any items you’re interested in, and how much they cost. As you go around to the booths, see what items are beginning to match up.

When you’re done perusing the floor, look at your list and see which booths have the same items and how much they cost at each booth. Ten booths might all have the Funko! Pop you want but only one of them will have the lowest price. Now you know where to buy that piece of merchandise for the lowest price! It’s a lot of running around and you may end up walking back and forth across the floor to get to the booths with the cheapest merchandise, but it will definitely help you not burn a hole in your pocket.

Tip #4: Ask yourself the big two questions

This tip is the one that Joe swears by. It’s two questions that really help you figure out if spending your money on merchandise is worth it: “How easy will it be to get this home?” and “Do I have the space at home for this?”.

Right away, you’re going to want to say that it’s super easy to transport and yes, you have the space. But really ask yourself these questions carefully. Do you have a way to get this piece of merchandise home safely? Will you have to ship it home separately? Is it easily damaged? These questions actually stopped Joe from buying a replica lightsaber from ACE Comic Con Midwest 2019 because we flew from Newark to Chicago. We didn’t have a reliable way to transport this piece home other than shipping it by UPS but that would’ve been expensive. Keeping this question in mind saved him $200 and a lot of stress.

I’m not telling you not to buy what makes you happy nor am I telling you to stop spending money. If you want to be careful about your purchases and not have buyer’s remorse, listen to these tips at your next comic-con and see if they help you out. Trust me, they’ve helped me and because of the money I’ve saved on merchandise, I’ve been able to attend more comic-cons for longer periods of time. It can be upsetting not to buy everything you see, but when you gain more experiences in the long run because of that, penny-pinching can definitely be worth it.