To live and die and go broke in L.A.
Posted by: Bill Cable 06.06.07 12:01am
OK... let me begin by stating that I had a fantastic time at Celebration IV. I don't want my article here to give you the impression that that wasn't the case. Despite a great trip, there were some shortcomings. And I want to concentrate on those first.

Actually, there was really only one shortcoming... the location. I think LFL made a catastrophic error by choosing Los Angeles as the location. There was really almost no benefit to holding the con in LA... nothing you could do there that you couldn't do anywhere else. But the costs involved were crippling. Lodging was nuts. Did you look at your hotel bill? There was a 15% tax added on to the cost of the room I stayed in... that added an extra $150! The food costs were insane. What city doesn't have fast food... ANYWHERE? When you have no choice but to pay $40 + per dinner it starts to pinch the wallet by the end of the week. My flight was actually reasonable because I took the red-eye... but most people faced $500-600 round-trip. And all this is what I paid <I>before</I> I spent one dime on the convention.

Then there was the convention center... and the infamous "dryage fee." Any dealer who couldn't fit all his wares in a minivan had to pay union workers to haul all their stuff in. I heard one dealer got hit with a $7000 bill! And that was just bringing stuff in... he had to pay again to have them haul it back out! And do you know who ends up paying that money? The customer. Because all the prices get jacked up to cover that cost. I talked to several of the major dealers, and they weren't happy. One told me that they have to be there... it's a Celebration and they're expected to be at Celebration. Not being at Celebration would hurt the image of the company. But based on the costs associated with LA and the poor sales, they won't be setting up at C5 if it's in LA. The dealer room was already much smaller than C3... it sounds like it might be non-existant at C5.

I go to these things to spend money. I want to buy stuff. But I just couldn't spend like I wanted to at C4 because all the non-convention stuff was outrageous, and all the convention stuff was jacked up to make up for the high costs dealers faced. I ended up not buying anything off the convention floor. Check that... I bought a UK C-3PO plush backpack for 66% off on Sunday because the dealer didn't want to haul it back, and a 12" POTF2 figure for my daughter marked 1/2 off. All the other money I spent was with other collectors who sold stuff in the hotel, where the prices were downright reasonable! This dynamic isn't good for anyone. Te dealers can't make any money. The customers don't have money in their pockets to spend. The only people making money are the city of LA and the convention hall. I didn't go to C4 to support California tourism.

The last thing that sucked about LA... the smog. I don't have problems breathing. I grew up in Pittsburgh at the end of the steel mill era... my lungs are used to bad air. But LA bad air was a whole new beast. I had a coating of phlegm on my throat and nose the entire time I was there. Every second of every day. I've never had problems like that. And on Monday I could actually feel the grit in my mouth as I was walking to the convention center. I was just breathing... and about a block away from the hotel it felt like sand in my mouth! It was unlike anything else I'd ever experienced.

Now, it wasn't all bad. The weather was nice... 70 degrees every day, if smoggy. The people were beautiful. Just walking around... people were good looking. That fact didn't really hit me until I was driving in to work when I got back. I was looking at the people on the street and thinking... "man, these are some butt-ugly people." And everybody was EXTREMELY polite. Even the panhandlers were articulate and demure. It was almost Twilight Zone-ish... the land of people who act nice and obey traffic laws!! But a city full of kind, attractive people was not enough of a counterbalance to offset the bad air and insane costs of everything.

So I hope and pray LFL is hearing these reactions, and they make a better decision for C5. I can't drop this money money every other year. I probably spent half as much on food and shelter at C3, and had an equally wonderful experience. There was no benefit to having this in LA. So instead of choosing the most expensive and poluted location... how about next time we try for a place where the fan isn't mugged every time they they open their wallet?