Our FIRST Comic Con Africa Experience
From the 22nd to the 25th of September, the Silver Toy Shop packed its bags (and Pops!) and headed to set up shop at the biggest convention in Africa, Comic Con Africa 2022!
Our journey started 6 months prior when we received a call from one of the organisers of Comic Con Africa, expressing they thought our small business has what it takes to sell our products at the biggest comic convention on the continent.
So, we took the leap!
From that moment, we worked hard to get the stall we wanted and all the added extras to make our store the best it could be for our first Comic Con Africa experience. All the staff of the Silver Toy Shop worked hard every week to prepare for the biggest weekend of our business’s life. Our website quickly went live, we worked tirelessly to edit new products for the store and bring in as many new pops as possible for our customers.
Before we knew it, we were in Johannesburg. All our hard work paid off and brought us to our most exciting experience.
Comic Con Africa was an absolute blast over the following 4 days. We had a stall placed close to the entrance and it was the best choice to be placed there! Being so close to the entrance got us so many awesome and fun customers. Every customer experience we had was a pleasant one! The support we received was so heart-warming, we were able to sell a large amount of our stock and the smiles we received from people finding the Funko Pops they were searching for so long to find was a feeling we won’t forget! A large amount of our stock was from our personal collection that we had built up over 2 years. As difficult as it was for us to part with the Funko’s we ourselves had spent so long to collect, we knew that other people would love and appreciate them as much as we do, so we put every single one up for sale. And what a great decision it was. Our older and exclusive Funko’s were a hit and sparked a lot of excitement in our stall when people walked in and realised how legendary our collection truly was.
We got to meet so many of our Johannesburg and Pretoria clients that we had been chatting to over the years, as well as fellow collector friends we never had the joy of being able to meet in person beforehand. It was an awesome weekend of connecting, giving hugs and having chats with awesome people.
Comic Con Africa was filled with so many other amazing stores, main stage activities, Netflix pop up and cosplays too. Our entire team had a blast interacting with the cosplayers, taking photos together, shopping to their heart’s content, and even a few of them getting tattooed at the venue!
Overall, our Comic Con Africa experience was a positive one and it will forever be a special memory of our first step into the larger business territory. We also learned a lot from our trip as well as setting up at the convention.
Next year we will be back, bigger and better than before. Comic Con Cape Town here we come!
