With about six weeks remaining before PulpFest 2016 begins, convention chairman Jack Cullers reports that a great deal of exhibit space has already been booked. However, with our large dealers’ room in the Battelle South exhibition hall on the third floor of the Greater Columbus Convention Center, we can still accommodate more sellers. Wall tables are extremely limited and positioning within the dealers’ room cannot be guaranteed. So if you’ve been waiting to reserve your space in the PulpFest hucksters’ hall, now is the time to do it!
Since all dealers must be registered as prepaid members of the convention, any PulpFest member can attend as a dealer. PulpFest 2016 will charge $70 for island tables and $80 for wall tables. We are also happy to supply a third table free of charge for every two tables rented in our hucksters’ room to all PulpFest 2016 exhibitors. The large confines of the Battelle South exhibition hall enable us to provide extra exhibit space to all PulpFest dealers who support the convention. Each table will be six feet in length. The PulpFest’s dealers’ room will be open for all dealers to set up their exhibits on Thursday, July 21 from 4 – 11 PM.
Accommodating at least 120 tables, our dealers’ room will be open to all comers from 10 AM to about 4:45 PM on July 22 and 23, and until 2 PM on Sunday, July 24 (although buying and selling opportunities may be limited on our final day as many of our dealers will be packing up for their return trip home). And don’t forget about our early-bird hours on Thursday evening, July 21, from 6 PM to 9 PM. To reward loyal attendees who help to defray the convention’s substantial costs by staying three nights at our host hotel, PulpFest is pleased to offer free early-bird privileges. For an additional $10 over our regular membership fee, buyers who are not staying at the Hyatt Regency will be able to purchase early-bird privileges for an extra three hours of shopping. The price will increase to $25 on July 2 and to $30 on July 21. So act right now to get in on the savings!
Although the focus of PulpFest 2016 will be pulp magazines and related materials, vintage paperbacks, digests, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, first edition hardcovers, science-fiction, detective, Western, and other genre books and magazines, series books, dime novels, original art, Big Little Books, B-movies and serials and related collectibles, old-time-radio shows, Golden and Silver Age comic books, and pulp-related games and comic books can also be sold.
The people who attend PulpFest are vintage pop culture enthusiasts. So it’s also a great place to sell science-fiction books, mystery and detective fiction, adventure or western fiction, original artwork, and more. And it doesn’t have to be old! Publishers such as Adventures in Bronze, Age of Aces, and Murania Press do well selling their pulp reprints and related materials. So do resellers such as Mike Chomko, Books and Martin Grams. Authors and new pulp publishers such as Dick Enos, William Patrick Maynard, and Airship 27 have found PulpFest to be a great event to market today’s pulp fiction.
The convention has been widely promoted through post-card giveaways at book and comic shops and collectibles events. It will be marketed in various periodicals and through the convention’s website, Facebook site, Twitter feed, and via Internet newsgroups, event calendars, Instagram and Tumblr. PulpFest also plans to use its website to publicize its dealers. For further information about our website and its dealer promotion, please contact marketing director Mike Chomko at 2217 West Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104 or via email at mike@pulpfest.com. You can also write to Mike if you are interested in advertising in THE PULPSTER, the convention’s program book.
Dealers interested in selling at PulpFest 2016 should get in touch with Jack Cullers as soon as possible. You can reach him via email by writing to jack@pulpfest.com or by regular mail at 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook, OH 45305. You can also request a copy of our annual newsletter, which also contains information about dealing at PulpFest. Don’t forget to ask for your free table if you will be renting two or more tables.
You can also learn about registering for the convention as a dealer by clicking the Register for 2016 button below our home page banner. Please remember that the Hyatt Regency Columbus is sold out of rooms for July 21 through July 23. At www.columbusconventions.com/thearea.php, you’ll find a list of area hotels courtesy of the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Alternately, you can search for a room at tripadvisor or a similar website to find a hotel near the convention. Thanks so much to everyone who has reserved a room at our host hotel. By staying at the Hyatt Regency, you’ve helped to ensure the convention’s success.
So what are you waiting for? Start planning now to attend PulpFest 2016 as a dealer and join hundreds of pulp fiction fans at the pop-culture center of the universe! And to make things even easier, you can download a PulpFest 2016 dealer registration form by clicking on the link below.
PulpFest 2016 Dealer Registration Form
(This Boston newsstand — photographed in September 1965 — would not have featured any pulp magazines. By that time, the pulps were gone, killed off by television, comic books, and most prominently, paperback books. However, a buyer still might be able to find copies of AMAZING STORIES — in its digest format — and ARGOSY — in its men’s adventure format — somewhere on its racks.
We’ll be saluting the 90th anniversary of AMAZING STORIES’ birth, and the 120th anniversary of the birth of the first pulp magazine — ARGOSY — at PulpFest 2016. Please join us July 21 through July 24 for “Summer’s AMAZING Pulp Con” in the Columbus, Ohio Arena district at the Hyatt Regency hotel and the city’s spacious convention center.)
