|
|
Bringing
Darth Vader Home
By KJ
Email: KJ@starwarsselect.com
Website: StarWarsSelect.com
July 31, 2004
Man, oh man, when I walked into Comic-Con
International on the final day,
Sunday July 26, 2004, I never would have thought I'd be walking out of there
with a lifesize cardboard Darth Vader standup.
Okay, so here's how it happened. In the Star Wars pavilion
at Comic-Con, one of the retailers was selling lifesize cardboard
standups of Star Wars characters (ex. Darth Maul, Yoda,
Darth Vader, etc.), along with standups of other movie characters
and celebrities. I passed by their display several times throughout
the four days of the convention, pondering the "what if..." briefly,
and then moving on.
Now I don't mean to imply that twenty five bucks,
the initial asking price, is unaffordable, it's just that I had a
limited budget (which I well exceeded by the final day) and I would
rather have put the money toward buying other stuff, like the $38
Comic-Con exclusive 0.45 scaled replica of Obi-Wan's lightsaber in A
New Hope.
When Sunday, the final day of the convention, rolled around, many retailers
slashed their prices, probably because they wanted to drag as little
of their inventory as possible back with them to where ever they came
from. This lifesize
standup display cut their prices down to twenty dollars. Not a bad deal,
one that truly tempted me. But how in the world was I supposed to drag
that puppy around for the rest of the convention? I could have used the
coat check,
I suppose (it was only a dollar per item). Nah.
|
|
Photo © StarWarsSelect.com
Darth Vader standup on display at a booth at Comic-Con
International 2004.
|
I passed by the lifesize standup booth a few minutes before the convention
closed, and noticed that they had, once again, slashed their prices.
Now, all standups were only fifteen dollars, and all display
standups were only ten. Again, a tempting offer. Then, I remembered a
bit of advice that my mom had given me: at the end of the convention,
make the retailer
an offer. She is an experienced convention goer, although the conventions
that she usually goes to are business oriented.
I offered a retailer twelve bucks for a lifesize Darth Vader (bagged,
and folded so that he was half size, but still an awkward three feet tall).
The retailer said done. Then, I overheard the guy next to me make an offer
of
ten bucks
for
a standup. "Will
we go for ten?" one of the retailers asked. "Sure." Naturally,
I asked the retailer I was dealing with if I could have my standup for
ten dollars too.
He said sure.
Darth Vader was quite cumbersome to carry, and I got a few odd stares on
my trolley ride back the car. Nevertheless, Darth Vader survived his strange
journey, and is now home. So now, here I am, telling the story of my ten
dollar lifesize Darth
Vader
standup. A
pointless
story
to tell, perhaps, but
on the other hand, I like to think that there is an underlying
moral: stick around conventions till the final minutes, make an offer on
an item you've had your eye on, and you just might
be able to get it for
a
steal.
Back to Fun Stuff |
