It's obvious that the costs to attend cons have gone up over the years with admissions, hotels and travel costs, major cons are no longer relatively cheap to go to anymore. If the con is close by to you, then you are one of the lucky ones that get to save some money.
Last year at dragoncon I spent damn near $2000 and a damn good chunk of that went to hotel and travel costs.
>>9086833
~$500 for AWA coming up soon, though, i'm an artist, so I actually make money going to cons, so, meh.
If it's in driving distance...
>$20 a day for food
>$30-50 depending on badge
>$50 for merch (more or less if i see anything I like)
>$20 per 200 miles of driving for gas
>$50 per night of hotel (I normally room with people/go with friends)
Going to one this weekend, for Sat/Sun together I'm looking at spending about $140. It's a smaller con but I'm paying for a room as well.
Too fucking much. When I think of how much money I've spent planning for cons, I honestly consider not cosplaying anymore. I can still pay my bills/have a decent savings but it's not a small amount of money
Well currently i spent about 40-50 dollars at my small local con, half of which was the ticket and at that con barely anything but cheap pizza and soda. Another comic con i problaby spent 40 on old comics but admission was free so theres that. At animenext the Friday ticket was 45 but i forgot i barely went to the dealers room cause i forgot i had money and by the time i got there it was closed, so now i have 50 dollars left over
>>9086833
>$2000 in travel and hotel for last years DC
I assume you flew in, because I only spent $335 on travel and accomadation.
AX:
Hotel: 200$
Food: 100$
Flights: 210$
Purchases: 60$
570$ Total, not bad unless you're a poorfag like me
I go to Katsucon every year and its a little more every time. This year's breakdown :
Travel/gas: $50
Parking:$70
Badge: $75
1/6th hotel costs: $165
Food I bring: $70
Food I buy: $40
Spending money: $250
It doesn't seems that bad but I do spend about another $800 a year on cosplay...
In my country, about £300-£400 including hotels and travel.
Internationally I set the budget at around £600-£1000
I usually end up spending between $200-$500 and that's mostly on eating out and shopping. The only way I attend cons is through sponsorships or staffing. Staffing is where it's at because the hours fly by and staffing pays for entry, meals and my hotel stay.
>>9090220
what makes parking at katsu so expensive?
AX:
Hotel/Transport: $300
AA Commissions: $600
Dealers Hall: $60
Alcohol: $250
Food/Meals: $150
Badge: $90
Matsuri tickets: $100
about $1550?
>>9090193
Stayed in a host hotel at the non con rate.
RIP to my wallet.
>>9090781
>non con rate
The rape rate
AX:
Hotel: $250
Food and Purchases: ~$460
Gas: $30
$740
I could have reigned in my spending a bit. I always tend to overspend on friends, then agonize over getting a $20 thing for myself.
>>9090351
>$600 on AA commissions
What the fuck?
AX:
Hotel: Nothing, I live in LA suckersss!
Gas: $20
Food: $40
Purchases: $50
Total: $110
And here I was thinking I spent too much on AX, y'all terrify me with your disposable income.
>>9090827
Eh, I save for vacations, which this counted for me.
Every paycheck I have extra money from. (Normally once a month) I'll put $100 in to a different savings account. So that way when con time rolls around, I have all of this "Free" money to use. That and I'm never strapped for cash after the convention either.
If I'm doing a local con, I have the same expenses as you do. Though I normally try and find a free pass, via volunteering or some other way.
>>9086833
>Like 50 for gas
>50 for badge
>$15 on food
>Alcohol is potluck, hard to estimate. I drink maybe $20 worth of liquor in a weekend?
Less than 200
>>9090826
I commission alot of artists.
My most expensive con is Katsucon
$50 Early bird badge
$166 for my share of the atrium room
$160 for flight last year (going to drive next year, so that'll change)
Budget $300-400 for artist alley and dealer's room merch
Budget ~$150 for food and drink, always rather have more set aside than I need than run out partway through the weekend
Most of the cons I go to are smaller, so they don't run nearly as expensive. But I've been eyeing Midoricon for the last few years as something I'm considering dropping a little more money to get myself to. The con itself doesn't look amazing but the location is beautiful and it gets promoted as a con vacation, which sounds pretty fun. I consider any con I stay in a hotel for to be a mini vacation so I don't mind spending the money for it; if you budget your luxuries you can have more.
>210e accommodation
>10-20e gas
>20e food
>50e merch
That's all because I work at cons.
>free entry (10-30e)
>free food during con (2 big lunches and snack, 30e)
>free accommodation on floor for workers (for customers it's 10e)
>free manga (5e)
>free party for workers (free food and alcohol 20e)
>>9090781
>Stayed in a host hotel at the non con rate.
Shit, you paid this amount per night?
The combined total for the room alone will get you an all inclusive trip to Asia.
>>9090338
I park in the Hotel garage and it is crazy expensive for 3 nights.
There are other garages nearby but the most you will save is $20 and considering some years it has been -5 degrees Fahrenheit I choose the Gaylord.
It got to the point where I was spending more money than I was making (college student wagecucks ww@) and had to cut down drastically to one small con a year. Once I get on my feet with a good job, I'm probably going to start going again but right now, most of the major cons in my state are out of my price range.
I used to be frugal with offsite hotels, cheap parking a walk away, and bringing food, but now I'm grown and I don't give a fuck. It's only a couple hundred more in the end and saves me so many headaches. I don't even room with people unless it's one of my two best friends, it's not worth it.
>>9091301
>I don't even room with people
>>9094755
How else are you going to avoid posting in a con room horror story thread?
Close to 600 including shared room costs. Not even including cosplay fml.
$1000+ for ACen (I was told this)
I can only estimate because I personally don't pay for it.
$400+ for hotel
$100 rental car/gas
$300+ spending money (This includes food & random merch)
Since I usually have 5-6 costumes and change costumes while at the con, having a hotel room is a must for me. I always try to book the hotel that either contains the convention, or is connected to the convention center. I usually room with 1-3 other people depending on the con, and hotel rates range from $100 to $250 a night depending on the hotel, so I usually spend ~$120 on hotels for a con weekend.
We usually carpool and I give the driver gas money, so travel expenses $20~$60 depending on location.
Food and spending money can be extremely erratic, but I use cash to track my spending. We also tend to bring sandwich stuff and order delivery for food while at cons to keep costs down. I would say I usually spend $100~$200 for food/merch at conventions.
So all in all, I can get away with some smaller local cons for only $200 but expect to spend at least $400 for bigger cons. However I have friends that easily spend $2000 going to those same conventions.
>$300 flight ticket
>$150 hotel
>$200 cosplay
>$60 registration
That's over $700 without even accounting for food or merch. I think I have a problem.
AX2016
>$325 for the JW Marriott
>$100 for food
>$100 for Little Tokyo
>$40 for gas
>$500 for swag
I've been blessed this year because I've moved an got to hit up cons in both states without needing a hotel. However, it's normally like this:
>~100 for registration
>~120 for hotel.
>~200 for flights
>~$10 food/day since my friends and I usually bring a lot of food or cook, depending on the hotel we got. We all chip in for the food for the weekend.
The cons I go to have gone up a lot in price, so that definitely sucks, but whatever.
>>9086833
I'm not planning going any more cons this year, sadly. What I did spend this year was
>28€+31€ for con tickets
>7€ for sleep place for one night (kind of a long story. Two cons over weekend, leeched of a hotel room of a total stranger for other night, and then slept at friend's place for other con)
>21€ + 40€ for train tickets
>around 40€ for con snacks (read: energy drinks and booze)
>30€-50€ for actual food
>drinks at rave, too bloody much
>around 100-150€ for merch
>I recycled an old cosplay for one con, so that would be 0€, but I had to spend 30€ or so fixing it (it didn't survive being in the storage too well)
One thing I really like about those cons is that they have free flea market that visitors can use. It's a great way to make some money and get rid of vidya, manga, figures and cosplay-stuff I don't need any longer.
I would probably buy more figures and stuff from the vendor room, but I'm extreme poorfag, and I KNOW I can get everything there cheaper online.
There are no good cons in my state so I always end up going to cali cons. Even though its only a state a way the flight costs slowly add up .
Usually I'm looking at 75 - 100 bucks for my round trip
hotel varies as I often stay with friends but I guess it tends to range from 100- 150 depending how stuffed things are
about 50 per food, or more of if were going out t oeat
and I put aside about 200 for merch, some times more
the most expensive con of my year is going to be Katsucon. I am not looking forward to that flight payment to get over there.
>>9099154
>$100 in cosplay
>mfw it would've been $800 in swag if it weren't for my tax refund fucking me over
>mfw I could've gotten those sweet aniplex exclusive Sony h.ear Bluetooth headphones at their booth
150~ avg on hotel (room with other people )
50 or less on purchases (never buy figs)
50-100 on badge
30-40 train/gas (if i can train there fuck driving unless free parking)
