Last weekend, I was once again a bookseller at Tails and Tornadoes FurCon in Tulsa, OK. Some of you may recall my previous posts on this convention in 2024 and 2025. In the latter, I mentioned how I might or might not do a third year based on how poorly things turned out that time. Well, I did, and here’s how it went.
First of all, as stated in 2025, I do not particularly care for the new venue. Something about the atmosphere just doesn’t sit as well as the old Marriott. And of course, I no longer have contacts in the area, so it was necessary to actually stay at the Renaissance Hotel this time, which was undergoing extensive renovations.
The setup was a little different this time. Instead of being in a separate room next to the Dealer’s Den, we were put in one corner of the den itself. This little U-shaped pocket was well blended with the other dealer tables, which was nice. Had it been a larger convention, I might be afraid some folks didn’t see it off to the side, but with less than 3000 attendees, I don’t think that was the case.
As you might have guessed from the title, sales were not the best. While not sinking to last year’s low point, they nevertheless lagged compared to AnEx in Norman back in February–a smaller convention, by all accounts. I had hoped that this year’s theme involving dinosaurs might give my Sauragia titles a little boost, but such was not the case. Why exactly is anybody’s guess (I would blame the presence of another bookseller, but I was not the only vendor to suffer low sales), but suffice it to say, I will not be returning next year.