Hello again! I wanted to touch on a sentiment that I've been seeing more often than usual.

If you're a creative in the fandom space, you may be feeling rather discouraged as of late. I want to assure you, without a shadow of a doubt, that it's not you and that you aren't doing anything wrong.

I've been taking commissions and vending at conventions for over a decade at this point. It has NEVER been this difficult to find new clients or snag a table at events.
There are a lot of factors to this, but it all boils down to the economy. It's bad.
Which leads to fewer clients and smaller commissions.
Which leads to more people trying to run art as a side-hustle.
Which leads to more competition in these spaces.

In regards to conventions in particular, the COVID lockdowns killed off a lot of small and medium sized conventions. Artists that used to vend primarily at local events are now traveling further out than before.
Tariffs on China in particular have also made the cost of a lot of your favorite fan-made goods skyrocket. (There are ZERO enamel pin manufacturers in the USA, for example.)

Events, understandably, want the best booths for their event. Over time, this has created an almost "pay to play" system. Conventions want a photo of your booth to even apply, so you'll be spending a minimum of $150 on that. If you don't already have the capital on hand to produce large quantities of manufactured goods, you're less likely to be accepted.
And this is before you've even made a single sale.

More folks are ending up like me: Too big for Artist Alley, but not large/relevant enough for the Dealer's Hall (and without the capital for a better booth/more types of merch)

So yeah, if I've been doing this for as long as I have and I'm having difficulty, you can be sure that you're doing everything right. :)
Your art is fine.
Your prices are fine.
Keep creating anyway. This too shall pass.