You can have your gear shipped to the hotel, OR fly Southwest. Get the 2 free checked bags. It's my go-to, usually.

I'm actually too far north to use southwest xD i'd have to drive 6 hours to charlotte to get there. Ihowever I will keep them in mind if i end up moving to the south.. Thank you!

Pack your cloths in your 'personal item' carry on, pack up to the weight limit on the checked suit case.
And I say weigh your bags while packing. It is the best way to avoid 'over weight bag' fees.

I would probably buy new luggage as well the luggage I have is actually pretty heafty on its own. I might just ship my stuff to the hotel though that scares me a bit...

More a fan of shipping things. Flying with bags there is a 50 pound weight limit, and some airports will charge 10 dollars for each pound over. 3 day something through fed-x, they don't open your bags like TSA will, and sometimes not put back things correctly. Had TSA fuck up some book covers because they tossed my bag. And then you don't need to worry about dragging it to and from the airport. Shipping back from the con is super easy too.

If you end up getting a space, and flying in, I can help you figure that out, and we can try to land around the same time, and ride share to the hotel.

good deal. Figuring out all the costs it would definitely be cheaper to fly.. plus I'd rather NOT drive 45hours..

I also highly recommend getting hard case luggage. Even for shipping. Both TSA and fed-x will throw stuff, and stack heavy shit on top, and have a hard case will protect shit.

yea I was planning on getting some lighter weight hard-case luggage my current set has been beat to shit, is heavy and mostly made of cloth.
Definitely thinking flying will be the way to go at this point.

More than happy to help! I've flown to 50+ cons in the past 7 years

- Cheap luggage bags are fine, just so long as you wrap your goods in plastic bags. They WILL leave your bags out in the rain, it's happened to me a number of times. So long as you're smart about packing, you'll be fine.
- If you have enough that you can check one bag and take another smaller roller bag as carry-on, that's a good route to go to save money. And if you don't want to have to deal with carting that bag around through layovers and whatnot, gate-check it. Gate-checking is free and the airline will always let you do it, since it saves space in the overhead for other travelers. Just make sure that the bag you're gate-checking can go through security (no blades, no scissors, no tubes of paint)
- Buy a small, hand-held luggage scale. They cost like $8, and can weigh up to 70 lbs or so. What's more, they only weigh about a pound, so you can bring it with you. It is absolutely necessary that you keep your bags under 50 lbs, or overweight baggage fees will apply, and they are (no joke) three times the cost of normal luggage fees.
- Buy durable tags for your bags with all of your contact info on them. Again, costs a couple of dollars, and in the case that your bags are lost, or the flimsy paper tags they put on your bags at the airport tear, it's the only way you'll get your bags back.
- Target carries a few different varieties of come-apart grating that you can use for display. I'm sure you've seen them all over cons, they're super convenient. I would recommend the foot by foot cubes.
- Carry any and all Originals on your person inside a carry-on bag. I use a laptop bag for my Originals and my laptop, and a backpack for all my clothing and bathroom stuff. Very easy to do a lot of walking in, and having two shoulder strap bags makes it possible to walk with two roll bags, as well. Best configuration I've found for being able to walk around with the maximum amount of bags, without need for a luggage cart.
- Never pack glass. Ever. I don't care how well you've wrapped it, they THROW those bags, and no frame will survive intact. I'd highly recommend 'safety glass' (I.E. Acrylic). They sell acrylic replacements for frames at most craft stores, and they're cheap.
- Wrap any and all paints in multiple layers of plastic lunch bags, just in case they decompress in the plane's hold and burst. It's happened to me.


Think that's it! Any other questions, feel free to ask :)

Oh, and I would not suggest mailing anything to a convention you CAN'T do without. I've mailed a lot of things over the years and on average, one time out of ten something will happen and it will get misdirected or just not make it there on time. Not worth the risk, IMHO. I have a LOT of merchandise and I can generally get it all the cons in my bags, with a little bit of ingenuity ;)

Thank you! At this point I definitely think flying is the way to go. From what I can tell it'll save me about 300-400 bucks if I fly versus drive, plus I wont be destroying my back or risk something stupid happening.

At least if i am able to go I'll have plenty of time to prepare for it. If I end up having any questions I'll probably pester you about it a little later.
I believe I have few enough stuff that I could get away with at most two checked bags easily.
I guess this settles it then hahaha.
Again Thank you!

Just an extra - shipping to the hotel is maybe 1/10 something goes wrong based on Rukis' experience and I would say that's pretty accurate, but you can ship fedex and ask them to hold your package/luggage until you arrive, and I've never had that go wrong. That way you can ship further in advance and it's easier to get your package/goes through fewer hands. There's also tracking. Honestly planes lose way more lugguges than fedex. (They also care less and treat packages way worse. My luggages were both out in the rain for 5+ hours on the trip to Anthrocon.) It's something to consider.

i'm already fairly nervous about shipping stuff, though I've got some friends I can ask advice and such about. Also asking fedex to hold items is a good idea and if i end up shipping anything thats most likely what I'll do. Thank you!

Ahaha, I know the feel. I would only ship things that were unable to be carry-ons, honestly. I keep clothes and vitals in a carry-on backpack. Everything else I would prefer to ship over taking it as luggage. I don't know if other shipping services do holds (Fedex is something like a month long hold max, if I remember right. My roommates both work there, so I get extra leeway) but other private shippers might have their own thing similar. Not regular post. They can lose an elephant in a box of sand.

:)

Fedex has always managed to get my stuff to an fro without any issues, unfortunately their nearest location to the FC hotel is about four blocks away, so getting stuff back and forth from their office can be a pain (especially if it's, like. . . sixty pounds of stuff :P).

Also, they're extremely expensive, especially when you have to pay both ways. Price alone has been why I generally don't use them for shipping con materials, it just often ends up costing too much to make the sales worth it.

Just speaking from experience! Last year I was forced to ship home a lot of my books and after I factored in the cost of shipping them home, I practically lost money on them.

For sure! I don't know what things cost (again, roommates both work there, discounts, etc) but that's why I mentioned other private shippers often have the same option and aren't as pricey as Fedex. A single oversized bag (fursuits, haha) would have cost me 150 to take as checked luggage plus a billion tiny fees that promised to get it towards 170. Shipping fedex even without the discount was ~55-80 for next-day ship. I don't know much about shipping prints and whatnot, since you don't deal with size, but I'd imagine the weight limit would be a barrier. Overweight/50lb+ bags on my last flight was an instant 200+! Maybe united is just balls with bags, but even getting a third normal size bag was in the hundreds.

I would say your experience is more useful in this case, as you're shipping the same kind of stuff as them and factoring in sales and whatnot, whereas I'm shipping suits and fun stuff. Not exactly comparable, though it's still a good option for the way there. Taking stuff back on the plane is probably okay, since if the stuff arrives home late it's no big loss.

We use FedEx to ship convention materials. We do a bit of planning ahead so we don't end up shipping too heavy of stuff through the FedEx Ground. If you're going to make it a regular thing to ship convention materials throughout the year, consider opening a FedEx business account. Depending on your usage, you get a flat 15% off plus additional discounts depending on destination and volume. We have shipped about 150 lbs worth of convention merchandise and setup from LA to Pittsburgh and it was $140 one-way, which isn't too bad. Most airlines have a flat 50 lbs per luggage limit or even fees for additional luggage pieces. The fees do add up substantially and making shipping via FedEx cheaper. Do, however, plan the shipping time. FedEx Ground takes time to get across the country. Don't ship it the day before. You'll have to ship it well before your arrival. You can check their delivery time calculator for reference.

The Hold At Location service is great, especially if you'd like some security to protect your merchandise or convention setup. FedEx will take care of your stuff along with making sure they are safe and secured until you sign off on pick-up. Hold At Location service is free if you ship with FedEx.

Regardless, I strongly recommend you do the planning and have an account with them before using their service. Online shipping is way cheaper than on-site shipping. If you create the shipping label online through your account, you get their flat 15% discount compared to no discount if you create the shipping order at their office. If you use their services through your account more often, the discount becomes greater. If you have stuff you need to ship back home, that shipping label can also be created online. You can use your account and Internet and guess the approximate weight of the package and create the label. You can choose to have the label be printed at the FedEx office. All you have to do is bring the package and the confirmation email on your cellphone or tablet to the FedEx office and they'll give you the label to stick on the package for the return trip. That way, even the return trip will take advantage of the discount offers from your account.

Sorry i had thought i replied to this D:
This is GREAT advice and Makes me much more comfortable with the possibility of shipping through fedex versus using checked bag system. Right now I'm unsure how much stuff weight wise i've got and for now I may end up taking whatever ends up being cheaper. But that being said This will definitely come in handy in the future and a few people have already highly suggested FEdex over the airport system simply because of how often bags get lost in transit. Thank you verrryyy much. depending on how things go I may just ship it..

This isn't an advice reply. Just ran across your gallery and must say I'm a fan -- -beautiful- work.

I've been going to FC for years and wanted to note that the artist alley is quite small compared to the other large con (AC). Should you make it and find a spot, I look forward to totally buying stuff :D

Good luck on your flight!

I've heard it can be a bit of a hassle to get in the marketplace or the dealersden at FC. From my understanding it's one of the most desired con to sell at xD Well hopefully I'll manage to get in. At this point I'd be quite bummed if i couldn't make it! And thank you, very much! I'm sure it'd be an excellent pleasure to meet you!