Good news!
VeVe has a Whatnot Show!
Now, when VeVe has cool merch from a convention, those who can’t attend can have a chance to buy some of the convention physicals and phygitals!
That’s assuming, of course, that you live in one of nine countries… and you’re not cut off because the app has a country of origin that causes them to block you because of the current tariff wars. Unfortunately, a lot of people showed up and found out about this the hard way, and I empathize. It’s far from the only regional thing that’s come up in the community, and I doubt it’ll be the last. It does, however, demonstrate one thing: digital collecting can cross more boundaries than physical collecting can.
I was lucky enough to buy something from the first show at DesignerCon Hong Kong and the first show at the New York Comic Con, so here is my experience with them.
Getting the Pin
While I had downloaded the Whatnot app over a year ago, I hadn’t really looked at it; my crazy schedule makes it hard to set aside dedicated time for here-today-gone-tomorrow-style shopping, so I made sure to familiarize myself with the app beforehand.
I also tried to join some comic channels to get in some practice, but promptly had to turn them off again–I very quickly learned that there’s no real age rating system on Whatnot. Still, signing up and adding my credit card information was easy and fairly painless.
When it came time for the show, I thought it went pretty well, especially for a first show. I was expecting a lot more lag, and the only real hiccup seemed to be that items for sale were very slow to populate in the store. Fortunately, we got a show preview beforehand, so I already knew that I was going for the FiGPiN VeVeVerse pin, since it was at a comfortable entry price. So, I knew my chances of being in the ‘top 25’ for the Hong Kong card wasn’t going to happen because I was waiting for the pin to load.
But finally it loaded, and… success! I got one! I hung out to watch until the end, admiring all of the stuff available that I couldn’t afford. The one thing I’ve really liked about both the shows I attended is that there was a very wide price range of items, so I never felt like I couldn’t participate.
The Whatnot email I got after I bought something was a bit misleading; it said it’d be at my house in two days. What it meant, however, was that I’d get a tracking code in two days. From start to finish, it took about a week.
My first itsy-bitsy complaint is about the mailing bag, because there was a cool VeVe sticker on the bag my FiGPiN came in. Was there one in the bag for me? No. How come the bubble mailer gets to have the cool sticker, and I don’t?
So the first thing I did was set the pin aside and grab a pair of scissors so I could cut the sticker off the bag.
They should have put a mailer sticker inside the bags, too. Even my Etsy orders come with a bonus sticker. Yes, it’s great to see a great big die-cut sticker announcing that my VeVe merch has finally arrived, but it’d be much more exciting if there was one inside the bag.
Other than that, it was well-packaged, no complaints, and I now have it displayed in my collectibles corner with the blue VeVe sticker… just don’t look at the bubble wrap on the back.
NY Comic Con Comics
The New York Whatnot show came with a trade-off, because I had money set aside for the AT-AT drop, and I couldn’t afford to do both. But Whatnot shows and convention exclusives are not as easy to get as an AT-AT, so I got the comics. The main reason I’m bringing this up is the fact that I might not be the only one having to make that kind of trade-off, so it might be something to consider when it comes to timing these shows.
When it came to populating the store, there was also a very noticeable lag when it came to the mobile app. The items on the PC version of Whatnot generated within the first five minutes of the show starting; I had already bought my first comic and was debating a second when I noticed how many people were complaining about the store in the comments. So, I pretty much guessed from that and the number showing in the store that I was well within the first twenty-five purchases. I wasn’t able to participate in any of the other shows, so I’m not sure if this problem got better or not.
The comics arrived late; but it wasn’t on VeVe’s end, it was on the USPS end, who kept delaying it long past the ‘expected’ date. The packaging was pretty good in general: it had a bubble-mailer-hard-cardboard-bubble-wrap combo that even my incompetent post handlers couldn’t mangle.
Despite the delays, they arrived in one piece, not without another sticker dilemma: this time, there was a green VeVe sticker stuck to the mailing tape on the cardboard packaging.
I really didn’t know if I was going to get that one off without steam. Fortunately, by carefully lifting the mailing tape, I was able to get enough of it loose that I was able to liberate it.
Along with my liberated green VeVe sticker, I also got a New York card and a 2025 10-Gem-Mint pin. Huzzah! Something to put on my lanyard for DesignerCon Las Vegas.
I got the regular Evermind #1/2 Cover, Save Now, Venom #250, and the Marvel Rivals variant cover… which brings me to my biggest trauma of the entire experience:
The Marvel Rivals comic bag was taped.
JEFF! What did they do to you?!?
It’s time for an emergency transplant! Never mind what my record is on the Operation Game! Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Hands washed: Check!
Gloves on! Check.
Old disposable surgery mask left over from COVID for a dramatic effect: Check!
Pristine bag ready for transfer: Check!
Carefully unsealing it, I attempted to fold the tape back on itself to release as little tape gum as possible; we do not want the surgery to be contaminated.
Slowly, I peeled the bag away… did I mention that I was no good at this game?
So, I held my breath,
And slowly…
Carefully…
Edged the comic out of the bag
And then exhaled.
No sticky tape gum on the comic.
Part of me wanted to put it straight into the pristine bag, but first I had to know what was so important in that comic that made me go through the trauma of having to do surgery on a brand new comic?
Was it a card for an NFT? No.
Was it the discount code? Can’t be it.
Was it the free readable comic on Marvel Unlimited if I went and mutilated my comic further by peeling back a code on one of the pages?
…
Seriously, that was it?
Get out of here, VeVe!
I don’t believe you traumatized my shark buddy and me for that!
Here, you can have my COVID mask… slightly used, just like my poor stickers.
Jokes aside, I think adding these Whatnot shows is a great addition. It helps to give a lot more people access to merch that they wouldn’t normally have access to. It was generally well-packaged, and I like that it included items at different price points.
My only suggestion is that if you’re planning a show that’s not coordinated with a convention weekend, you should probably give a lot more notice. I was extremely surprised about that last show and was even in the middle of putting this together when it happened. It was so unexpected and out of the blue, I couldn’t plan around it.
Thanks for the shows, the card, the pin, and the used stickers!
When you get to Vegas, though, I’m shopping in person.