How Much Inventory Should You Bring to a Convention?

Figuring out how much inventory to bring to a convention is one of the hardest parts of tabling. Bring too much and you waste money on production costs, haul boxes of unsold product home, and eat into your profit. Bring too little and you sell out by Saturday afternoon while potential customers keep walking up to an empty table.

Most artists just guess. And for your first couple of conventions, guessing is all you can do. But guessing does not have to be permanent. There is a framework that takes the stress out of this decision, and it gets more accurate with every convention you do.

This guide covers starting quantities for first-timers, how to use your past sales data to plan smarter, and how to adjust for different convention sizes and types. Whether you are prepping for your first table or your thirtieth, the goal is the same: bring the right amount so you sell strong without wasting money on overstock.

Why Most Artists Bring the Wrong Amount

Convention inventory planning does not have a universal answer. The right quantity for your stickers is different from the right quantity for your prints, and both change depending on the convention size, the audience, and what you have learned from past events.

The problem is that most artists do not have a system for figuring this out. They pack based on vibes. One experienced convention artist put it honestly: "The number of prints you bring will be a complete guess." And after a few conventions of overstocking, that same artist warned: "You will probably even begin to loathe carrying them around."

Overstocking is not just annoying. It is expensive. Every unsold print, pin, or charm represents production money that did not come back. If you spent $400 on inventory and only sold $300 worth, your convention budget is underwater before you even factor in your table fee, hotel, or gas.

Understocking is the opposite trap. Selling out feels great in the moment, but it means you left money on the table. If your stickers are gone by midday Saturday, every person who stops by your table on Sunday is a missed sale.

The sweet spot is somewhere in between. Getting there starts with reasonable defaults and gets sharper with data.

First Convention? Start with These Defaults

If you have never tabled before, you have no sales history to guide your decisions. That is fine. Every convention artist starts here. The goal for your first event is not to optimize. It is to get real data so your second convention is better than your first.

These starting quantities assume a typical two-day convention. Scale down slightly for a one-day event and up for a three-day event.

Stickers

Bring 20 to 30 units per design for a small to mid-size convention (under 5,000 attendees) and 40 to 50 per design for a large convention. Stickers are your lowest-risk product because production costs are minimal. If a few designs do not sell, you are out a couple of dollars, not a couple hundred.

Offer 8 to 12 designs. More variety gives customers a reason to browse and grab multiples, especially if you run a bundle deal like "any 3 for $10."

Prints

Prints carry higher production costs than stickers, so the penalty for overstocking is steeper. Bring 8 to 12 copies per design for a small convention and 15 to 20 for a large one. Stick to your 5 to 8 strongest designs rather than printing everything in your portfolio.

Curating is important. A table with 40 different prints looks cluttered and makes it harder for buyers to decide. A focused selection of your best work sells better than a wall of everything you have ever drawn. The product guide covers which product types move best by convention type.

Pins, charms, and keychains

These mid-range products sit in the $5 to $15 price range and tend to sell well at fan conventions. Bring 15 to 20 per design for a small convention and 25 to 35 for a large one. Focus on 3 to 5 designs max for your first event.

Enamel pins come with higher minimum order quantities and upfront costs ($200 to $500 per design), so be cautious about ordering large runs before you know how they sell. Acrylic charms and keychains are cheaper to test. Start there if you are not sure your audience will buy accessories.

High-ticket items (originals, apparel)

Originals, premium prints, and apparel are supplemental. They draw attention to your table and occasionally produce a big sale, but they are not the foundation of a consistent convention income.

Bring 3 to 5 original pieces. For apparel, keep it tight: 2 to 3 per size per design, focusing on your most popular sizes. The inventory cost of stocking S through XXL adds up fast, and you will always go home with leftover sizes.

How to Use Past Sales Data to Plan Your Inventory

Once you have one or two conventions under your belt, you have something more valuable than any guide: your own data. The artists who get inventory right are not the ones who guess better. They are the ones who track what happened and adjust.

The sell-through rate formula

Sell-through rate is the single most useful number for inventory planning. The formula is simple:

If you brought 20 prints of a design and sold 14, that is a 70% sell-through. Right in the sweet spot. If you brought 30 stickers and sold 8, that is 27%. Either you brought way too many or that design is not connecting with buyers.

Tracking this per product, per convention is what turns guessing into planning. It is the difference between "I think stickers do well" and "I know my cat stickers sell through at 75% at anime cons but only 40% at comic expos." That specificity changes your packing list.

Adjusting for convention size and type

Not all conventions are equal, and averaging your data across all of them hides the patterns that matter most. A product that flies off the table at anime conventions might sit untouched at indie art fairs.

Group your past conventions by type (anime, comic, craft, indie art) and compare sell-through rates within each group. This gives you much more accurate numbers than a single overall average. If you are heading to an anime convention, your anime convention data is what matters, not your average across all events.

Convention size affects quantities, but not as directly as you might think. A 10,000-person anime convention can drive more artist alley sales than a 30,000-person multi-genre expo where only a fraction of attendees visit the art section. Focus on the audience that actually walks through artist alley, not the headline attendance number. The convention selection guide covers how to evaluate this in more detail.

The "restock or retire" decision

After 2 to 3 conventions, you have enough data to make real decisions about each product in your lineup.

• 1.Above 60% sell-through consistently: Restock it. If it is above 85%, increase your quantities. You are probably selling out and leaving demand unmet.
• 2.30 to 60% sell-through: Keep it, but bring less. This product has an audience, just not as large as you thought. Reduce quantities until you are in the 60 to 80% range.
• 3.Below 30% across 2 to 3 conventions: Time to retire it. It is taking up table space and production budget that could go toward products that actually sell. The exception is if it only performs at a specific convention type. In that case, bring it selectively.

This decision process only works if you have per-product, per-convention data. A general sense of "I think it went okay" is not enough. You need to know how many you brought, how many you sold, and at which convention. A sales tracking system makes this automatic instead of manual.

A Simple Scaling Framework for Different Convention Sizes

Once you have a few conventions of data, you can use your best-performing event as a baseline and scale from there.

How to scale up or down

Pick the convention where you have the most complete data and felt good about your quantities. That is your baseline. For a convention you expect to be about 50% bigger (more attendees, more artist alley foot traffic), increase your quantities by 25 to 50%. For a smaller event, decrease by the same range.

Two guardrails to keep in mind:

• 1.Never more than double your baseline for an untested convention. Even if a convention is three times the size of your usual events, you do not know how the audience will respond to your work. Doubling is aggressive enough for a first time at a new event.
• 2.Factor in convention type, not just size. A craft fair with 3,000 attendees might have a higher percentage of buyers than an anime expo with 15,000. Use your sell-through data from similar convention types as the primary guide.

Common Inventory Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

• 1.Bringing everything you have ever made. More options does not mean more sales. A focused table with 15 to 20 strong designs outsells a cluttered table with 50 mediocre ones. Buyers scanning dozens of tables in artist alley need to understand your work in seconds. If your table is overwhelming, they keep walking.
• 2.Restocking based on feelings instead of numbers. "I feel like stickers do well" is not the same as knowing your actual sell-through rate. One convention artist nailed it: "Most sellers wing it. They pack the car with whatever they have and hope for the best." Hope is not a strategy. Numbers are.
• 3.Ignoring production costs in your inventory plan. Bringing 200 enamel pins to a first convention is a $600+ bet. Start with lower-cost products and small runs until you have data that justifies bigger orders. Your pricing should account for the real possibility that not everything sells.
• 4.Using the same quantities for every convention. A local one-day craft fair and a three-day anime expo are completely different events. Treating them the same means you will either overstock for the small one or understock for the large one. Adjust your quantities for every event based on size, type, and what you know from similar conventions.
• 5.Not tracking what you brought. Tracking what sold is only half the equation. If you do not also record how much you brought, you cannot calculate sell-through rate and the whole framework falls apart. Write down your starting quantities before the convention opens.

Most of these common mistakes come down to the same root cause: not having data. The artists who dial in their inventory are not smarter or more experienced. They just track what happens and let the numbers guide their decisions.

Pre-Convention Inventory Checklist

Run through this before you start packing for your next convention.

• •Review sell-through rates from your last 2 to 3 similar conventions
• •Set target quantities per product (aim for 60 to 80% sell-through)
• •Cut or reduce products below 30% sell-through across multiple events
• •Increase stock for products that sold out or hit 85%+ sell-through
• •Factor in convention size and audience type when scaling quantities
• •Check production costs against expected revenue to make sure you are not overinvesting
• •Leave budget room for 1 to 2 new products to test in small quantities
• •Record your starting quantities before the convention opens (you need this for sell-through calculations after)

Once you are packed, the full packing list covers everything else you need to bring beyond your inventory, from display supplies to comfort items. And if you are still figuring out your overall preparation timeline, that guide breaks it down week by week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many prints should I bring to my first convention?

For a small to mid-size convention, bring 8 to 12 copies of each of your 5 to 8 strongest designs. For a large convention (10,000+ attendees), scale up to 15 to 20 copies per design. Focus on your best work rather than bringing everything you have ever drawn. A curated selection sells better than a cluttered table.

What is a good sell-through rate at a convention?

A healthy sell-through rate is 60 to 80%. Below 50% means you brought too much or the product is not connecting with the audience. Above 90% means you likely sold out early and left money on the table. Track your sell-through rate per product across multiple conventions to find the right quantities over time.

How do I know if I should restock a product?

Look at its sell-through rate across your last 2 to 3 conventions. Products above 60% sell-through consistently are worth restocking and possibly increasing. Products below 30% across multiple events should be retired or brought in much smaller quantities to specific convention types where they perform better.

Should I bring more inventory to a bigger convention?

Yes, but scale carefully. Use your best-performing convention as a baseline and increase quantities by 25 to 50% for a larger event. Never more than double your quantities for an untested convention, no matter how big it is. A 30,000-person multi-genre expo might drive fewer art sales than a 10,000-person anime convention with a dedicated artist alley audience.