#vendor tips

So in terms of displays and whatnot, it definitely depends on what you have already in terms of merchandise! If you’ve got a handful of sticker designs, maybe a couple keychains and small to medium prints, you don’t necessarily need to go for a full cube setup right away. Most likely (if you’re going to furry cons) you’ll be in the artist alley and have limited space, so you don’t need to spend a couple hundred or whatever on a lot of display equipment if you’re not sure your space will even be that big! For example, this was what my Artist Alley half table at Vancoufur 2023 looked like versus my Dealer’s Den half table at Vancoufur 2025!

I’m gonna go over some of the things I’ve used for vending based on the different merch items too!!

STICKERS/STICKER SHEETS

These are legitimately the BEST starting product if you’re an art vendor. Custom stickers are one of the cheapest custom products to obtain, and that works well when you’re starting out!! You don’t wanna jump in with enamel pins or keychains right out the gate because those are more expensive and (from my experience) people often drift towards some of the cheaper things if they’ve never heard of your art before and aren’t sure what to get!

For stickers, the way you display them can sort of go two ways; you can either do self-serve (which I do) or you can do display-only! Both options have their own benefits and drawbacks; I find that customers like being able to get a feel for the texture and size of the stickers on hand, however there is obviously a risk of people being more easily able to steal stuff. Display only can be nice to more clearly lay out your stickers, but it could also take up more vertical space that you might need.

For self serve stickers, the best thing to get would be these acrylic display risers!! You can find them pretty easily on places like Walmart and Temu, or you can look up local retail display suppliers in your area to see if they have some!! They usually go by names like “acrylic display caddy” or “acrylic cosmetics risers” or something similar.

ART PRINTS

You don’t actually need to go with a full fancy four foot tall setup for art prints!! For prints 8 x 10 and under, you can get something like acrylic brochure holders or these desk organizers to let people browse through your prints!

KEYCHAINS AND PINS

If you’re going into keychain and pin manufacturing, then starting off small would be best!! Having something similar to a small standing pegboard or hook countertop display would be best, since they’re usually lightweight and on the cheaper end (this hook countertop display is like 10$)

CUBES AND DISPLAYS

If you’ve moved on to a full table If you’re confident enough that you want to give cube displays a go, then cube displays are what basically every vendor out there has used at some point and time!! These guys are probably like one of those most used products by vendors ever.

With cube displays, there tend to be two main ones- full metal grid, or plastic. Metal grids are fully metal, while plastic ones only have metal in the main square frame and have plastic covering the rest.

Whichever one you get, again, depends on what your plans are. Both options have upsides and downsides. Grid cubes, because they have more metal, are much heavier. The plastic ones are lighter, but also more flimsy and at risk of bending at points. The grid cubes, depending on how you use them, also offer less privacy- meanwhile the plastic ones do much better in that regard.

For my display specifically though, I actually tried something a bit different- I got these plastic pop up shelf from IKEA- it’s called the Vesken specifically. On the cheaper end compared to the cubes while still being 12’’ wide, but they’re (in my opinion) much easier to set up!! They’re also lighter then the grid cubes, which is good if you’re travelling!!

To help deal with the gaps in between the shelves, I cut up some fabric and basically created homemade covers to tie around the shelves! This lets me tape prints to the front of them too, and also helps with theming!!

For things like keychains and pins, I have a piece of poster board with magnets glued to the third level of the shelf, along with a piece of poster board that will actually display stuff. I glue magnets to the poster board too, and then the poster board is anchored pretty good to the shelves even with the fabric between them!

And I still use the grid cubes, actually! I just set them up or across the two units and tie them to the bottom of the shelves (since they have holes on the bottom, as they were designed for the bathroom/shower)

Obviously this isn’t perfect- the shelves are actually lightweight enough that they could tip over if enough force is applied, and I definitely recommend using something like rope or something to weight down the bottom, not to mention that they’re a little tricky to disassemble, and having two of them can take up a good bit of space in your luggage even if they’re lighter then cube storage. But they’ve been working out really well for me so far!!

It’s late and I’m emotionally drained from today so that’s like all I can think of atm ahah