{"id":929946,"date":"2026-10-12T07:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T07:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929946\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T07:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T07:06:19","slug":"tariff-woes-cost-of-hobbies-felt-at-st-johns-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929946\/","title":{"rendered":"Tariff woes, cost of hobbies felt at St. John\u2019s convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Fans of anime, music and all kinds of media flocked to the St. John\u2019s Convention Centre this weekend for the annual three-day Avalon Expo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event is typically held just a few kilometres away at the Sheraton Hotel, but opted for a bigger venue this year\u2014 touting \u201c40,000 square feet of geek\u201d on its website. But that move came with increased ticket prices, which organizers apologized for in a social media post earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosts for everything have been going up,\u201d the post said. \u201cIt was necessary and unavoidable at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convention-goers decked out in costumes and merchandise from their favourite artists told CBC News they were particularly conscious of their spending at the event\u2019s popular market this year.<\/p>\n

Like many of the young folks socializing at the fandom-filled event, 15-year-old Kiersten Lester\u2019s parents gave her some money to spend. She said she\u2019s more mindful and selective because of that.<\/p>\n

When asked about the cost to be at a convention like this, Lester said \u201cit\u2019s really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to rely on my parents when they\u2019re struggling themselves,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alix Guest is just one of the young people who say they’ve witnessed their interests become more expensive. (Leila Beaudoin\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Dressed in a Garfield suit, recent high school graduate Alix Guest said he easily spent more than $100 on products from vendors, on top of the weekend pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no money left,\u201d Guest said.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s noticed an increasing cost of the niche products on offer at Comic-Con-like events in recent years, Guest said he understands that vendors are feeling the crunch as much as their customers are.<\/p>\n

If a particular Funko Pop figurine is on your wish list, it\u2019s likely Mike Rose, owner of Buddytoad Hobbies, has it in stock.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Buddytoad Hobbies owner Mike Rose imports thousands of products from across Canada and across the southern border. His profits have taken a hit from United States-imposed tariffs. (Leila Beaudoin\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Rose\u2019s section at the back of the room has hundreds, if not thousands of collectibles for sale. He said his overhead costs can be steep, and they\u2019re steeper now because of United States-imposed tariffs on many of the products he provides.<\/p>\n

\u201c[My] profit is gone down, costs have gone up,\u201d said Rose, adding when U.S. tariffs first came into effect, the cost of imported items rose as much as 30 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re eating most of it, but there\u2019s only so far you can go on this, unfortunately. You have to pass part of it onto the customer.\u2026 Competing with Amazon, there\u2019s no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

As expensive as the specialized collectible and toy business can be, Rose said growing social acceptance of \u201cnerd\u201d culture and the camaraderie that comes with it keeps him \u2014 and the industry \u2014 going.<\/p>\n

Download our free CBC News app<\/a> to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-929946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}