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hello, phee here! I get a lot of questions about “where to start” doing conventions and artists’ tables, so I thought I’d try my hand at making a quick post with some starting tips. This is not intended as an in-depth refinement guide for people who are already accustomed to selling their art, but more aimed at younger artists who want to get started doing cons as a hobby. Your own experiences will soon become infinitely more valuable than mine!
How to approach tabling
What merch should I make?
Pricing
The Money Zone
On the day
Display and packaging
On-site conduct
Big disclaimers going in: I live in Australia and have only done cons in Australia up to now. A lot of this advice is specific to Australian cons and suppliers. I can’t really offer any specific advice on doing international cons or getting started in Asia, North America etc. There are other posts for that! Furthermore, I am by no means an expert, and this is not an auto success guide; it's more like a list of mistakes that I made that I don’t want you to make. But I’ve been tabling since 2011 (when i was 16) and I’ve been doing like… six cons a year? since last year, so at least I do have a little experience and a few tips.
How to approach tabling
Draw what you love.
The biggest mistake I ever made was start drawing by thinking “what’s popular? what will people want to buy?” The thing is, if you’re starting out, you do not know the answer. You might think you know the answer but you don’t. Those big fandoms that have a lot of fans? also already have a lot of products from other artists. The weird balance between “oversaturated” and “has so many fans that it’ll sell anyway” swings in ways that you cannot predict.
Don’t be like me and kill yourself making content for popular fandoms that you don’t enjoy that much, and then still not sell anything. Some of my most popular pieces have been from tiny niche fandoms – not only were the fans really happy to find them, it made me happy to meet fellow fans, and of course I physically enjoyed the process of creating the artwork as well. If you’re passionate about something, it’s going to show in the artwork, and it’s going to vibe with people!
(I will say, though, eeveelutions? never once let me down)
Don’t be afraid to produce original content!
I always feel incredibly nervous drawing content that doesn’t come from a fandom, but a lot of my most popular items have been of stuff like animals, cute mascots, general motifs (like space/flowers/witches/etc) and even my own OCs. If you’re at an anime/pop-culture con, it’s probably good to still have some fanart – probably 50% of your table could be fanart? Especially if you don’t have much of a following online, the fanart will do a good job of drawing people in who might then be interested in your original stuff. But non-fannish merch definitely has an audience! Sometimes when I find an artist whose style I really like but doesn’t share my fandoms, I’ll specifically ask for an original item.
Good design beats out detailed rendering every day of the week.
This is a big one that I had to learn the hard way: do not confuse hard work with good work. Spending 12 hours carefully rendering every hair on a character’s head won’t automatically make people want to buy that print. Especially at conventions, when you’re skimming over a thousand pieces of artwork at a distance of several meters through a crowd, what really catches your audience’s eye will be strong, communicative compositions, appealing colours, and expressive poses – not necessarily realistic rendering.
If you’re not a super good draftsman yet, don’t be afraid to play to your strengths by focusing more on colour and composition. What I’m saying is: it’s okay to cheat. Choose simple or cartoony styles that you think you can pull off. Use stuff like silhouette and patterns to compose artworks that are more about design than drawing.
A practical example from 2013: this is a print I spent hours and hours on, with a rendering style as close to realistic as I could get it at the time, from a really popular fandom. This is a very simple button set that I released the same year. I sold one copy of the print. I sold twenty sets of buttons. And looking back, I know why, because the buttons are better. They’re appealing, expressive, and have sweet colours, even though they took much less time than the print and have less detail – I’m still selling them today. If you aren’t super confident about your ability to make big dramatic illustrations that’ll work as prints, there’s no harm in sticking to smaller merch that is easier to handle, like buttons and stickers!
How many followers do you need?
None! Your following and what fandoms you’re known for will strongly affect your online sales, but I’ve always treated conventions like a blank slate. Everyone has the exact same level of visibility at cons. You can feel free to make merch for fandoms that you aren’t famous in! For transparency, I do have fans come up to my table, but I didn’t start getting people saying stuff like “I follow you online and had to come and get your things!” until my most recent con in April 2017, after I’d reached 30k followers on tumblr and 10k on twitter. For everything before that, I’d get the occasional “oh i’ve seen this on tumblr” comment but I never got the feeling that my sales were increasing with my online popularity – I prefer to think it’s because I was getting better at merch design.
Attitude counts for a lot!
My mistake the first time I tabled? I went in with a for-profit attitude. No! Unless you’re already experienced with making money off your art, this “let’s go to a con and make some money” attitude is going to suck, because 90% chance you won’t make a big profit. I made exactly $2 at my first con. I made like… $400, idk, at my second con two years later. Which is much better, but it’s still not a lot of money! It didn’t come close to covering all the time and effort I’d put in. It was also a lot lot less than what my friends made, and that bummed me out as well. Don’t set yourself up for bummed-out-ness. If you make a profit, it’s a pleasant surprise, not a grim expectation, and comparing your sales to other people is pretty much the most unhealthy thing you can do. (It’s hard to stop, but at least try to know that intellectually.)
You’re at the con to have a good time, meet other artists and get inspired, make friends from niche fandoms, and have a good time. It’ll probably take a couple goes for you to get to the point where you’re able to consistently make a good profit off your table; I did not get there until 2016. By now, I can consistently expect to make $1.5k - $2k profit at each con that I attend, or more at cons like Sydnova, but it took me six years!!
What merch should I make?
If you’re just starting out in AA, my biggest recommendation is this: don’t get obsessed with those fancy products you get from overseas, and focus on what merch you can produce cheaply and in low, controllable quantities. People constantly ask me how to make acrylic charms and I always just want to say “don’t”, because they’re expensive, labour-intensive and have high MOQs (minimum order quantity). Instead, try these:
- homemade bookmarks – get them printed 8 to a page at officeworks, laminate the papers, then use a guillotine to cut them out. (I did a lot of this.) or you can get your commercial printer (e.g. snap) to put it on 350gsm + paper and trim it for you!
- buttons - a button machine is $300 but if you have a friend with one you can borrow, or if a group of you go in splitskies, the components are very cheap and the process of making is really fun. We often have “badge days” where we all pile up at one person’s house and make our buttons. Get a circle cutter! (the linked website is where I get all my button supplies from – the prices are good and the service is impeccable.)
- Magnets - suggested via inbox. Usually they are made on the same machines that do buttons, with a very similar procedure!
- stickers - snap and many other print houses offer a “gloss label” stock that make very nice paper stickers. I sell mine as sheets but you can also cut them out yourself and sell them individually.
- postcards - i get mine from vistaprint. 50 copies is a lot, but if you catch a sale it’s only $8! then once you sell 3-4 of that design it’s covered its own cost, and everything else is pure profit.
- prints - of course, prints. These are the easiest, but as I said above, they might not be so easy for you to draw. You can get them done at officeworks or, like me, a Snap. If you go to a commercial printer (such as snap, kwik kopy, unique print, world wide print, etc) make sure to ask if they charge a file processing/handling fee, and try to figure out if there’s any way you can set up your files to get them to waive it.
- Sketch zines - these are fun and easy; you can print them at home and then use a DAISO swing-out stapler to assemble them yourself. If you want to make a properly-done zine, bullprint has some decent prices, and really good service and fast turnaround! They only have some basic options but it’s always worked out for me in the past. CMYK also has some options.
- Officeworks vs. Commercial printer: Officeworks will not do full bleed for you, so there will be a white border around your prints. If your artwork is on a white background anyway this doesn’t matter too much. But if you only want a few prints (like less than 20) done, Officeworks is flexible and inexpensive, and the print quality is serviceable if not always amazing. You can guillotine off the white borders yourself if you want! Always go up to the counter – the paper in their self-serve machines is not adequate.
printing quickstart guide: I always set my print files up at 300dpi, CMYK, flattened PDF (compression on HIGH and not MAX), with 3mm of bleed on each side. Make sure there is just one layer and no transparent bits. I just do it in photoshop (so there are no crop marks) and tell my printers the specs and desired trim size, and usually they will lower or waive the file handling fee for me.
For stock, a silk matte stock looks the nicest to me and is very flattering for most designs, and you want your paper to get thicker as the prints get smaller! If you only do local cons, you can afford to get heavier paper. If you do a lot of interstate cons like me, get thinner paper to cut down on luggage weight! My default is 300gsm for A6 prints, 210gsm for A5 prints, and 170gsm for A3 prints. Ask to feel the different stocks at your printers. (I don’t make A4 prints because I personally find it a really awkward size.)
If you do want to create fancy products, check my FAQ for a list of where I get them done. These are some charm assembly guides I made a while back: x and x
How many copies should I bring?
For anything, a good number to start at is 10-15. You can use your intuition and get a bit more of popular fandoms, a bit fewer of smaller fandoms; I’m personally very often wrong about this, so you’ll need to develop your instincts slowly. It’s better to sell out early than have 3,000 leftovers, though! You can always print more next year. For reference, I usually bring 15 of most of my items, but up to 30 each of popular designs.
When should I start preparing?
Work backwards. For safety and buffer, I always aim to have ALL my stuff done – prints picked up, buttons made, charms assembled – by the Tuesday before the con. (It never works, but you gotta AIM for that.) Then you consider that you’ll need about 3-5 days for some prints to finish (especially Vistaprint orders or zine production). Check the shipping estimates on all your supplies. Anything you’re producing or getting from overseas, just assume it’ll take 5-6 weeks, because Australia is a hellscape. Remember to leave yourself some breathing room to rest, and if you’ve got school or work to contend with, add lots of buffer time for that as well. Always compromise with “I’ll just draw less” rather than “I’ll just sleep less” or “I’ll pay a rush fee at the printers” – your health is way, way more important than finishing every single print.
Pricing
Have a variety of price points.
A good way to increase sales is to try to have a variety of price points at your table. I personally think this makes conventions more fun as well. I would consider the price points: [under $5], [$5 - $10], [$10 - $20], and [$20+]. What this means is you should try to have some items at each of these price points (though I usually skip the $20+ one). A lot of con-goers are kids who show up with like $20 of pocket money all in coins, and I just like the idea that they’ll have some options!
examples
under $5: bookmarks, buttons, individual stickers, postcard prints.
$5 - $10: most acrylic charms, sticker sheets, small prints around A5 in size.
$10 - $20: bigger or linked acrylic charms, big prints around A4 - A3 size, zipper bags/pouches, standees, small zines, washi tape, notebooks/notepads.
$20 and above: tote bags and t-shirts, giant posters A2 and bigger, wall scrolls, plushies, artbooks or bigger zines/anthologies.
Each individual piece of merch should always be able to cover its own production cost, but I always like to have a variety of price points because I want people who only have some change left to be able to get something, but at the same time, the more expensive stuff is what earns me money and covers my table/admin costs.
Specific pricing advice
I don’t know how much help this will be, but here’s a list of all my prices, followed by the range that I’ve seen! As a general rule, your merch should sell for at least 2x the production cost – if it cost $3 to produce, you shouldn’t sell it for less than $6 (more is fine), otherwise you’re not doing justice to the work that went into designing and producing it.
These prices are in AUD!
Item My price Range Comments
Buttons $2 | 6 for $10 $1 - $4 Depending on size
Bookmarks $2 $1 - $3
Individual stickers - $1 - $4 Depending on size, paper vs. vinyl
Sticker sheets $5 $4 - $8 Size, paper vs. vinyl, kiss cut?
mini. A6 prints $3 $2 - $5 (postcards)
small. B6 - A5 prints $5 | 5 for $20 $4 - $8
med. B5 - A4 prints - $6 - $10
big. A3 prints $15 | 3 for $30 $10 - $20 INTL artists tend to charge $20!
oversize prints A2+ - $25 + Or fancy (foiled/prism/etc) stock!
Small charms $4 - $6 $4 - $8 1 inch, acrylic
Medium charms $8 $6 - $10 1.5 to 2 inch, acrylic
Large charms $12-$15 $10 - $15 2.5+ inch or multi-part, acrylic
Zines under 20pp $12 $10 - $20
Zines 20pp - 30pp $15 $12 - $25
Zines 30pp - 40pp $20 $18 - $30
Zines 40pp + $25 + ??? Zines are really up to the individual!
Feel free to go higher than the range I’ve provided! However, I would recommend you try to avoid going below this range, because at that point you would be undercutting other artists.
These prices work okay for AUD, CAD and USD, but I have no clue for other currencies, sorry! I know Asian cons tend to have cheaper costs and EU cons are more expensive.
The Money Zone
Here are some honest estimates on how much a convention might cost in Australia!
- Table hire: a full table costs between $200 and $400 depending on the convention. It might be a good idea to start off sharing with a friend or two, especially if you worry about struggling to fill an entire table with art.
- Flight and accomodation: if you’re doing interstate. (If you’re in high school, DO NOT DO INTERSTATE, it’s not worth it.) I always fly tigerair and my flights will come out $150 - $200 for a return trip with all my baggage. I recommend airbnb for accomodation if you can’t crash with a friend; you can usually find a listing for around $50 per night. (If you’re new to airbnb, you can use my referral link for $50 aud credit toward your first booking, but, you know, only if you want)
- So if you stay three nights, for EG, flight and accom could come out to $300 - $400 in total.
- (Sidebar: my favourite timing for a weekend con, if you can swing it, is to fly in Friday arvo and go directly to setup from the airport, so you don’t have to carry your luggage to your accom and then to the venue. Flying out the Monday 12pm - 2pm is the most ideal because you can go from checkout straight to the airport. I always like to book my flights for Tuesday, though, so you have 1 day to explore the city and get dinner with your interstate friends!)
- Insurance: some cons (Supanova) want you to have insurance! I use AAMI’s public liability market stall insurance which comes in at $100 for 2 months and about $190 per year.
- Merch costs: I always estimate my prints to cost about $2 each. So if you have 5 designs, and get 10 of each, that’ll be $100 on prints. It’ll vary depending on the size, quantity, and where you get them. Buttons depend on your machine situation. Charms, vinyl stickers and other special merch are expensive and can add up quickly, so be careful. Overall, I think allocating $100 - $300 to merch if it’s your first time is a good place to start.
- Business cards and various materials: always allow at least $50 for miscellaneous supplies, such as tape, displays, packaging etc.
- Float: you need to bring change! For half a table, $150 in change would be a good idea. I always bring at least $300 (too much is better than too little), with the following denominations:
$1 x 20
$2 x 20
$5 x 20
$10 x 10
$20 x 2
- Just don’t price your items in cents, you do not want to have to bring silver coins to a con. Integer prices only!
My personal expenditure for conventions can be about $1,500 per con. But I always get 1-2 whole tables and I can sell leftover stock online. If it’s your first con, I would say: try not to run up a cost of more than $300 - $500; you want to make it easier on yourself to break even! This advice you can take with a grain of salt, though: if you have a more experienced friend encouraging you, or if you’ve been drawing for a quite while and are confident you can make it back, feel free to go over.
(also, if you pay taxes, you can get all your costs back on taxes, don’t underestimate)
Do you need a card reader?
You probably don’t need one for your first convention! At each con, card payments make up about 10% - 15% of my sales, so look at your gross income and try to work out if it’s worth it. the Square reader is fairly reliable and only costs $60, plus a 2% per transaction fee (not as high as it sounds on our end – it’s $20 out of every $1,000), so if your gross income is $600 or more, it’ll pay for itself very quickly. don’t get the paypal here reader it’s garbage and I hate it.
(If you want a square reader, you can sign up via this link for $1,000 fee-free processing if you want to!)
What do I need on the day?
First of all, show up early and set up! Assume set up will take at least 1 hour – safer to budget yourself 2 hours. That means display items in place, prices visible, etc! It’s not worth it to try and finish your setup after the con has opened, you’ll die stressing like i do eveRY TIME I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY IT’S NEVER OKAY.
- I have a box with these vital items at every single con I go to: blu-tac, scotch tape, scissors, bulldog clips, safety pins, cute sticky notes, a handful of Sharpies, a pack of rubber bands. I always try to have a box of tissues and wet wipes or hand sanitiser as well.
- You usually need a tablecloth. You might also want a light drop-sheet to cover your table with if it’s a multi-day con, to avoid dust and discourage theft – I use a plastic picnic tablecloth.
- You need a high-vis vest if you’re there during bump-in or -out! DAISO and Bunnings sell them.
- You need something to keep your money in! Theft is not too big of a problem in Australia, so it’s usually okay as long as your money is always visible to you (don’t leave unattended!!), and has a seal for transportation. Some of my friends use pouches but I find them tricky, and always keep my money in a box.
- You need business cards! I would recommend starting out with at least 100 per day you’re at the con. Vistaprint has good starter prices; I don’t think you need fancy or perfectly-designed cards for a convention, so anything with your websites and email on it will do. If you do want something a bit more luxe, MOO has some really cute options, including a cool Printfinity feature that lets you put a different image on every single card you print – great if you want to keep a portolio on you! (also you can get $15 off your first order here if that’s something you’re interested in.)
- My friends who run out of business cards write a sign and ask people to take photos of it, so that’s another option if you forgot about cards.
- You need price signs for all your merch, and if you’ve got a bit of a following online, it’s useful to have a banner with your handle on it!
- You might want to bring your sketchbook and pencil-case for slow periods or on-spot commissions.
- Hydrate and avoid sugary snacks! If you’re anything like me, you talk a LOT at cons, and if you add a bubble tea or lollies to that, your throat is going to be dead by the end of the day. Even most dried fruit is going to be too sweet. I make a very concerted effort to never skip breakfast at a con. Adrenaline works up to a point, but you crash hard at the end! I usually snack on mandarins and bananas and nut/seed mixes throughout the day and skip lunch, but have a big dinner.
- Remember to bring stuff like eye drops, lip balm, meds if you need them, bobby pins, and makeup, especially if you’re cosplaying or dressed up!
Display and packaging
I get asked this a lot but I have no idea how to help because my own table display is consistently a hot mess!! IT’S MY WORST SKILL, I think I’ve got a handle on every single other con-related thing except for “how to arrange your table”. However, here are a few SUPER basic tips!
- I always use velcro hook dots to put prints and signs up on the back wall. Tape and blu-tac don’t work on the fuzzy boards. Don’t use thumbtacks unless you love pain.
- DAISO is heaven.
- Plastic grates or boards are good for showing off buttons and postcards.
- Book stands are good for zines and prints.
- Don’t forget something to put your business cards in.
- Little boxes and baskets are good for loose buttons, individual stickers, etc.
- Don’t be afraid to put a print on the back wall and then also lay it out on the table, if you have the room.
- Consider your price signs! If you only have a few varieties of merch, it might be useful to have a sign or blackboard with all the prices listed together. If, like me, you have 8,289 different types of item, it might be more functional to price them individually, with cards or sticky notes. (always. have. sticky notes.)
ORGANISE YOUR MERCH.
This is especially vital if you have a helper at your table!
- Get fischer tackle boxes (but search around for cheaper prices) to organise your buttons and charms.
- I put my stickers and postcards into boxes, upright, with home-made dividers that have labeled tabs
- I just use regular display folders to keep my bigger prints in.
- I made weird filing-folder style deals by cutting manilla folders in half and taping them up for my A5s, then stacking them in another box. (Boxes are helpful.)
- Label stuff if you can!
- Try to keep as much as you can on your table without messing up your space – diving under the table to retrieve merch gets old very quickly.
Packaging
It’s nice to offer your customers something to carry their merch in! I usually just dump everything that’s flat into an A4 display sleeve for ease. You can roll up A3s with elastics or you can use a carry bag like this. Sometimes I get little gift bags off eBay (of varying sizes) for charms and buttons.
I use these bags to package my charms (only online, as they take up too much room at cons, but you can use them if you have fewer charm designs than me) as well as postcard sets and zines. Look at the measurements carefully!
I safety-pin up the back hem of my tablecloth to create little hanging pouches which I store my carry bags in for easy access. You can sew the pouches in if you’re smart and organized, but I am not, so safety pins it is for me. Be careful of putting too many heavy items in these pockets, though!
On-spot Commissions
No advice. Sorry, I gave up doing them because I got so stressed about it and also completely ran out of room on my table to hold a sketchbook and also I hate doing commissions. However, if you do decide to offer them, I recommend having a way to record every client’s details including phone number and email, and really knowing your own limits and not taking more than you can handle. Don’t price them lower than $5 unless they’re literally post-it doodles or something! The usual prices I see run about $10 - $25 for sketches and inks, without colour. Definitely don’t be afraid to make them more expensive – if I were to take them again, I’d probably start at $25 for pencils and $40 for inks.
the other thing I recommend is @-ing me so i can come over and commission you.
(If you want to buy a lot of commissions at a con, try printing out little ref sheets of your OC(s) with some info about them!)
On-site conduct
General conduct and content guidelines
It’s really, really important to have a good attitude at cons! It helps with sales and it will make the experience more enjoyable for you. Remember, everyone is there to have a good time. Doing cons is kind of like doing retail except your customers are actually nice to you. If you’re really introverted or shy, you might find the crowds challenging, but in my experience 99.9% of people are REALLY nice, friendly, and patient at cons! Because pop culture is kind of a fringe thing to begin with, the people who attend cons are usually enthusiastic, shameless, and completely non-judgemental.
Keep your table PG-13, most cons are full of kids and families! This doesn’t necessarily mean “hide your gays” – there’s nothing adult or damaging about that print of Korra and Asami doing a smooch! – but be aware of violent or sexually suggestive content. I’ve seen people use sticky notes to cover up blood/gore or nudity on a print – if you do end up making stuff that might be a bit scary for young kids to see, exercise discretion.
Dealing with customers
I do have social anxiety but I tend to find customer service fairly easy and even enjoyable, so I’m not able to go into depth on how to handle crowds if you’re anxious or bad with people, but here are a few basic tips that I think anyone could apply!
- Memorize your own prices, and make sure that your helpers have at least an idea of how much everything is.
- If you find yourself flooded, just take it slow, do things carefully, and say stuff like “i’ll be right with you!” and “thank you for waiting!” a lot. Customers don’t mind queueing up as long as you’re polite about it, so don’t be like me and panic because you kept them waiting for longer than 17 seconds – it’s seriously fine.
- Don’t be afraid to strike up an unrelated conversation with a new friend, but be aware of if there are other customers waiting! You can say “can you give me a sec to help this person?” if you see someone waiting, but you want to keep the convo going afterwards.
- You will make more sales if you are a nice and enthusiastic person. I don’t have the hard scientific data to back this up, but I can say that I have plenty of customers who drag their friends over to my table saying, “this person is so nice and has cool stuff!” And it’s not too hard to give a quick smile to people who visit your table – let them know that you’re happy to have them here.
- However, try to avoid staring at people with the air of “please buy something”, that freaks people out! What I like to do is smile at people who approach, say "hi! let me know if you need any help!” or “hey, I really like your cosplay/outfit/makeup!" then I put my head down and draw or organize something. That gives people the emotional space they need to browse and deliberate. I work in retail and I do this in my dang shoe store as well, and it helps: be approachable, but don’t pressure customers.
- You will have a lot of people who spend ages staring at your table but then don’t buy anything. It can be a bit disheartening, but try to keep your chin up! They might come back, or they might just need to keep a grip on their finances, or they might not have any more room on their wall; it doesn’t mean they don’t like your art, or that your art is undesirable in any way. Everyone has different tastes and money situations!
- Don’t accept haggling! You won’t get these people very often, but don’t be afraid to stand firm and stick to your prices. If you do get someone who is rude about your art (this won’t happen often!), personally call me on my mobile phone and I’ll run over and yell at them for you. Of course not everyone is going to like your art, but it’s the rudest thing ever to say it where the artist can hear it at a con! It’s going to suck, but remember that they’re in the wrong, your art is fine, and your friends think you’re cool.
Have a friend who can keep an eye on your table if you ever need to run to the bathroom or do a lap to acquire some goodies of your own! If you’re sharing a table with a friend, establish that both of you are okay with watching the whole table once in a while, and familiarise yourself with each other’s stock. Being chained at the table is not fun at all!
Any other questions?
Okay, I think that’s just about everything! If you have a specific question, you can inbox or DM me (off anon) on either tumblr or twitter. However, I spent over 4 hours on this 5,500 word guide (?!>!!?SD&*8) and am sick of typing, so I honestly can’t guarantee I’ll answer very quickly. And again, if you have a USA or something specific question, I can’t help, you will have to ask a local!
You can RT or reblog if you want to quickly share this with your friends! And if it helped you, I’d be much obliged if you were to check out my shop.
Overall, I think the most important thing about conventions is to hydrate and have a good time. Don’t try to make it your job right away – not everyone’s cut out for it, and a for-profit attitude can really hit hard if you end up not making a lot of money. Work hard and rest well and hug your friends, and always remember to go and support other artists’ tables as well; give back to the community!
Good luck and have fun!
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