Yes, you too can own an autographed photo of a guy who was on three episodes of "Babylon 5" for a mere $25. Similarly fair prices exist for bootleg DVDs of unsubtitled anime that cost a guy two bucks to burn. Suck it up. The "in for a nickel" rule applies here. Remember, you're not paying for the item; you're paying for the memories.

But while things may not be cheap, they can be free. 'Swag' is a valued commodity; big corporations cheerfully hand out promotional merchandise in order to turn everyone in sight into a walking advertisement.

He who dies with the most swag wins, and what's left over generally turns a tidy profit on eBay. Sometimes 'swag' is also used as a term for purchased merchandise, but that's hardly as fun.

The comic stands are generally worth a visit-not the booths promoting the new stuff, necessarily, but the many, many long boxes of ancient, tattered comics from your father's time. Snag a few 1960s comics for a fun read on the way home, they're even sillier than you think. Remember, you're here to find stuff that's otherwise hard to find, not just to visit a larger version of your local comics shop.