UPDATE: July 6th, 2012
The folks over at CCI have posted information on their important info site regarding online registration for 2013. In short, paid badge holders for 2012 only may participate in an online sale coming up in August. Read below for the official blurb and let us know how you feel in the comments.
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2013: ONLINE BADGE PREREGISTRATION
Each year more and more attendees line up for Comic-Con preregistration. Currently we do not have a location with adequate space to accommodate all those who line up; therefore Comic-Con 2013 preregistration will be conducted online only.
Comic-Con 2013 attendee badges will be available for purchase online through the EPIC registration website in August 2012. There will be no onsite preregistration at Comic-Con 2012 for Comic-Con 2013 badges. Only those that have purchased a Comic-Con 2012 4-day attendee or 1-day attendee badge will be eligible to participate in 2013 online preregistration.
Professionals, guests of professionals, exhibitors, exhibitor-purchased attendee badges, volunteers, staff, and press will not be allowed to participate in online preregistration in August. Open online registration for these categories will occur at a later date.
Those eligible for Comic-Con 2013 online preregistration will be able to purchase up to three badges total. You will need a unique Member ID for each badge purchased. Eligible 2012 attendees may purchase badges for other eligible 2012 attendees, but they will not be allowed to purchase badges for those who did not attend Comic-Con 2012 or for any of the ineligible categories mentioned above.
Eligible attendees will be notified after Comic-Con 2012, via email, with the date, time, and link for online badge preregistration. The notification will be sent to the email associated with the Member ID account.
Please be sure to “opt-in” to email correspondence to receive the preregistration badge sales announcement. To check your Member ID notification “opt-outs,” login to your account at https://secure2.comic-con.org/memberid/ and select the option “Change my preferences/unsubscribe.”
Thank you very much for your support of Comic-Con, and stay tuned for additional 2013 preregistration details!
UPDATE: May 21st, 2012
The folks at CCI have sent out a customer survey to current badge holders to gauge their feelings on possible future sales. In the email they state that there will not be any pick-ups during the con this year BUT they are considering allowing 2012 badge holders the option to buy passes for next year after the convention is over.
Here is the text below.
Dear XXXXX,
As a Comic-Con 2012 registered attendee you are receiving this email.
We hope you will agree to take a quick survey (8 questions) that could help us
better serve you in terms of future registration. Below is a link to the survey
which will be conducted on our vendor’s website at SurveyGizmo. The survey will
be open until midnight Friday, May 25, 2012 Pacific Time (PT).
<personalized link removed>
Please do NOT forward this link. If you do, other people will overwrite your data.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated help and for being an active part of Comic-Con International.
This message was sent by Comic-Con International, San Diego, CA 92112-8458.
You are receiving this email because you have signed up for a Comic-Con Member ID.
Survey
In an effort to better accommodate and understand the needs of our attendees Comic-Con has, from time to time, conducted audience feedback surveys. In the past, this has been done onsite on a one-on-one basis. The new Comic-Con Member ID system now allows us to conduct these surveys online and potentially use a wider test audience.
Receiving your input will better assist us in trying to find the best way to face the challenges of having a popular show for which there are more people who want to attend than we have badges to accommodate. By taking part in this survey you will become an active partner in helping Comic-Con meet the needs of our attendees and help to provide a better experience for all.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This survey is being distributed only to current 2012 badge holders.
Because of the sheer number of people who wanted to register at the show for the following year, we had to move 2012 pre-registration offsite to accommodate the lines of people and allow space for additional registration equipment.
Our plan in 2011, to have the pre-registration area open only until 11:00am each day or until the allotment of badges had been sold, was an effort to allow people to enjoy the show and not have to spend the entire day in line for badges. Unfortunately, even with these changes and a larger facility we could not accommodate every attendee who wanted to purchase a badge for Comic-Con 2012, and we did not avoid having a long line of people waiting to purchase those badges.
Comic-Con has decided to not offer onsite pre-registration for the 2013 show.
Instead, we plan to offer those who attend Comic-Con 2012 a special opportunity to purchase a 2013 badge after Comic-Con.
Answering the questions below will help us find the best solution to facilitate this process. Thank you for your cooperation and your assistance and for being an active part of Comic-Con International.
Questions
1. I like the idea of having some type of pre-registration sale limited only to people who attended in 2012.
2. I like the idea of a Traditional Online Sale for Comic-Con 2013 badges, where only those people with a 2012 badge could participate.
Traditional Online Sale – the general online sale which has been used for the bulk of the badge sales in past few years.
3. I like the idea of a Limited Drawing for Comic-Con 2013 badges, where only those with a 2012 badge could participate.
4. What number of total Comic-Con 2013 badges should we allocate for pre-registration to 2012 badge holders?
5. I think those with a Comic-Con 2012 badge should be allowed to purchase badges for friends and family who ALSO attended Comic-Con in 2012.
How many people should they be allowed to buy badges for (other than their own badge)
6. I think those with a Comic-Con 2012 badge should be allowed to purchase badges for friends and family who DID NOT attend Comic-Con in 2012
7. Did you pre-register for a Comic-Con 2012 badge at the 2011 show?
8. Have you pre-registered onsite in any year before 2011?
Sounds pretty major, huh? The new system looks like it could go a few different ways. For the sake of those who try yet cannot get into this con, I hope that the current holders opinions do not lead to an NFL Season Ticket style system where there could be a VERY long waiting list. We already had the dates for next year’s con leaked but this looks like it will be a game changer in how people plan for the next year’s SDCC. Do you have badges for 2012 and are looking forward to this opportunity? Did you miss out this year and fear the system might block you out year after year? Let us know how you feel about this change in the comments section!
——————————–
Original post
While a veil of acceptance settled over most of the attendees of the just passed Big Show, a few people were still miserable, namely those who had to sleep out over night on concrete to get a ticket for next year, with the oft-heard, but seldom-heeded battle cry “I don’t think I’m coming next year.”
Maria and her family from Escondido got into line for pre-registration at 1:00 a.m. Saturday. “The floor was too hard and too cold, but we got our tickets.”
Joyce from San Diego summed up her feeling after her early-morning wait: “It’s just shameful and disrespectful.”
Dennis, from Vista, a Comic-Con attendee for 20 years, said, “I got into line at 5:45 a.m. and was number 741 in line. It took me four hours to go through to get my ticket for next year, and as I was leaving there was a handful of people getting in line for tomorrow.”
People lining up for hours! Well, I nevah! The outrage! Appalling! Terrible! Luckily there is a simple solution:
Yturralde says Comic-Con has a solution for 2013: “There will be no pre-registration…. All sales for the 2013 convention will be done online.”
The Yturralde in question is Mark, a longtime con board member, and certainly not a spokesman, so use the salty cellar, but really, WHY do on-site pre-reg when it is such a horrible experience?
We are creeping closer and closer to the day that San Diego badges go for market price on StubHub. Con official have avoided the truly outrageous extra fees of using a Ticketmaster thus far, but with demand so far outstripping supply, it might be just a matter of time before they go to a pure lottery system (which it already is, informally) or open market. We’d prefer not to see the latter, however, and the con has always tried to make getting a ticket possible for everyone from the teenaged fan to the millionaire.
But, as we’ve been saying for years, not everyone gets to go to the Super Bowl or Wrestlemania every year. either.
If this rumor is indeed what is planned and all of the tickets are unloaded at the same time then I feel that it will not only give everyone a fair & equal shot of getting in, but might actually make the event more enjoyable. I cannot imagine the reaction I would receive if someone asks me what I did during the con and all I can say is “Oh, you know, paid loads of money so I could miss everything while I stand in a line overnight for a very small shot of doing the same thing next year”.
I mean seriously guys. Comic-Con is awesome but if you don’t get in you don’t get it. It will suck be at least you can save up to several thousands of dollars and enjoy all of the news and coverage from home. Plus, is it really enjoyable to get up at the same time the bars get out (if you even slept at all) just to wait outside on a line for a possibility of getting tickets for the next year? Really? Dude, I’ve seen drug addicts jump through less hoops to get their fix.
But that’s what it really boils down to, right? Addiction? I mean, I am not one to talk since I vividly recall the moments in my life where the fleeting things I have been enjoying in the moment have prevented me from fully realizing what is important to my life. But there is a time when things can just go too far and we need to take a moment and check ourselves to see if it is all worth it when all is said and done. There is a thin line between “fan” and “fanatic” and I think the fine folks over at CCI are beginning to see the lengths people are going and might be putting something in place to scale it back a bit.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m jaded in my old age of 27, but I feel that this needs a quote from the good book, you know, Fight Club.
You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5
