San Diego Comic-Con 2015 SDCC

I tried for 3 years and nothing. Had to work last morning so I left my gf in charge. She was able to get tickets for Thursday and Sunday. I'm very happy as it will be our first time going!

TheDarkPope said:

A month or so ago I signed up to be a volunteer in case I didn't end up getting tickets. For the first time in 5 years of trying, I managed to get tickets. I logged in around 8:45 It was around 9:20 or so when the banner on the screen said that preview night was sold out. Shortly after that I was in a different room and got the other 4 days.

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Dam...you got lucky

Got Thurs, Fri, Sun back in Nov on pre-reg day, only cause I teamed up (A friend got me those days). I had teamed up with 2 others for open reg, we all got nothing yesterday.

For sure it helps SDCC to ensure the headlines say "sold out" in order to push for convention center expansion.

I have not been to a SDCC and other than seeing you tube videos i don't know what to expect of the venue. I am talking with the promoters about bringing and displaying the X-34 Landspeeder and the T-47 Snowspeder. They tell me the inside hall is completely booked, maybe room in the hall way areas, but they have room in some of the outside venues. Supposedly some tented off area, but no specific location has been confirmed, and we not much details have been presented.

What can any of you veterans of SDCC tell me about what you think of the viability and wisdom of me displaying these two vehicles in one of their outdoor locations? I'm concerned about security after hours and keeping them both dry. Not so worried about the landspeeder, as it is completely fiberglass and road worthy, but the snowspeeder is not as weather proof since it was not designed as a drivable vehicle. It's a long way from Texas to get these two vehicle on site in San Diego, but I'm willing to do it as it really looks like the only way I'm getting into the show since I was unable to score tickets in the waiting room Saturday morning. I need a better strategy such as some of you guys talked about. Being a vender has it's upsides, so a good alternative to buying day passes. We've been showing at local Dallas shows this last year, the largest was last May 2014 with 60,000 attendees over 3 days. SDCC is going to more than twice that. Craziness for sure... Any advice, warnings, feedback would help me settle my mind. What can you say?

Thanks, Ken

I didn't get in.

I'm a bit devastated to be honest guys, I stayed up literally all night (the waiting room opened at 4am here in Australia) and I've also been saving up for almost 2 years to travel to America just for SDCC...

So the entire con sells out in minutes, huh? I've never been, but wow that is insane for how many people go to this every year.

Do they offer legacy passes for previous year attendees or is it all reset every year so that you either get in or you don't?

They have pre-registration for people who've been before, that opens normally in the November the year before. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like that idea...

It basically means that people who've been before can continue to go much easier, whereas people who've never been have an insanely low chance of ever getting in.

After pre-reg tickets, press and professional tickets, and comp winner tickets, there's only 50,000 tickets left for people who've never been, and there's over a million people applying for those. I feel like in order for it to be fair, the people who have been before should have to apply in the same round as everyone else. If you've been before, how is it fair that you get priority over people who've never been lucky enough to experience what you've already experienced?

I understand that no one really has control over this kind of issue, I just wanted to rant about it a bit as I'm a little disappointed. :\

They need to ration days or make it more expensive for more than one day.
People get in and purchase four whole days, well that's one person locking out several others
from going at all. Until they expand, they need to ration. That's my view.

Presale doesn't guarantee anything. My wife, brother and myself all tried during the presale and only one of us got through and could only get sunday badges at that point. It's dissapointing because I've gone for the past 8 years, when it was never an issue getting badges. The caliber of celebreties that appear I feel is what's made it so mainstream and difficult to get in to. The first year year tickets became an issue was the year the second twilight movie was gonna release.

The Hotel Sale went up today. Now is your chance to get something at a decent rate. The cons of that though is you have to pay in full, and most of the hotels are 6/7 miles out. I remember last year during the sale they only wanted half down for the 4 nights we picked. And they had a lot of hotels to choose from like 3 pages worth. This year they want a full payment up front, and they have like 1 page of hotels this year. Seems like the hotels want people to pay there high prices this year. Good thing i booked something close in time before the sale.

If you want exclusives or Hall H on Saturday, be prepared to camp out in line.
I waited in line over night Wed, Thur, and Friday just to buy toys and get into Hall H.
Only used hotel for showers.

We have a group of ten and we have been lucky to get in every year. We use about fifteen computers to increase our chances and share information in case someone gets in. Impossible to get a downtown hotel but buy parking early is well worth it-especially if you can get parking under the convention center.

I have been going to SDCC for the past nine years as a complimentary guest of my brother who works in the industry and gets two free passes, one for him and one for a guest. The only hassle we have had is getting a hotel room every year. This year is different. While he still gets his professional badge, he has to register me in an online waiting room and at random they choose if he gets to add a complimentary guest or not. So, I guess they are handing out less complimentary badges for free and are then able to sell more badges. I did read an article last year that questioned the Comic Con organization, seeing as they are sitting on millions of dollars but are a non-profit enterprise. Anyway, we'll see how it goes this year. I have been considering not going to the SDCC any more, instead going to the Comic Con in Anaheim. I have been told that it is more akin to how SDCC was years ago, before it became such a huge event.

CessnaDriver said:

They need to ration days or make it more expensive for more than one day.
People get in and purchase four whole days, well that's one person locking out several others
from going at all. Until they expand, they need to ration. That's my view.

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A couple years ago they actually changed the multi-day option. It used to be a savings to buy all the days over buying them individually. But now it costs exactly the same to buy all of the days as it does to buy them one by one. At the same time, they made it so if you registered for multiple single day badges, you can pick them all up on the first day instead of having to wait in line to pick it up each morning.

So there really is already zero benefit to buying all of the days rather than just the days a person wants to go. It's just much more unusual for people to plan a trip to SDCC and not plan to be there all of the days. I've been going to SDCC for 11 years now, and the only people that I personally know that don't go the entire time, don't spend the money to get the full badge, they just get/try to get the days they can go.

I don't think making the four day passes cost more than buying them individually would slow anyone down on how quickly they bought them.

And the idea of the pre-registration day is just a carry-over from all the previous years of the con. When I first started going, there was a little booth upstairs in the Sails Pavilion that you could walk up to at any point before the end of the convention and buy your four day + preview night badge for the next year. And you even got a discount for doing it that way. The first three years I did it that way I paid $75 for my SDCC badge. Then it went up to $100.

But as it started getting busier and busier, and selling out faster each year, it also got harder to get your badge for the next year at the convention. They finally had to move it offsite and they sold a limited number of badges for the next year each day. And if you weren't in that line by around 5:30am, you probably weren't going to get it. I had a friend get capped at 6am, when the badges didn't even go on sale for another few hours.

So since that was no longer a viable option, now they do the pre-registration day online. So it's literally just an updated version of something they have been doing for probably almost as long as the convention has existed. And it's also a pretty common practice for conventions. For example, I was able to buy a fifth row seat to the Supernatural convention in Pasadena this year before I left the one in Burbank last year, and the Pasadena tickets still aren't even on sale yet.

As someone already noted, the pre-registration day is still not a guarantee. It's the same kind of luck of the draw raffle that the open registration is. And it's only available for people that bought the normal tickets the previous year. Despite the fact that I have been going for as long as I have, I've never been eligible for the pre-registration day online because I've also never been able to get picked out of the waiting room for the Open registration, and always have to find someone I know with a booth that has an available Exhibitor's badge I can buy from them (which costs $200 more than a regular four day badge).

While they have more than outgrown the San Diego Convention Center, there also isn't any convention center that could hold the number of people that actually want to go. So even if/when they move to a new location (since San Diego axed the expansion plan), we're still going to be stuck battling for tickets and hoping for a bit of good luck while we watch the spinning blue dots in the waiting room.

Yay got my pro pass for me and the lady this morning. See you all there!!

Hey

i'm from germany and the luck this year was on my side - after 3 years trying without good results, finally i got a 4 Day Badge (without preview night). Anybody here who has interest to book a hotel room together (of course to safe some money). It's also my first trip to america -> Ah, and i do not snore!!!

I plan also to cosplay, i need just to decide finally what i want to wear

With kind regards

I was able to get tickets for me and my dad for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! We literally got the last tickets for Thursday and Saturday and when we bought the tickets for Friday there were only three left. I was extremely lucky for this being my first time going to Comic Con. My housekeeper has been waiting four years to get tickets and even she wasn't able to get them. Now, I have to save up for my cosplay. I'm probably going to cosplay as something different for each of the three days that I will be there. I think for the first two days I will go as Finny from Black Butler and Juuzou from Tokyo Ghoul. I don't know what I will do for Saturday though, maybe Harley Quinn?

Pinkratgirl said:

I don't know what I will do for Saturday though, maybe Harley Quinn?

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Please, no more Harley Quinn's !!! They're everywhere.

No offense H.Q.'s. Don't hit me with your hammer.