With demand higher than ever before, the chances of getting a ticket for San Diego Comic-Con 2011 are slimmer than for any previous year. Four day passes with preview night sold out at Comic-Con 2010. All remaining tickets sold out within 8 hours of terror and panic and shattered keyboards back in February. But as the show gets closer, there are tiny (really tiny) glimmers of hope that still remain.
The first hotel deposit refund deadline is coming up on May 10th. If a person cancels their hotel that was reserved through Travel Planners on or before that date, they will be able to get a full refund of their deposit. “But Doug,” you say, “that’s hotels. We’re talking about tickets (aka memberships)!” My answer is, when there are rooms available, we can get a rough idea of how many memberships might become available in the near future. Even if you don’t need a room, keep an eye on the hotel rooms that may become available later this month as people who can’t make it to the show release their hotel reservations, hoping to get some or all of their money back. And although it seems rare that someone would back out after going through all that’s happened so far, things happen and plans change. Right now, most of the rooms are no less than 5 to 10 miles away from the convention center. If you begin to see rooms becoming available downtown on the site, however unlikely that they’d be listed for very long, take note of how often they appear. While it may be impossible to determine exactly how many total rooms become available (it’s likely that Comic-Con won’t announce when more rooms open up… they’ll just let people discover them on their own), it should be a given that the same people who don’t need their hotel rooms won’t need their tickets either. That said, they may also choose to not announce a specific date when more tickets become available to prevent a mass rush and server crash all over again.
So if Comic-Con doesn’t announce it, how will you know if and when the memberships become available? Right now, we don’t know what they’ll do. It’s 100% a waiting game now. But if the past is any indication, returned memberships may be offered up again on the official Comic-Con site either in late May or June… sometimes as late as early July. Again, they could offer up 500 or they could offer up only 5. Or maybe none. There are no guarantees at this stage because we’re in uncharted territory now. Actually, there IS one guarantee… whatever they offer, whenever they offer it, the memberships will go FAST! If you don’t have a membership and you really want one, you have to be vigilant and use every resource at your disposal.
TIP: Your best bet is to keep an eye on their official Twitter and Facebook pages by following and liking them. You can do the same for SDCC Survival Guide (@SDCCSurvival Twitter) (SDCC Survival Guide Facebook) as I will notify you the moment I hear anything from Comic-Con, either directly or through their feeds.
Other than that, as much as I hate to say it, you may have to wait for 2012. The good news is that they will NOT be selling all of the 2012 memberships at San Diego Comic-Con 2011, as many people feared. Only a limited amount will go on sale there, but it is still likely that 4 day with preview nights will sell out again faster than ever before. All of the others will be sold via their (hopefully revamped and superpowered) website.
TIP: One word of warning that I will repeat regularly from here on until the show: Do NOT try to buy tickets from anyone other than Comic-Con International! To do so would lead to much suffering. If they even get an inkling that you are selling or buying memberships outside of their system, they will ban all involved for life. I’ve seen it happen. Do not try Craigslist. Do not try eBay. They are watching those sites and they will find you. Yes, there are plenty of shady characters out there who might be selling extra badges on the street. Some are often counterfeit (they’re usually easy to spot). Others may be real, but it isn’t worth the risk or the cost they’re probably charging when Comic-Con finds out what they’re doing. I know there are some that think they’re too clever to get caught, but all I know is that I wouldn’t want to be them if and when they’re proven wrong.
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