Today (June 20th) marks the last day that you can request a refund on your San Diego Comic-Con membership if you discover you’re not able to make it to the Big Show this year. It also means that if anyone has actually returned their tickets, that Comic-Con International should be offering them up in the coming days and weeks to those who didn’t snag them a few months back when they sold out in a matter of hours. At this point, there’s no way of knowing how many they will be offering up or if they will have any at all to sell. Right now, only Comic-Con knows. But after today, if you’re needing a membership, whether it’s for a day or for a week, you had better be watching the official San Diego Comic-Con site for the latest updates. Considering that announcing a set day and time for the resells would only lead to another site-crashing fiasco, it’s probably a safe bet that the tickets will just randomly become available on the site. They may make mention of them on their Facebook and Twitter pages the moment they become available, but such announcements tend to make the tickets go away even faster because EVERYONE is watching them.
I will do my best to notify my followers on Facebook and Twitter as well, but do not be surprised at how fast they get snatched up, even if they only offer up a handful every few hours or days.
Again, Comic-Con International is the ONLY definitive resource for when and if they’re going to resell the returned memberships. I will do my best to pass the information along, but beware of those who are NOT Comic-Con who claim to have tickets to sell you. Also beware of those who say they have the means to change names on badges. They are lying to you. Here’s a post Comic-Con recently made to their Facebook page on the subject:
Beware: It has come to our attention that unaffiliated third parties on sites such as eBay and craigslist have been posting that they have permission from Comic-Con to change names on badges and/or resell badges.
Comic-Con does not issue permission to ANY third parties to change or resell badges.
If you believe you are being scammed or purposefully misled, please contact your local authorities.
Thank you.
Yes, there is a way to buy another person’s badge from them, but I strongly recommend AGAINST dealing with people who would do that. I won’t go into the details on how it works (it’s not that complex), but those who have been caught transacting such business end up getting banned from Comic-Con for life, both the sellers and the buyers. It’s not worth the risk. And I know some will speak out in favor of these shady 3rd party dealers (some of them being exhibitors on the floor who request the most number of badges they can get and then sell them on the street) as if they were some kind of Robin Hood-esque folk heroes to the downtrodden and that’s fine. If you are successfully using those avenues to get into Comic-Con with people you trust, then you keep right on doing it. But keep it to yourself, because sooner or later, you’ll get caught. You may be able to trust the people YOU deal with, but by encouraging that type of wheeling and dealing to the masses, those masses run the risk of getting screwed over by more than a few untrustworthy folks who will take their money and give them expensively priced, cheaply made fake badges in return that will get them stopped at the door the moment they try to get in.
You may wonder why Comic-Con is so hard nosed about preventing others from re-selling their badges. Here’s why: If they made it easy for people to do that, those would be the people who would buy up as many badges as possible on Registration Day. You think it was bad this year buying memberships online? Can you imagine what would happen if every Joe Scalper in the US and overseas used their vast online resources to snatch up 70% of the tickets and then immediately went on eBay and elsewhere to sell them to you at 10 times the original price? It may sound like Comic-Con is being extreme in cracking down on such practices, but their methods allow as many average fanboys (and girls) as possible to continue going to the show without having to go through risky 3rd party suppliers.
Yes, not everyone who wants a membership will always get a membership and I know that can be devastating for the hardcore con-goer. But stay vigilant and keep your eyes open for potential new opportunities right around the corner. I can guarantee that they won’t be able to offer up enough to make everyone happy, but until I hear otherwise, I believe there’s still hope for some of you…
Comments: 1
Great article. I hate scalpers. Today, June 29, looks like resale badges are happening.