Badges went on sale this morning at 8 AM for this year's Comic-Con International and sold out within, by some reports, 90 minutes. However long it took, they sold out…though more will become available later when there are returns and refunds.
From what I gather on the 'net, those who secured badges thought the process worked like a dream. Those who didn't thought it sucked and was unfair and faulty. It may be small comfort for those in the latter group but there's a certain numeric reality here which must be understood. The convention can only accommodate about 120,000-140,000 people each year. At least 300,000 (maybe a lot more than that) want to attend. Even if you had Buckminster Fuller assisting you, you couldn't design a system that wouldn't turn hundreds of thousands of frustrated con-goers away.
I would suggest to my friends on the convention committee that they do need to make badges available sooner next time. There are folks who for reasons of finance or life-planning needed to book their vacation time or their airfare and hotels for San Diego before they had the chance to secure badges. Some are now stuck with plane tickets and non-refundable hotel fees…but no admittance to the con. That needs to not happen.
Please, folks: Do not waste your time or mine writing to me to ask if I can pull strings and arrange for you to purchase tickets. I do not have that power and have never had that power. But I do already have a lot of e-mails from folks who think/pray I do.
If you didn't get in and want to, I suggest you keep a watchful eye on the con website for more opportunities. There will be some…though when and how many, I have no idea. If you know any dealers or exhibitors who'll have displays at the convention, you might try chatting with them.
One thing to avoid: There will be tickets for sale on eBay, allegedly from folks who bought and now cannot use them. Do not fall for that. Some of them are just plain counterfeit and the con does a good job of catching those and blocking admittance. And if the passes are legit, they're also non-transferrable and the con also catches most of those. People who buy badges and then cannot use them can secure full refunds and then those badges are sold via official convention channels.
To those of you who did score badges: Congrats. You're going to have a great time.