Badges for the 2013 Comic-Con International in San Diego will go on sale to the general public at 9 AM Pacific Time on Saturday, February 16. They will sell out quickly…and by "quickly," I mean by like 9:10 or 9:15 or somewhere around there. There may be more available later but if you wanna go, take a stab at it that morning. It is vital that you read this page well in advance of that time and that you have a Member I.D. number.
The system is not ideal. Given that the hall holds something like 130,000 people and there are well more than half a million who'd buy badges if they could, no system is going to be ideal. No system is going to allow everyone who wants to attend to attend. If you have a better idea how things should operate, don't tell me. Send it to the convention committee. Contrary to the belief of some, I don't have anything to do with the running of that convention. I just run a lot of panels at it.
In the meantime, we're looking ahead at this year's WonderCon, which will be held in Anaheim at the end of March. WonderCon is presented by the same folks who bring us Comic-Con International and some would say it's a scaled-down version of the larger event, about a third of the size. A third is still pretty big and there's still more than enough to see and do at WonderCon. No one gets to experience 100% of Comic-Con anyway. You're lucky if you experience a third of that monster. Anyway, badges for WonderCon are available right this minute if you go here. You can have a splendid time at either event…or both.