Buried in all the hoopla over Returning Registration was CCI's tantalizing suggestion that Open Registration - otherwise known as the Nerd Rites of Spring - will be more like the rites of early winter this year. If CCI stays on track, they say - and to give them credit, they do seem to be on top of their game lately - we might get an email in late November or early December about an Open Reg sale before the end of the year.
We also might not. But for now, let's assume they pull this off. How do we feel about it?
A few ways your thoughts might go:
- For nerds on a budget, it's a tough time of year financially. Whether you're trying to pay for airfare for a trip home, throwing a lavish holiday party or putting gifts under the tree, December is already a spendy month.
- On the other hand, if you manage to somehow secretly create a Member ID for your best friend/soulmate AND get them a badge - what an incredible Christmas present. Maybe since CCI created those snazzy boxes and pins last summer, we'll get a special Christmas certificate option? With little Professor Toucan in a Santa hat?
- Of course, if you wash out in both sales, you'll be extra grinchy over the holidays...
- ...But you'll have time to stoically accept your fate and find an alternative Con. Which is better than deluding yourself straight up through June that you'll get a badge from someone who knows someone whose cousin works for Dark Horse.
- And if you do get a badge, you'll have more time to land a non-sketchy Airbnb or find roommates for that expensive non-discounted downtown room.
- Finally - cynically - with so many people associating Open Reg with spring, maybe this will slightly reduce the number of combatants? I can't imagine anything ruining your New Year's like someone telling you SDCC Open Reg already happened and you missed it, so I guess I'd feel bad if that happened ... but not really.
Regardless of whether you dread or welcome the thought of a December badge sale, one thing is certain: any friends who want to go to SDCC with you next summer need to create their Member ID profile now. We know CCI shuts all that down before the badge sale - and with this new over-achieving phase that they're in, who knows how fast they'll move in the next six weeks.
In other words, we all need to get our friends and finances organized now. This may be the first year ever there were 4 San Diego Comic-Con badge sales. Be ready to say you triumphed twice at this historic event.
Should open registration be in two months, I'm glad yet ambivalent. I've been dumped into open reg for the past three years, and have come up empty. At first, I wasn't too thrilled since I've been going to CC when badges were handwritten! I assumed, wrongly, that old-timers like me would have at least first preferences.
ReplyDeleteBoy was I wrong! So now I've come to the point I can take it or leave it. I'd be kool if I did get a pass; but I'd be kool, too, if I didn't get one. It all comes to perspective and how you see yourself in the grand scheme of things.
At this point in my life, CC is for the young and those die hards. I grew up in the 70s and remember a time when the best thing was to head outside and play until the street lamps came on and your mother screamed out your name to eat dinner.
I don't need another Funko, poster, autograph, or the latest game hogging up the walls in my house. I don't want to stand in line for hours on end or try to find a decent place to sit in the shade---which are few and far between.
The child in me would love to go to CC next year. But the other child would rather play outside, watch Gilligan's Island on LA channel 11, and trek to 7-11 for a slurpee and a handful of penny candy.
So we shall what's in store for me during open reg.
You remember when badges were handwritten?? Did you use a quill pen?
DeleteKidding. Seriously, that must have been a long time ago. You should still go. Join a buying group and you'll probably get something. And you can get a slurpee at the Con.
I love youre point that there will be 4 SDCC badge sales this year! Amazing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAmazing is one word for it! I'm kind of liking it, actually.
DeleteI honestly never know what CCI will do next. I suppose that's part of their charm.