Let's talk about Conan tickets and Team Coco House

1 JULY 2019

Happy Comic-Con month! We're just two weeks and change away from Preview Night. I think (well, I know) that some attendees expected more blow-out announcements by now for year 50. And maybe we'll still get some. But what we do have guaranteed is Conan and Team Coco House, with those tickets coming up fast.

Conan Tickets
I don't know when they'll go on sale. I hope we'll get our email with the special attendee code before that happens, but it's still unlikely we'll get much advanced notice. Some people are expecting it this week; I think next week is more likely.

Team Coco House
We do know tickets for this are available next week. And yes, they're easier to get. This pop-up comedy club has food, podcasts, live comics, trivia games, swag and more at 401 G Street (walking distance of the Con.) Last year people raved about Team Coco House so don't dismiss this as plan B for people who can't get tickets to the tapings.

Scalpers
Last year people were selling - or at least advertising - Conan tickets for hundreds of dollars. Ignore these people. Most (all?) don't have tickets, for one thing. For another, turning free tickets into a cottage industry poisons the SDCC attendee culture, IMO, where we tend to help each other out in a spirit of generosity and equal trades. Paying these people is just encouraging more of them to come fill up the neighborhood like profit-motivated raccoons. Thirdly, Conan eats up a lot of time and yet the taping itself is over in a flash. There are many, many other activities around Comic-Con to fascinate you and absorb your time for free.

Other Activities
First-timers, I know you've seen a lot of focus on Conan. Please don't think it is the only offsite worth attending. If you don't get tickets, you'll be fine. Attendees just really love ConanCon; add to that a hard-to-get, unpredictably scheduled ticket offering, and all our obsessive boxes get checked. The SDCC programming should be announced this week (on a day by day basis) and you will see how much there is to do.

All that said, stay vigilant. These are the days when some of the best parties and events offer their tickets.

You can buy and sell ECCC badges on Lyte now

9 NOVEMBER 2018

If you've trafficked with Emerald City Comicon before, you know their badge system works a little differently than some other Cons; you can buy a bunch of badges without saying who they're for, but you haven't been able to resell those badges legitimately or turn them in for a refund.

And if you missed out on getting the ECCC badge you want (it happens), you have to lurk around StubHub and Craigslist and other places to buy a ticket, usually at inflated prices.

That's all changed now.

How It Works

Emerald City is working with Lyte to adjust some of their previous badge practices. Essentially you can both resell a badge you don't need and buy a badge you weren't able to get - no scalpers, ticket scams or mark-up in the mix.

• Let's say you really want a full ECCC badge but didn't get one. You can "reserve" one through Lyte for any badges that become available.
• Or maybe your friend bails on you or you get sick or some deadline rears its head - and you tragically can't go to Emerald City after all. Instead of eating the cost or trying to sell your ticket online, you can resell it to Lyte. 
• How much will you get if you resell? A "fair market offer." Decipher that as you will.

This should bring some hope to those of you who didn't get a full ECCC badge, and offer flexibility to those of you with unpredictable and demanding schedules. It also opens a different Comic-Con window to those of you who don't do well in tomorrow's SDCC Open Registration badge sale.

You can put your name on the Lyte badge reservation list here.

Please don't buy a fake SDCC badge

26 JUNE 2018

When you want a badge to San Diego Comic-Con, you naturally see yourself as a hunter. A badge is the skittish deer that may or may not come into your crosshairs during Open Registration. And if it doesn't, you may consider buying one from the many ads on Craiglist, StubHub, Offer Up and other sites.

Scalpers have always sold off SDCC badges, both real and fake, but this year it seems to be a cottage industry. So many ads for badges! Prices vary; and I have it on good authority that the sellers who can vouch for themselves and sell in person can command the highest $$$. I think there's a growing perception that you can buy your way into Comic-Con, as long as you have a reasonable social network and a healthy bank account.

In that scenario, it's still natural to feel like you're the hunter. Here's the thing, though, you're not. You're the deer and it's your head that could wind up mounted as a trophy in some scalper's metaphorical game room.

I'm not going to lie: I do know people who've bought badges to Comic-Con and did so successfully. I'm not going to pretend it never works. But I also know people who've been scammed and some of them have heartbreaking stories. (Like the couple that blew a small fortune on airfare/hotel only to arrive and be turned away or the high school kid who literally spent his entire savings on a badge that wasn't real.)

CCI has shared their usual warnings about international crime rings, VIP/guest/"my friend works in Hollywood" badges and fraudulent brokers who pretend to be a CCI affiliate. Don't fall for any of that. You will be taken for a ride. And no matter what scenario you stumble across, there are compelling reasons you're taking a risk.

• If it's a fake badge, you're out of luck (and your money.)

• If it's a real badge, but CCI managed to identify the seller and deactivate the badge, you're still out of luck/money.

• If someone asks you for ID in the convention center, you're screwed. I know everyone says this doesn't happen but several of my friends have been forced to prove their driver's license matched their badge.

• If you're working with a professional scalper, you're feeding a black market that's unfair to legitimate attendees. I know some of you think CCI has raised badge prices too often - but you only have to look at other Cons, where a single "experience" can cost more than an entire SDCC badge, to realize the cost is reasonable. CCI has made it clear they don't want SDCC to be restricted to the wealthy.

• If you get caught, you can get banned from Comic-Con.

I know some of you will send me haughty emails announcing your successful back alley/online badge transaction. Good for you. But I think people ought to know that there are risks involved - and that they can increase their odds of safely getting a badge for 2019 (50th anniversary!) by making friends in the online community and working with them in the badge sale.

And by that, I mean you can always email me about next year, read other blogs, join the Friends of Comic-Con forum and get yourself educated and connected. The summer of 2019 will be here before you know it - so don't blow your money on some half-assed badge fraud this year. It's not worth it.

Do you have any information about the Hall H fake wristbands?

26 JULY 2017

As you all know, it's believed that a group of people made or obtained fake Hall H wristbands and used them to gain access to panels - leaving legitimately wristbanded attendees shut out after waiting for 20 hours or more. CCI would understandably like to get to the bottom of this. If you saw, heard or know anything, please email me at sdccguide@gmail.com or contact CCI directly.

People who traditionally skip Hall H may consider this a trivial matter, but it's not. Many attendees invest considerable time and money traveling to SDCC specifically for Hall H. They were robbed.

We have a great community - hopefully we can come together and share what we know. Please ask your friends if they observed anything as well. Thanks.

It's Comic-Con Scam Season!

22 JUNE 2017

You know San Diego Comic-Con is almost here when talk turns to scammers, con artists and thieves. Capitalizing on the thirst for Con badges is an old tradition and a profitable one. The game has changed along with badge sales and pick-up methods, but what stays the same is this: people losing their money without setting foot inside Comic-Con.

CCI blogged about fake badges today, a post everyone should read. Here's the gist of it:

• Only badges procured through CCI are legit.
• Counterfeit badges can look very convincing. Apparently the international game is strong on this one.
• Badges sold on Ebay, StubHub or other "secondary markets" are voided.  
• CCI security does spot checks to make sure you have the ID to match your badge.

What I will add: scammers steal social media photos of badges with names on them - and if CCI sees those, they void the badge. People have been warned about this for a year now but they're still posting badges with their names showing.



Can you buy a badge from a scalper?

Yes but you shouldn't. I know I'll get my usual wave of irritated emails telling me scalped badges are fine and I don't know what I'm talking about, but there are some good reasons not to buy from a scalper:

1) You're encouraging a toxic pattern where more and more scalpers fill the badge sales*, getting a bigger share of available badges to sell at wildly marked-up prices - hurting attendees (like you) trying to get a badge.
2) Scalpers won't hesitate to screw you over just like they're trying to screw CCI. Your Rick Grimes badge could be fake.
3) If you do get checked for ID and can't produce the right one, you may eliminate your chances of going to SDCC ever again.
4) CCI is against it. They don't want badges being resold.
5) While getting a badge legitimately is difficult, you can increase your chances by getting active in the SDCC community and working with a group. And then you can reallocate that extra $1-2K on a swank room at the Marriott Marquis.
6) You can go to other Cons that are just as fun while you wait for the 2018 badge sale.



I'm a realist; I know that people are desperate to go to SDCC and if they can afford to drop a small fortune on a Preview Night badge, some nebulous code of honor isn't going to stop them. I also know plenty of scalpers are operating offline to avoid the CCI Black Ops Task Force.** So go ahead and continue sending me your smug emails about the great badge you just bought on Craigslist where you actually saw the confirmation email. You may indeed have bought a real badge and you'll probably have a great time at the Con. But I guarantee some of you are getting taken for a ride.



* CCI and other people say the high demand for badges makes it hard for scalpers to prevail. I say: do the math. Let's say 100 scalpers got picked last year in Open Reg 2016, getting 3 badges apiece. (I don't know the real number but I heard of quite a few people being approached by scalpers or doing business with them.) That gave them 300 opportunities in Returning Reg this year. Assuming at least 200 of those got into either RR or Open Reg, and got 3 badges apiece, now that's 600 spots they have for the next Returning Reg and 900 for the next and so on. You get the idea: even if it's a "small" number of scalpers, they're still taking badges away from rightful attendees for their own profit.

**not its real name

The SDCC Daily

7 JULY 2016

Busy day. What did we find out? Besides the obvious, Thursday panels.

And the SDCC keycards.

Well, you probably found out if you were going to the Wednesday Conan taping with Silicon Valley. There were questions, celebrations and complaints about this, so a few points.

• They prioritized SDCC attendees, which meant you had to use the promo code that was sent in the email. What email? The one you got if your Member ID profile opted in to receive emails from third-party sources. If you opted out of that, you didn't get an email with a promo code and you probably got wait-listed for every Conan taping. I thought everyone knew about this; I was wrong and I feel bad for not warning people.
• You can still do standby. If you do this, mention that you're officially waitlisted. You'll be prioritized over those who aren't. Have your waitlist email at the ready. If you're wearing some amazing cosplay, you may be seated near the front.
• That said, I think competition for standby will be a lot more intense this year. 
• So far we know that SV is Wednesday; Thursday is Weird Al and maybe a mystery guest?; Friday is Game of Thrones (and it will tape later than normal to accommodate their schedule) and Saturday is Suicide Squad. 

We also found out there's a new kind of villain in town; scammers who steal badge pictures and post them in fake online auctions. I know a few thousand of you happily shared your badge photo, sometimes with your name showing, online, so please learn from what happened to one guy: he was stripped of his pro status and had his badge cancelled by CCI - because a picture of it showed up in an Ebay action. Hopefully he can work this out with CCI. In the meantime, consider this living proof that fraudulent badge sales abound online. Whoever posted that auction (and they immediately created a new one with the name scribbled out) does not have a badge, but they may soon have an extra 2K in their pocket.


Titan announced their Torchwood book would launch at the Con.

Boom! showed their WWE covers, including one featuring Matias Bergara.

In addition to the Aliens reunion at the Con, Fox is letting you pre-order a special 30th anniversary version - and the Blu-ray comes with a Dark Horse art book and collectible cards.

Another Thursday night event: the Archer cast will do a live episode reading on a yacht. If you got tickets to this, I'm officially jealous. If you didn't get tickets, you can still get tickets for Rave of Thrones the same night. 


Gentle Giant rolled out a few SDCC exclusives.

So did Toys R Us.

Enter Schick's #Hydrorescue contest to hit up SDCC and meet Zachary Quinto.


ComiXology announced its Comic Book All Star trading cards which you can pick up at their booth.

Or you could pick up this Jared Leto-based Joker.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab announced their SDCC scents, available only at the CBLDF party:

• Disrespect for Authority: Gleaming black leather with blonde tobacco, copal and smoked vanilla.
• Sordid and Unpleasant Activities: White cedar and bourbon vetiver with poplar, smoked cumin, oak-barrel whiskey and a dribble of spiced rum absolute.
• Criminal Glamour: Black patchouli and leather, wet with styrax and black amber and smoothed by velvet oudh and black currant.

If I learned one thing today from the reaction to the Thursday programming, it's this: attendees are feverish for Mr. Robot. That was the panel I heard mentioned above all others. We'll see if people are just as excited for Syfy panels The Magicians and The Expanse; I'm guessing not quite as much.

Tomorrow we'll have Friday programming. We already know the afternoon is difficult, with iZombie, Orphan Black and Archer forcing you to make hard choices. And that's after giving up Hall H and seeing Game of Thrones at Conan. So many sacrifices!

The badge scam game has changed this year

23 JUNE 2016

It's that time of year when CCI reminds everyone not to buy fake SDCC badges - or to put it more bleakly, to surrender all hope of attending Comic-Con if they don't have a badge already.

But as you know, the RFID badges have changed the scam game a bit this year and that means people may be more willing to take a risk. Let's review.

Traditionally, scalpers either:

1) printed up a fake badge and sold it to you
2) stood in line, got their badge and sold it to you
3) realized you had never been to Comic-Con and sold you a bill of goods about picking up a badge under a certain name or some other scenario omitting the need for a photo ID



Now our flashy new RFID badges are flying around the country in generic white envelopes, changing the time-honored tradition of standing in line to get your badge. (At least for Americans. International attendees will pick theirs up in person still and show ID.) Scalpers know it and the smarter ones have lined up buyers through in-person efforts to avoid CCI's task force that monitors Ebay, StubHub, Craigslist and other sites. So can you buy a scalped badge - or sell one for that matter?


Answer: It's possible, and some people undoubtedly have, but overall it's risky and you shouldn't.

First of all, you have no way of verifying the badge is real. Confirmations can easily be faked. CCI says they're seeing "a huge increase" in international brokers selling counterfeit badges. And even if it is real, CCI can turn it off remotely, rendering it nothing more than a Walking Dead-themed souvenir. There's also the possibility of getting spot-checked by security and asked to prove its your badge (this has happened to people I know so it's not that rare.) CCI will block you from SDCC if they catch you in some kind of badge fraud.

If you're determined to go to SDCC, this probably hasn't persuaded you against buying a scalped badge. But you should really calculate the odds on pulling it off before you hand over your cash.

ECCC tickets are starting to appear for resale

7 MARCH 2016



Every day more appear on Craigslist: various ticket types for Emerald City Comicon. Not, of course, that I'm endorsing their resale, since that's officially against ECCC policy. But at the same time, yes, they're out there and you can probably find a 4-day badge without much trouble if you missed that part of the sale. Just pointing that out.

As of today, we're a month out from your favorite Seattle Comic Con.

Warning: CCI won't replace badges lost or not sent by your buyer

17 FEBRUARY 2016




CCI published one of their badge sale FAQs, which I recommend reading. However, it's slightly different this year because we're having our badges mailed to us. And that brings up a note of caution.

To make this very clear: whoever buys the badges, gets them mailed to their house. Let's say it works like this. Using Peter Parker's Member ID, Bruce Wayne gets into the system and buys badges for Selina Kyle, Pamela Ivey and Barbara Gordon. The women then pay him through Paypal.

Where does CCI send the badges? Wayne Manor. Which means Bruce needs to mail them out.

To drive home the trust inherent in this transaction, CCI issues this chilling advice: "If the buyer does not give you your badge, Comic-Con is unable to intervene on your behalf or send you a new badge. Make sure that you personally know and trust the people you are working with in a buying group."

Uh.... what? Usually RFID badges can be turned off and reissued pretty easily. In fact, why yes, CCI themselves made this claim last year: "And if the postman accidentally delivers your badge to another dimension, RFID technology allows us to turn off the missing badge and issue you a new one onsite."

So now that everyone's involved in these intensely complex buying groups with online strangers, we're told something else? I mean, things do get lost in the mail; if CCI is going to go the mailed-out badge route, and they're trying to save money by only shipping them to the buyer address, rather than the associated member ID address, they seem to be assigning all of the risk to us. And that seems a bit unfair, since most buying groups rise up out of social networks and forums, as opposed to the local office nerd circle.

At any rate, you'll need to step back and assess your chances in a new light now. Do you want to try to restrict your buying group to people you know IRL or do you want to better your odds with a bigger group - knowing that if a stranger buys your badge, they can withhold it, sell it, or just lose it through sheer incompetence, and you have lost your chance to go to San Diego Comic-Con? Hopefully it won't happen, since the badges CAN be turned off, thereby minimizing the motivation to sell them. But you'll still be staying home if it does.

I think most of us feel like we "know" each other through Facebook, Twitter and so on, but buying groups can include a lot of random people thrown in the mix. I'm guessing most of us will still go forward with our present arrangements. But there's no denying that Open Reg just got even more precarious, which is the last thing any of us wanted.

CCI addresses our scalper questions

12 NOVEMBER 2015


And our international ones too. Are we feeling more confident now?

Eh. Let's start with the international questions. If you're a nerd from a distant land, but you're in a buying group with American friends, you can have all your badges shipped to someone here in the States. Which begs the question: why were we told to update our Member ID addresses when obviously we can enter in any shipping address we please? Anyhow, that's the deal.

Onto the problem of scalpers. Okay, so CCI didn't reveal a high-tech master plan to defeat them once and for all. Instead they said the main problem with scams and scalpers is counterfeit badges - so that's why it's so crowded now on Preview Night! - and that this will eliminate that. No more counterfeit nerds taking the seat that should have been rightfully yours in Hall H.

They also said that the Member ID system and the "high level of demand" makes it hard for scalpers to obtain more than a couple of badges. My response: the Member ID system is ripe for exploitation as you can create all the fake profiles you want; while each scalper might only be able to obtain a few badges, that multiplied by thousands of scalpers is still a problem; the black market will thrive. But I'm sure their usual spy team will try to ferret those badges out and turn them off. Anyhow, I'm expecting an uglier Open Reg than usual.

Also worth noting - there is no "line" anymore during badge sales. (Remember the year when we all had numbers telling us where we stood? That was fun.) We're all randomly plucked out of the waiting room and put into groups and then randomly selected from those groups. Just writing this makes my stomach clench.

It's Thursday and the clock is ticking down the minutes to zero nerd hour. I hope you're ready. I'll post more Pre-reg advice later but I think you all know the drill by now.

CCI's advice on badge scammers

11 JUNE 2015



In their daily quest to make your Comic-Con a success, CCI's Toucan blog shared tips on not falling for scammers. I suggest reading the whole thing, even if you have a badge for 2015, as you could help save someone else from blowing a thousand dollars or getting blacklisted from the Con.

A few valuable highlights:

• CCI voids any badge they find being sold online. So even if you do strike a deal with some Craigslist person who has a real badge to sell, that badge could be voided after you spent your money.

• They're seeing a huge increase in fakes sold from international brokers. Insert tired Nigerian prince joke here, but this really is something that can fool people.

• They are monitoring the "secondary market." I feel like someone on CCI's staff  needs to make an animated series about this, where a character (not the Toucan bird) is a tough-minded operative with a black hat history who now uses his powers to find and punish online SDCC criminals.

A while ago I shared the mating calls of the Comic-Con scammer; you might want to read that too so you don't fall for any persuasive shenanigans. It's really easy to say "I would never be that dumb" - but desperation can lead people to take crazy risks.

The mating call of the Comic-Con scammer

9 MAY 2015



A lot of people who don't know any better think going to Comic-Con is like going to a stadium show; they can just show up in the vicinity and a sketchy-looking guy in sunglasses will be waving physical badges over his head and calling out to the crowd. And they believe that the digital equivalent of those people can be found on Craigslist.

It doesn't work like that, of course. Badges have names and days printed on them, and must be picked up with a photo ID. Sometimes guards stop you and ask to see your ID to make sure it matches the name on your badge. But there's no quick way to know this if you've never been to SDCC, so Craigslist keeps filling up with offers - and people keep answering them.

Here's a rogue's gallery of scammers and the lines they'll feed you.


I got a full Preview Night badge but now I can't go this year, so I have to sell my badge. '

Anyone can request a badge refund up until 15 June. And if they're so busy, overworked or out of town, why are they able to go retrieve the badge in person?

I just need your name and address and I can transfer the badge to you.

CCI doesn't transfer badges. Any badges bought will be waiting under the name of the person who bought them, and only a photo ID with that name will work.

I'll just give you the name it's under and you can say you're me.

See above. Photo ID is required.

As soon you pay, I'll mail out the badge.

No one gets an advance badge. Everyone has to pick them up on site. Anyone who pretends to already have a badge in their possession - and I've seen some laughable fakes already on Craigslist - is a vile liar.

I have 5 one-day badges, 3 two-day badges, 4 weekend badges, and 2 four-day badges.

No one refers to a "two-day badge" or "weekend badge." They're just trying to sound legit by presenting several options.

This isn't an attendee badge, it's a special industry all-access badge because my friend works in the industry. You just have to go to this special guest badge desk and pick it up.

You will see some true guest badge offers online, so this one is dicey. However, because it's so hard to disprove until you're actually there in the convention center lobby, being told that no, there is no badge waiting for your name, a lot of scammers tell this story. If you do find someone who seems to be the real deal, check him or her out as deeply as you can.

(And for a different kind of scam: those of you who are going the Airbnb route know not to make any wire transfers, right?)


If you are desperately seeking a badge to San Diego Comic-Con right now, my heart goes out to you - I understand how panicked you might feel as we get closer and closer. And let me be clear, it's not just neophytes who are looking to get a badge through dodgy means. I know a family who got badges for both parents and one child, while their 14 year old is out in the cold. They are frantic to get him even a Sunday badge. Given the badge sale logistics, it's very common to see families and groups of friends fractured in this way. (Including my best friend and I.)

There's no easy answer, and it's not surprising that someone might feel compelled to roll the dice and trust one of these Craigslist sellers. But more often than not, it just results in more heartbreak - so please, please, be careful. Don't do anything to jeopardize your chances at attending next year and use your common sense. Missing Comic-Con is definitely going to sting - but losing a thousand dollars and missing Comic-Con anyway will feel far, far worse.

And the advent of scammer season is upon us

26 FEBRUARY 2015

You know spring is almost here when Craigslist starts filling up with sketchy ads for overpriced SDCC badges and hotel rooms.

They're out in force already: those people offering single day or Preview Night badges for hundreds more than the official purchase price. They know there are a lot of people still reeling from their Open Registration failure and they're ready to move in for the kill like some kind of fraudulent funeral salesman.

They'll tell you usually that they'll give the badge to you at SDCC or they'll tell you what kind of fake ID to prepare (what name and address and birthdate) to match the Member ID that goes with the badge. Or they'll tell you they work for a studio, comic book retailer or other organization with guest badges to spare, and they can sell you one to be picked up at a special desk.

While a small percentage of these people are legit - legit in the sense that the overpriced badge will get you inside - most are straight up liars. This is the Nigerian prince's SDCC cousin. Don't let your Comic-Con emotions trump your good sense here; in most cases you will be flushing your money down the drain and making a disappointing situation much worse.

Of course, many of you don't give a rat's ass what kind of devil you have to deal with to get into SDCC - so here's what you need to know:

• You have to show your barcode confirmation and photo ID to get a badge. So if someone says they'll forward the email to you, or just gives you a name to use, they're preying on your first-timer's naivete.

• People offering badges on the street have mostly transferred their game online, but they do exist. This used to be more common when people got sick of Comic-Con midway through, or on Sunday, and were willing to sell their badges to strangers. Last year CCI required hanging onto your badge for Pre-reg (though some wily souls just photographed it) which presumably cut down on this.

• There's a certain amount of standing in line usually (not always) to get a badge. So if someone suggests they'll go to the convention center, wait around to get the badge then hand it over, they're either going to expect a nice profit margin for that or they're lying. Mostly likely they'll just doctor up a fake badge to give you.

• Security guards look at your badge to make sure you have access for the day and the name matches your gender presentation. Sometimes they'll pull you aside and ask for ID. Obviously this doesn't happen terribly often but it's happened to people I know.

• If you are desperate to get into San Diego Comic-Con, it's far better to strike up a deal with someone to share their badge. They'll go out to lunch or back to their hotel, and you'll use their badge to take a spin through the Exhibit Hall. Obviously this requires faith and trust, so either find someone you know or start building relationships now. If you work this out with a stranger, be prepared to make yourself vulnerable and accountable by sharing personal information.

• CCI despises badge deceit and considers it a ban-worthy offense if you're caught.

In the end, all I can say is please, please, please use your common sense and don't jeopardize your wallet or future ability to go to SDCC. It really isn't worth it. If you try a backdoor route into Comic-Con, you need to make very sure you're dealing with someone on the up and up. And for those of you who are about to send me nasty comments telling me how trustworthy and noble scalpers are - your very defensiveness is indicting.

Be careful.

Buyer beware: on badges and scalpers

6 JUNE 2014

 

Every year Craigslist (and Ebay to a lesser extent) lights up with Comic-Con badges for sale. This year I’ve seen more ads than ever, at least in the L.A. area. Most of the single day badges have been selling for $100-200 and the 4-days have been upwards of $600 or best offer.

There are always takers for these badges. I would caution everyone against trusting scalpers and Craigslist sellers - but since you probably won't listen to me, here’s what you should be aware of.

• First-timers, this is how getting your badge works: you go to the Town & Country Hotel or the convention center, show your photo ID and your printed confirmation barcode, and get handed your badge. So if a seller is telling you to just supply a certain name, or is telling you they can send the badge to you in advance, they’re lying.

• Almost always if you see someone on the street, hawking a badge like they’re outside a concert stadium, they’re trying to sell you a fake badge. This is true, at least, in the first days of the Con; sometimes on Saturday and often on Sunday, normal attendees really will sell off their badges. (At least they used to – now that we allegedly need a code off the badges for pre-reg, that probably won’t happen. Though some people will undoubtedly just snap a picture of the badge.) But for those first few days, no one waits in line to get their badge, then tries to sell it on the street. They’ll line up a seller online who has time to get $$$ in cash to hand over.

• If you do procure a badge that doesn’t have your name on it, know that security guards will sometimes just glance at your badge as you pass into the Exhibit Hall and other times, will pull you aside to show a photo ID. How often does this happen? You’re talking about 130,000 people so probably not that often – but it happened to a first-timer I went with last year. She was pulled aside for no reason and forced to show her driver’s license.

• If you’re calculating the odds of someone scamming you for just a few hundred dollars, you need to juxtapose that with the odds of someone waiting in a long tedious line to pick up a legit badge for just a few hundred dollars. Time is money, and few people are going to rise at 2 a.m., go wait in line in the damp San Diego night, get a one-day badge and hand it off to you that morning for $150. That’s barely minimum wage. What’s much easier: printing off a convincing-looking facsimile of a badge that fools you (but probably won’t pass muster at the doors of the convention center.)

• Yes, there are legit scalpers. They come in two classes. There are people who buy badges just to sell them at a profit. Usually it’s only worth it for them if they got a Preview Night/Thursday badge, so they can avoid the long pick-up lines. And there are retail/industry people who get extra unassigned badges which they will sell off on Craigslist – usually not until right before the Con, when they know for sure none of their friends can use them. L.A. is rife with this.

• If you want to just see one panel, or take a spin through the Exhibit Hall one time, you can make an arrangement to “borrow” a badge for a few hours. A lot of people are glad to do this while they go eat or head back to their hotels. There just has to be a level of trust that you’ll return the badge, which is why this usually works between friends.

• CCI takes a hard line on any kind of badge shenanigans, which means that if you’re caught on either end of an underground badge transaction, you’re banned from the Con.

Every year I hear from people who get burned trying to score from a scalper and people who were successful – but the first group vastly outnumbers the second. So caveat emptor. I know you really want to get into the Con. But everyone else knows it too, and some of them make a business out of it.

Badges, scalpers and desperation

15 JULY 2013

We're just a day away from the Con. Which means some people are going berzerk trying to get their mitts on a badge.

I have said many times on here that scalpers are not to be trusted - this isn't a concert you're trying to get into, it's a system where you need to show Photo ID and a special barcode, stand in line, etc. People have been caught and prosecuted for selling fake Comic Con badges. It's not like they're hard to make. 

But I know that hardly anyone listens to me on this subject, so if you're considering desperate measures to get a badge, here's what you should know.

• First, yes, it IS possible to get a legit badge through a scalper. The scalper will have to wait in line, pick up the badge and sell it to you outside. You will have to provide a nice profit margin. You'll also have to take it on the faith that they really got a legit badge and didn't just doctor up a convincing facsimile.

• Some retail/industry people get extra unassigned badges which they will sell off on Craigslist. Again, you're taking this on faith. I have known people who've gotten badges this way, but I've known more who've gotten burned.

• Another option, if you have friends going to the Con; tag along, then swap one badge back and forth. I've seen plenty of people do this. It just means that you and your friend have to be willing to sit out parts of the Con.

• People used to sell off their badges a lot on Sunday - but this year, since you need to hang onto it physically for pre-registration, I don't see this happening as much.

• With all that said, Comic Con hates any kind of badge shenanigans, and tries to do what they can to eliminate it. That includes having security guards do random checkpoints, where they ask for a photo ID and match it to your badge. How often does this happen? Obviously not that often in a crowd of 125,000 or it would cause massive bottlenecks. 

If you're desperate to make it into the convention center this week, do what you can. But use common sense - because everyone is trying to get a badge this week and evil people know it.

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