You can officially answer the question: Am I going to San Diego Comic-Con next year?
For better or worse, several thousand Comic-Con attendees have their badges for 2018 — and several thousand more don’t yet.
Open Registration for San Diego Comic-Con 2018 — the badge sale for anyone, regardless of whether they attended SDCC in 2017 or not — took place this morning. The process included use of the EXPO Logic Registration Waiting Room, which has been in place since Comic-Con 2014, and it was, well, pretty smooth.
So just how did the sale go?
The Waiting Room
The EXPO Logic waiting room opened promptly at 8AM PT, giving attendees one hour in which to enter before the room would randomly sort attendees to buy their badge. The process has become pretty streamlined over the years — with folks having a good idea of what to expect, and issues kept at a minimum. If anything, the main issue was just passing the time and trying not to freak out.
However, as with anything of this size, there were a few errors and glitches. The Member ID system (which houses each person’s person Registration Code and the link to the EPIC Registration waiting room, for those who didn’t receive an e-mail for whatever reason) went down intermittently. A few individuals received various error messages as well, like being told that their devices weren’t authorized, being kicked out of the room, and more.
Let’s gooooooooo! pic.twitter.com/OiJibxhzM0
— captain chaos (@kidjim25) December 9, 2017
Is it just me or is the #SDCC site already crashing? Can't even finish logging in to retrieve my code for the waiting room. 🙁 @Comic_Con @SD_Comic_Con #sdcc18
— Allison McVeganpants (@HyperionTacos) December 9, 2017
We're having an issue where one of our group's codes is getting a big red "The Registration Code you entered was not found." error, not letting him into the waiting room. Member ID site is still down, so no luck seeing if it's different from the email.
— Mike Macauley (@mikemacauley) December 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/kelj1974/status/939529402315968512
The Sale
Shortly after 9AM, those in the waiting room were randomly assigned a placement in line. Just like for 2018 Returning Registration, this process took about 5-10 minutes, and once the sorting was done, attendees were already getting through to the purchase page, with no issues.
From here on out, it was a slow, steady march towards being sold out. Everything was just a little faster this year (64 minutes for 2018 compared to 72 minutes for 2017).
At 23 minutes into the process, Preview Night sold out. But after that, it was 14 minutes later before Saturday badges sold out at 37 minutes into the process. Friday followed shortly after, at 42 minutes.
Preview Night badges have sold out. All other badge types are still available! #OpenReg2018 #SDCC2018 #SDCC
— San Diego Comic-Con (@Comic_Con) December 9, 2017
Saturday badges have sold out. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday badges are still available. #OpenReg2018 #SDCC2018 #SDCC
— San Diego Comic-Con (@Comic_Con) December 9, 2017
Friday badges have sold out. Thursday and Sunday badges are still available. #OpenReg2018 #SDCC2018 #SDCC
— San Diego Comic-Con (@Comic_Con) December 9, 2017
There was another stretch of frenzied badge buying, followed by Thursday selling out 59 minutes into the process, and finally Sunday selling out at 64 minutes into the sale.
Thursday badges have sold out. Sunday badges are still available. #OpenReg2018 #SDCC2018 #SDCC
— San Diego Comic-Con (@Comic_Con) December 9, 2017
Comic-Con 2018 badges have sold out! We thank you all for your patronage and support! #OpenReg2018 #SDCC2018 #SDCC
— San Diego Comic-Con (@Comic_Con) December 9, 2017
Overview & Next Steps
The badge buying process has become very streamlined over the years, with minimal issues. For those who unfortunately didn’t walk away with a badge, it’s all down to luck and supply/demand, rather than skill or technical issues — which can be a very small comfort. If you did have issues, hopefully you took screenshots, and you can contact Comic-Con International by using the “Contact Us” feature in your Member ID.
If you weren’t able to score a badge today, the Returned Badge Sale (for refunded badges) hasn’t happened in several years, and likely won’t be happening again this year either. Which means, unfortunately, that you probably won’t be getting a badge. But remember, there’s tons to do around the convention even without a San Diego Comic-Con badge, and there’s also always next year. We know those aren’t going to soothe your broken heart, but you will live to fight another badge sale.
As we’ve been saying for years, it really is just that hard to get a badge in Open Registration, because there’s so many more people trying to get a badge than there are badges available. And the convention center isn’t the real issue — we estimate that only 6.11% of all attendees who tried today got a badge, which means you’d need to find space for another 93.89% people. You would basically need an entire city to fit everyone who wants to go.
You can also probably take some comfort in the knowledge that you don’t have to participate in the General Hotel Sale, which we anticipate will happen likely sometime in late April, though nothing official has been announced.
Badges will be mailed to U.S. shipping addresses in your Member ID. It’s a good idea to verify your address is correct ahead of the May 14 deadline. Those who enter an international shipping address, as always, will still pick-up on site.
Were you able to get what you wanted today? Let us know in the comments.
