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San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Open Registration Recap: ‘Tis the (Con) Season

Did your holidays (and next July) just get a bit more holly and jolly?

For the vast majority of potential San Diego Comic-Con 2024 attendees, today you either walked away with badges to the biggest North American pop culture convention and a smile on your face… or you got left with some coal in your stocking and dashed hopes.

Open Registration for San Diego Comic-Con 2024 occurred today, on Saturday, November 18. While Returning Registration (which took place earlier this month on Saturday, November 4) had a few glitches and issues, the second badge sale seemed like relatively smooth sailing.

 

THE WAITING ROOM

As of last year, Comic-Con has shifted over to Configio for the badge sales, instead of Expo Logic, though both are Community Brands products. Instead of logging in directly to a waiting room, attendees were directed to the Member ID portal to enter a QueueIt waiting room.

A few minutes prior to 8am, the waiting room opened early, and attendees were able to enter the QueueIt waiting room. With this new system, you don’t login until you’re selected to purchase a badge, so you’re taken directly to the waiting room.

You only needed to enter the waiting room prior to 9am. No matter what time you entered the waiting room, from there, it was just a waiting game.

THE SALE 

Once the clock hit 9am users pages were automatically refreshed and those in the waiting room were randomly assigned places “in line” and given both an estimated time as well as the “Little Green Walking Guy”, the QueueIt harbringer of fate. This process was mostly instantaneous with no hiccups.

Most users reported initial wait times of “more than an hour”, but those quickly started to lower.

 

But the system was lucky for some as after a few minutes we began to see reports of badges being purchased almost immediately.

 

From there, it was a steady, but a little slow, plod towards selling out.

At 9:28am, Preview Night was officially sold out. This is faster than Open Registration for last year, which sold out in 32 minutes. It’s also less than Returning Registration for 2024, which took 41 minutes earlier this month.

 

Next, Saturday badges sold out in 42 minutes (just under 2023 which sold out in 44 minutes, and less than Returning Registration in 66 minutes) and Friday following at 52 minutes (compared to last year’s 53 minutes and Returning Registration’s 73 minutes).

 

Traditionally, Thursday and Sunday sell out at roughly the same time, and that was still true this year. Thursday sold out in 73 minutes (compared to 75 minutes for 2023 and 89 minutes in Returning Registration this year). Sunday sold out just a moment later at 74 (compared to 76 minutes in last year’s Open Registration, and 89 minutes in this year’s Returning Registration).

COMMON ISSUES & GLITCHES

Compared to Returning Registration, this sale seemed to run considerably smoother — but certainly not without a few hiccups. Some reported Comic-Con’s system not recognizing their information, even though correct:

Some weren’t even able to add either themselves or friends to their order. It’s of course possible these could be user error or someone being in another cart, or even not having their last name correct now that this new system combines suffixes. But it’s also possible that these were legitimate errors/glitches:

Others reported issues with mobile devices:

 

OVERVIEW & NEXT STEPS 

Compared to Returning Registration, Open Registration was a swift sale with relatively few hiccups and errors.

One of the most common complaints we’ve seen about both this sale and Returning Registration is that the process to add a Preview Night badge is a little confusing, as it’s not on the initial screen you’re sent to. Instead, once you add Thursday-Sunday badges, it will take you to a new screen to add it (because it’s only available as an add-on if you have all badge days) — or alternatively if you had purchased Thursday-Sunday in Returning Registration and only needed to add on Preview Night you had to click on a specific tab. This isn’t the most intuitive system and could certainly be made clearer.

Certainly the largest problem was (and always is) that everyone who participates simply cannot be accommodated. The convention center has a maximum capacity and the San Diego Fire Marshals are not about to look the other way. 

Compared to other years though, it certainly “felt” like more people were able to get a badge than normal. According to our very unscientific Twitter poll, only 24% of our readers reported walking away with nothing at all. For our money, it feels like demand may be a bit less this year (potentially due to factors like the economy and possibly even the newly-ended strikes as there’s still questions over what will be ready to show off even by next July now).

If you were ultimately unsuccessful and are currently empty handed in the badge department, don’t give up all hope. If you signed up for the Volunteer Interest List, registration is still open. Comic-Con has also auctioned off badges closer to the convention date in support of the Comic-Con Museum, though these will be above retail price. The Comic-Con Museum also has a “Legend” Membership tier, which includes a four-day plus Preview Night badge… but it’s $1900.

And though 2023 didn’t see many of them, historically there are also several contests, so keep your eyes peeled. 

So, you might be doing the “Snoopy happy dance” right now, or you might be doing the “Sad Charlie Brown walk”. Comic-Con Registration never fails to run the gamut of emotions.

Were you able to get what you wanted today? Let us know in the comments.

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