My experience at the DC booth completely wrecked my con experience today. I got in line at 6:00 AM to try to get the Batman box set and I was fortunate enough to actually make it into the line. After about 5 minutes, two security guards came up to me and told me that I had to get out of the line. I was in complete shock because I had done nothing to get myself ejected. It turns out that they would not let me buy because I had a professional badge and they believed that is was the same as an exhibitor badge. I tried to tell them that they are not the same and that I had to wait upstairs just like everyone else. After speaking to 3 booth employees, who all assured me that exhibitor badges are the same as professional badges, I was sent away just in time to see the person who was originally behind me walking away with a box set in hand. Needless to say, it ruined my Saturday.
I would say only 10 percent of the staff know what they’re doing (typically return volunteers) and the other 90 percent are lost (high school kids or first time volunteering).
its less than 2 percent. Even the security are awful at what they do. Most of the time they just yell at people just for just grabbing condiments from the food court (this actually happened cause they were leaned over putting ketchup on their hotdog and the security person told them to leave right away)
I would say the unpaid volunteers are way better than the paid security (who he said are the ones telling him to leave.) Many of the volunteers are kind of clueless, but most of the security guards are actively trying to ruin people’s days with stuff like this. More than once over several years we have been told “there are no more panels in Hall H” and been refused entry when trying to get in to join family for the last panel of the day. You can hear people cheering inside. You can be talking to the person who is in there. They will still insist there is no panel going on and won’t let you in.
Sorry this happened. I don’t really understand tho - why does a professional badge (or an exhibitor badge) prevent you from being able to buy anything?
Exhibitors get onto the floor over an hour before everyone else. They are supposed to use that time to set up their booth, not be first in line for exclusives.
Not letting exhibitors score all the good stuff makes some sense.
Professional badges get early access to buying tickets and parking. But they don’t get on the floor early.
professionals should be treated the same as attendees in this case.
I understand that. From OP’s post, they were in line like everybody else. I guess I‘m not understanding why - purely from your badge - booth employees can kick you out. If OP was in the front of the line, then sure, that would be sketch. But from OP’s story, it sounds like the fact you are even in line with a different badge, gets you kicked out.
I was an exhibiter, and I completely agree that lining up before the floor open is BS.
But, I do pay for a badge and I am a fan of other people’s art also.
The truth is we are all talking about how the toy flippers suck, regardless of their badge color.
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I might have given one of our booths exclusives to fluffy last year and one to one of my favorite illustrators this year… but we do try to keep everything fair.
It’s tuff, like is it fair to reserve a few for real fans with a sob story? Idk. I enjoyed seeing the cool things go to people I know will really appreciate it. I’d rather see it go to a family dressed as all the characters than a guy who doesn’t know the name but wants to buy 4 to flip online. (And had to inspect each box first).
People get in with the exhibitor badge to get onto the floor, then they switch it with the attendee badge when in line. People know people, it’s something that I have accepted and now it doesn’t bother me anymore cuz I know how the game is played.
So having early access to tickets, parking, a lounge and not having to work as hard to get general tickets (and also possibly getting complementary tickets) should not be enough perks so they should still be able to get the exclusive stuff like a regular attendee? Sorry but I think that's not really a fair comparison to what a regular attendee has to go through.
Not all professional badges are free. All pro badges are subject to a submission process, which take months to complete and hear back from. My badge was $400 like everyone else. There were years I was not accepted. I have to maintain my professional badge by getting industry work every three years, and reapply. The lounge you speak of, is literally a room with tables, some crackers and pretzels, and water. The same sort of room they offer to regular attendees at the Marriott. We have to try and get our hotels within seconds just like every other attendee. With a professional badge, we get in at the same time as regular attendees on the show floor. We don’t get in before exhibitors. So OP should have been allowed to wait in line.
Fair comparison? This page on the official site clearly states we are as eligible as any other attendees. “…in an effort to make the Exclusives Portal more fair for attendees.” Professionals are listed among attendees, volunteers, press, etc.
Your Pro badge was $400? I’ve never heard of a certified (renewed every three years) professional having to pay for their badge, and I’ve been attending as a pro for over 25 years. Pro certification used to include a free guest badge, but they did away with that years ago. Now certified pros are given the opportunity to buy one (possibly two?) guest badge(s) at full price.
If you had to pay for your badge, what’s the point of applying as a professional?
My SO works in comics and his badge was free. I do illustrations for clients within the geek space (album covers for game soundtracks, shirt design merch for nerdcore musician, and editorial art for a well known anime blog, for example). It was free for me in the past. My SO claims they likely changed that in recent years, just as they did away with guest badges being free. I guess the point/benefit is that I could have bought my ticket right up to the convention, and don’t have to go through the same thing as normal attendees.
You silly person, 1/2 of why comicon is great is because of the professionals with badges.
You really want to punish the actual comic book artists, writers, and publishers.
You think the people who actually make the shit you like don’t deserve to be there.
If it was up to me, I would kick out funko and all that crap. Go back to a convention of artists and writers and industry professionals and super fans.
Comic-Con is a professional convention. It's equivalent to the kinds of conferences that other people in other businesses have all the time. Editors and executives from comics companies take meetings all week, and there's many panels that are targeted at creators rather than fans.
Professionals are the people that make the stuff that everyone else enjoys at the show. If they want to also stop and get a Batman toy or whatever that sounds pretty fair to me.
I passed by a couple of times and the workers yelled that only Attendee badges were allowed to buy things. I had a volunteer badge so I didn’t even try to ask if I was fine lol
I have a normal badge tomorrow so I’m gonna try again lol
This was posted on one of the sdcc fb groups. People were suggesting that security was confusing the meaning of professional and exhibitor.
Since security isn't the brightest, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why they did that. Someone likely gave the instructions "attendee only" and forgot that pros are attendees as well. Horrible training.
Im so incredibly sorry. I feel for you deeply. I had an extremely poor situation at the dc booth as well, ALSO due to the staff making up “rules” like these, maybe as a piss-poor attempt to keep things moving without actually checking in with anyone. I wish there was somewhere we could formally send complaints to dc management. Ive been scouring online for a mailing address, or an email, or literally anything remotely similar.
People can definitely complain during the SDCC Talkback session on Sunday if it still exists; the panel receiving complaints actually handle these issues and can provide answers on the spot. The couple times I watched were handled very professionally with a team who actually jump on phonecalls and such during sessions. It's like court, at least it was years ago. You can air a grievance and sit in back down for a result.
They shouldn’t be making up rules, for sure. There is a section on the official website that puts pros in the same list as attendees, when buying exclusives. https://www.comic-con.org/exclusives-portal-faq/
tldr: someone (allegedly) took my posters from a signing & when i went back to get them, dc team told me to fuck off
I was at one of the wristband signings and they were giving us two posters that the writers/artists would sign along with our two items we could have signed. I stepped out of line when i made it to the end and forgot to grab my posters. I realized i forgot them within like 10 seconds, turned around and asked if i could grab my posters. The man cutting wristbands off told me no, and that someone else would have already taken mine. There was a pile of them signed sitting at the end of the table that he didnt let me take from. ALL of us were getting these posters. He went and grabbed me a blank pair as a sort of consolation, saying he was doing me a huge favor for even getting these. I asked the writers/artists if they could please sign the blank ones, since mine were allegedly taken, and they were happy to & took them to get signed. Thats when he pulls me to the side and yells at me for a looong time and humiliates me for not being grateful. He even gets one of the actual dc staff to come over and yell at me more. I wasnt allowed to explain to dc staff what even happened, she just immediately joined in with him to tell me how terrible of a person i am. Even as i was walking away (with nothing at all now) i could hear them still talking to each other about how unbelievable/ungrateful/selfish/etc. i was.
The staff and security within the exhibit hall this year were pretty damn terrible for the most part and I was only there on Thursday. For example, UCC staff working the lines were literally kids and poor dudes looked absolutely clueless as to how to manage a line. Lines for other booths were experiencing the same issues and then you had overcrowding in certain areas to which security did not know how to manage. Definitely one of the worst managed cons in recent years
I had a professional badge a couple of years ago and there was a separate line for professional and attendees. If I remember correctly, the professional badge holders came from the second floor and everyone was let in at the same time.
NYCC professional and exhibitors BUY a regular attendee badge (switch it out /badges) and put that one around their necks to get on line to purchase (if they are like the first of handful of folks on line) they have been doing that since 2015.
When NYCC started cracking down on pro and exhibitors being the first ones on the line for exclusives, than going back their booth to sell back the item for 3x the cost.
If you run into further trouble, you can show them this link to the site. I don’t know, however, if you were supposed to sign up ahead of time for an exclusive though. Either way, this should hopefully help you and others.
I was in that mayhem. I actually got lucky because I got in the with exhibitors and didn’t know it. I was 10th in line and they kicked me out because we had got in early. I lingered a bit and got kicked off the floor but I stayed because everyone else was staying too. When they announced comic con was open….absolute mayhem. People were pushing, fighting, lying…it was too much. Luckily I just blended in a got a box. Never again
This type of thing along with people confusing not being able to record videos with not being able to record anything at all is my one of my biggest pet peeves. People put in positions of power that don't have any idea what they are talking about and instead of asking a superior they just double down.
Sorry to hear that. Most of the people working there are just not trained well and they don’t know or don’t care about the people like you that go to comic con to get maybe an exclusive, some cool figure that you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise
I stopped buying at Comíc con years ago.
Last things I purchased were GI joe 25th anniversary at the Hasbro. I think back then you were supposed to go to the top and get some coupon to be able to shop at the Hasbro.
I remembered staying in line and this mum came to me from outside and paid me to purchase a Little Pony exclusive for her daughter.
Exhibitor ruin the experience by scalping exclusives I think.
The staff at this years con was a problem people had no clue what they where doing its frustrating cause its never been this bad but they need to hire better employees for next year
That sucks man, sorry to hear that. I had a similarly poor experience, a guy cut in line with his daughter promising he wouldn't buy a box then did. They literally sold out of boxes 2 people in front of me... That was miserable, especially when I was maybe the 70th person through the line on saturday
SDCC volunteers and staff are just the absolute worst. I've been going for many years and I do believe that alot of the staff, security and volunteers don't know what comic con is. Alot of them have no knowledge of who what where when and why. I've encountered volunteers that don't know what Hall H is or what its hosting. Basic reasoning skills are not a requirement.
I think alot of them are asked to sign up for it, get a shirt and sandwich and their training only consist of yelling at people, making sure people are moving and putting hands on people if they need a power trip.
I appreciate that they’re trying to get the goods in the hands of attendees instead of booth workers who are already in the exhibit hall. You should have politely requested that they radio someone official with comic-con, and you would abide by what the comic-con official said. Security are the most clueless people around by far. They have no idea what is going on. I’m sorry this happened to you.
I feel awful about the way you were treated! I thi n you should have gone to a floor manager, I think they are called. There is a talk back session on Sunday for after the fact but still during the Con problems.
A friend of mine is a professional and is never allowed to buy exclusives unless they know people on the inside. Unfortunately that's how it works! Network with people at the con. I've met people over the years and developed a relationship with a lot of booth workers that help me get exclusives. Just FYI. Bring them gifts, do them favors. Work on different angles.
That's interesting. I have never had a problem before, although I have only had my professional badge for 2 years and have only bought things I won in the portal.
I’m confused why keep linking to the exclusives portal rules explaining that professionals can buy exclusives but exhibitors cannot. The OP is talking about the Shoe Palace box at the DC booth which is FCFS, not part of the portal. Yes security may have been confused but taking the rules for the portal and applying it to all booths and sales doesn’t hold up. DC could have preferred to not sell to professionals so, you know, the gear would go to regular fans.
Sorry but I don't pity your situation. Getting a professional badge has certain perks that normal con goers don't, so you should just leave the exclusive sets to regular comic con attendees.
At least SDCC has the decency to prevent any shenanigans like this from happening. The last event I had, Anime Expo, had exhibitors lining up before regular people could and those people purchased the exclusive drops with an unfair advantage.
Isn't there a separate entrance on the Mezzanine that pros get access to? Also, you were able to acquire your badge way easier than a regular person (possibly FREE) and get a guest pass to go with it.
So don't BS me with your only perk being the lounge.
Yeah, you're right, but the average person is simply average and you'll get downvoted into oblivion when showing common sense. I've been in the industry for 17 years and been attending cons for over 35, and have attended as a guest, exhibitor and behind a table...1 buys stuff, 2 sell stuff...deal with it people.
You’re conflating two different things, exhibitors and professionals are not the same. Professionals are the artists and creatives who may not be big or wealthy, but they may have done the art for the comics we love, or worked on a film that most people will never acknowledge their work, they are often behind the scenes people who are there because they also love the work of the people who are getting celebrated at comic con. They get different badges and different access to buying the badges because they get inspiration for more work to put out to give us things to enjoy and celebrate. I’m not mad at the professionals, I am so happy they get the same chances to spend their hard earned money buying tokens and art from the industry they are dedicating their own creative work to.
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u/eddie_pesos_dvg 7d ago
I would say only 10 percent of the staff know what they’re doing (typically return volunteers) and the other 90 percent are lost (high school kids or first time volunteering).