Comic-Con 4-day and single day badges went on sale this morning online at 8:00 am and by 9:30 am people on Twitter and FaceBook were reporting they were sold out.
Comic-Con asked potential attendees to register for member IDs last month so they could receive emails informing them of when online ticket sales would occur and with a link to the site. Emails went out on March 1 with links that would be active starting at 8:00am today. Four-day badges, as expected, sold out first by around 8:37am according to one friend who was in the "waiting room" for badges.
Looking at Twitter this morning there seemed to be an equal number of people elated to have gotten a badge and furious that they didn't. As the morning goes on the balance may tip to those unhappy at being shut out. Some reported that the exclusive link in the email did not work unless the URL was cut and pasted into the web browser.
At 8:13am Comic-Con did Tweet: "Depending on your e-mail configuration and browser, you might have to manually re-type the registration link to get it to work." They also promoted a helpful web video online yesterday to prepare people for what to do.
I tested my link and it worked fine but many reported a problem and that clicking on the link in their email did not take them to the Comic-Con site.
The Comic-Con website now states that badge sales are officially closed. The site states: "We will reopen the Member ID system soon -- stay tuned for announcements. By signing up for a Comic-Con Member ID, you will be eligible to participate in the sale of returned and refunded badges later this year. A Member ID is required to purchase a badge for Comic-Con."
And just before 10:00am Comic-Con's FaceBook page had this post: "Comic-Con 2012 badges are sold out. Although our site and EPIC's registration site was able to handle the load of customers wishing to purchase a badge, the conduit between the link in the email and the registration site was overwhelmed and service was intermittent for a short period of time. However, the link was not incorrect and was not dead, and once the volume of hits decreased it worked as planned. There will be a chance to purchase refunded and returned badges at a later date. Thank you!"
Comic-Con is July 12-15. WonderCon, which still has badges available and is Comic-Con's sister convention, is March 16-18, and will take place in Anaheim instead of its usual San Francisco setting.
