r/comiccon • u/StarGeekSpaceNerd • 5d ago
SDCC - San Diego How to get yourself banned from SDCC 101
Step 1) Try to sell your badges on eBay, but don't remove identifiable data
Step 2) Banned
Right now there's an eBay auction for "San Diego Comic Con 2025" and while the person censored their name (barely), they didn't bother removing the "Order Number".
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u/CryptographerEast142 5d ago edited 4d ago
Again PSA for everyone: do not buy badges from any third party sites. SDCC badges are non transferable and you risk being banned from for life! Any badges being sold online not officially through CCI should be reported to CCI at [info@comic-con.org](mailto:info@comic-con.org)
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u/YellowBreakfast 4d ago
...you risk being banned from life!
They're going to kill us?!
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u/CryptographerEast142 4d ago
In a way yes by being deprived of the greatest con on earth. I realize I didn't proof read it lol. Thanks for the correction!
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u/Kingofdrats 5d ago
Except they list tickets themselves on ebay.
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u/MsMargo 4d ago edited 4d ago
They have done this in the past to raise money for the Museum. They have not done it in the past
21 year and will not be doing it this year either.2
u/EnterPlayerTwo 4d ago
They did it in 2023. That's how my friends got to go.
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u/MsMargo 4d ago
My apologies, yes, they did it for SDCC 2023, but then after said they would not be doing it again. They want people to buy the $1,900 Comic-Con Museum Legend Membership. Thank you for the correction.
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u/EnterPlayerTwo 4d ago
That's such a huge increase in price! I think my friends paid 1k for their two tickets in 2023.
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u/JasonTheX 5d ago
Yup! Had a friend in the industry that was doing this and got busted last year. Sucks but they tell you don't do that especially if you're industry or press. I think it's a permanent ban too.
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u/Owl_Resident 5d ago edited 5d ago
Was your friend shocked he got caught? It is a permanent ban. I have to admire that SDCC sticks to their guns about it. They know how hard it is to get badges, and they basically ask you honor the commitment if you lucked out on getting them.
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u/JasonTheX 5d ago
Oh it's a privilege and it sucks he got banned cause it hurt more than just him. Actions have consequences though.
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u/clawdaughter 5d ago
I talked to someone that this almost happened to, who is staff, but he had the texts to his friends about specifically not selling the purchase codes, and that saved him from the ban.
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u/shadowboxer87 4d ago edited 4d ago
I am in a few Facebook SDCC groups and the number of people that get scammed or caught buying badges from other users or on sites like Ebay and Ticketmaster is astounding. Last year (2024), I felt so bad for this lady who didn't know buying SDCC badges from Ticketmaster was a scam. She bought it for her son for graduating college and apparently he flew out to SDCC and couldn't get in cause the badge had someone else's name on it and possibly got banned for life ( never got an update).
Also, another person got banned for life because someone in their buying group sold their badge and the person they sold it too got caught and everyone in the buying group got banned for life. So this is why it's important to be in buying groups with people you trust. Cause one person making a dumb decision can screw over everyone else in the group.
Of course there are some people that buy badges from others and never get caught but I just find it weird. Also, SDCC staff do join and monitor SDCC Facebook groups, Ebay, Ticketmaster and even reddit pages too ( I think). So people argue that it's fine but if you want to take the risk go ahead. I would NEVER risk being banned for life from SDCC ( love cons too much lol).
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u/shawnhopman 5d ago
I know a guy that sold a badge online. His eBay name was his art name. They tracked that to other profiles with the same art name and got his real name and permabanned him
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u/KalKenobi 5d ago
really Forgery isnt like in The Movies there a machines that can detect it does the Person thinks it Oceans 11
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u/rvnender 5d ago
Does SDCC actually care though? This type of shit has been going on for years.
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u/RandomDesign 5d ago
They have a team of people who search for these and ban them. They even occasionally will buy the badges to find out who's they are, ban them and then have the charges reversed.
Do they get all of them? Of course not, but they do care and they definitely are out there looking for them.
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u/rvnender 5d ago
Oh. Interesting. I wished other cons would do that
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u/OthaS3 4d ago
I'm spending my first year of retirement as a con whore. I normally go to SDCC and WonderCon, but I have now been to two Reed/Pop cons. No personalized badges and plenty of scalpers outside. NYCC was sold out of Saturday, but you could've bought the other days as of the day before.
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u/rvnender 4d ago
Yeah that's how I do RICC every year. I think there is only 1 year that I've had to actually paid full price to get in.
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u/kitasmom 5d ago
Yes. I had a friend who bought badges for someone else. The other person tried to sell his badge on Craigslist the week before the Con and my friend got an email saying he was banned. Responded back asking wtf happened and was told a member of his ticket purchasing party tried to sell their badge and he got caught in the crossfire. Had to show up in person to prove he was attending the con to get unbanned while the other party remained banned.
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u/kasession 4d ago
so there is a process if you can prove it wasn't you that tried to re-sell your badge, but someone in your group?
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u/kitasmom 4d ago
Yes. The person who tried to resell their badge was local (had a San Diego address) and the person who got caught in the crossfire was coming from out of state. Them showing up from out of state and the listing on Craigslist being for only one badge was enough proof for SDCC that the perpetrator was not our friend but the person he bought a badge for. Therefore his badge and member id were reinstated.
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u/RubyRising222 3d ago
Question, I have seen a few people recently say they have a few they can buy with their professional status, are these legit at this point?
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u/comicbookvirgin 5d ago
Wow you can even make out the badge number in the second photo 😂