To say that ReedPOP’s New York Comic Con (NYCC) has had a
bumpy start this year is an understatement.
Still months before the convention has started there has been a cloud
hanging over the Javitz Center. This
year’s ticket sales were plagued with scalpers, time outs and a general state
of misinformation; not to mention what appeared to be hackers, but that was
neither confirmed nor denied. And then
there was how ReedPOP handled the whole issue: polite aversion. ReedPOP’s Lance Fensterman did offer an
apology after both ticketing issues happened, but they never addressed what
truly happened. The ticket system was
exploited heavily. Where ReedPOP
promised that fans could only buy six tickets at a time, VIP and 4-Day passes
were gone within moments of the noon EST opening. On my window, it offered me the chance to buy
up to twenty tickets. The thing is that
ReedPOP says that a very small portion of tickets were actually claimed by
scalpers, about 3% of the tickets, but it seems that the constant stream of
tickets on EBay and Craig’s List would prove otherwise. At one point, a single seller had over twenty
lots of tickets selling at $1000 a pass; that is ten times the original selling
amount. There is evidently a flaw in the
system. However, ReedPOP is not the only
one to blame.
In many
ways, I cannot fault ReedPOP. They are a
convention that is expanding faster than they know what to do with. While they are experts in conventions and
festivals, NYCC has grown in leaps and bounds in a very short time. It even feels that the Javitz Center might
have to find ways to expand to hold the convention very soon. Despite the growing pains, last year’s NYCC
ran rather smoothly all things considered.
Last
week, thousands of NYCC fans waited on lines across Manhattan to get a second
chance at the tickets they want. In some
places, they found that they were not selling the passes originally advertised
or the tickets had been pre-ordered.
Fans immediately took to Facebook groups to complain about the
villainous ReedPOP and the conspiracy.
They also took to the internet to do something else: buy tickets at jacked up prices and feed the
scalpers they hated so much. Now usually
I am with the fans and try to keep big business in check, but this is not their
fault. ReedPOP’s job is over and done,
these are the smaller companies now.
The
biggest thing people have not realized is tickets are limited. With conventions “mainstreaming” and drawing
in fans that are no longer part of geekdom, tickets are becoming a rare
commodity. There has been a real “my
right” thing going on. Fans are
complaining that they have “always gotten tickets” and have been going since
NYCC was a little convention. So why do
you deserve a ticket more than someone else?
This is my second year going to NYCC, how is your want to go stronger
than mine? Honestly, it isn’t.
Nobody has a right to anything, but
this idea of demand is what is killing NYCC.
Supply and demand is the basic principle that scalpers work on. They see a very limited supply and an
overwhelming demand. Now added to the
extremely low price that ReedPOP offers NYCC tickets at ($95 for a 4day pass),
scalpers see a huge market. However, the
scalpers would not have any business if people did not buy the tickets. The willingness to pay a certain amount is
the BIGGEST factor in these scalped tickets paying. Their markups are also not based off fairy
tales and myths either; these are actual numbers that people are buying them
at. That is right; you have to blame
your fellow convention goers for buying tickets at such extreme price mark
ups.
Judging by the mass ticket
scalping, it is very evident that fans are willing to pay. And apparently, they are willing to pay a
lot. So what can be done to fix the
problem? Well simply put, NYCC could
adopt a similar system to San Diego Comic Con International (SDCC). Convention goers of SDCC have to create a
unique member ID even before they buy tickets, based on their license and email
address. Each of these unique ID’s has
to be verified and can only have one ticket.
While one person can buy several tickets, each ticket must be attached
to a unique member. It is a lot of
trouble, but not only does it insure a lack of scalping but also an extra
security protocol. No anonymity there.
A few months earlier, I had
suggested something similar in several NYCC Facebook groups. I suggested that each ticket had to have an
ID attached to it when they were purchased.
It was simple; every ticket had to have a unique ID. My idea was met with attack. Convention goers felt like that was too NSA
for them. They also seemed to want the
chance to go sell their tickets if they could not make it at the last
moment. Hmmm, yeah last minute
alright. Which is funny because now that
the tickets are all sold out, people are suddenly “unable to attend” in many
Facebook groups.
Recently, a Change.org petition
went out for ReedPOP to change the way they sell tickets. Perhaps it is for the good, but fans also
need to realize that they are aiding the issue.
Buying scalped tickets will just keep the scalpers selling them. Without the demand, they cannot sell. Just saying, this is simple business
here. ReedPOP does need to change many
of its policies over the next year. They
need to make their fans know that they are listening. The bad PR will begin to cause fans to go to
other conventions and leave ReedPOP with a bad name.
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