SDCC 2024 Returning Registration: Slow and Nerve-Wracking
by Transmute Jun
San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) badge sales are always stressful. The stress approaching the 2024 returning registration sale (held November 4, 2023) was extra high, given the technical problems experienced during the 2023 returning registration sale, which caused the waiting room to crash and the sale to be delayed. However, attendees were pleasantly surprised when the sale began on time, and everyone transferred over to the Queue-it waiting room.
It felt as if the sale was going more slowly than in past years, with Preview Night selling out at 9:30 am Pacific (30 minutes into the sale), although this was actually slightly faster than last year. Yet only a few minutes later, things began to slow down. The CCI Member ID site began crawling, and people who got in to purchase had to wait multiple minutes for screens to load. This was made worse by the 15 minute timer to complete a purchase, which kept ticking down even as the site slowed to a crawl. Then the worst news came in: people who had badges in their cart timed out before being able to finish the check-in process. Nerves were stretched thin, and stress was off the scale.
Fortunately, many of those whose carts timed out with badges in them received an email confirmation 10-15 minutes later, but those intervening minutes felt like hours to anxious attendees. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed by CCI for open registration (date yet to be announced, but likely later this year).
Given this slowdown, it’s surprising that the sale took about the same time as usual: approximately 90 minutes.
| 2024 Sellout | 2023 Sellout | |
| Preview Night | 30 minutes | 39 minutes |
| Saturday | 65 minutes | 71 minutes |
| Friday | 74 minutes | 81 minutes |
| Thursday | 88 minutes | 96 minutes |
| Sunday | 88 minutes | 95 minutes |
It is important to note that the stress and anxiety are worth it for fans, once they get their badges for SDCC. Those who were not eligible for returning registration, or who were unable to get badges during this sale, will be able to participate in open registration at a later date.
How did you do in returning registration? Join the conversation on the FoCC forums!
