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Piggybacking on the questions of groups, I assume most groups have accommodations for buying for pairs or even triplets of members? For example, a married couple who wouldn't go to SDCC without the other, so they either both get a badge or neither do.
Interesting. Thank you for your insight. Based on what you’ve said it seems that the group leader’s methodology could have a real impact on the success of all group members getting tickets. And I believe I have seen groups allude to the newest members being placed on “the bottom” - i.e. have their tickets purchased last.
[member=8964]dcole[/member] As a long time buying group member, you have a good observation and a fair thought. I will say human nature is one where you buy (read) from the top down on any written document so there is a tendency in a random natural organic way to buy that way. So I would say being at the physical bottom of a list may put you in a random lower buying order than being at the very top. Additionally, undoubtedly if there is no specific predetermine order, that if you had 2 spots available and a list of people to buy for is it only natural human nature to buy for people you know better or are friends with or know they have a history of paying you back sooner than later. Of course. That again I believe is just natural human behavior. Having understood and potentially accepting all that, a buying group is still by far the best way to go. Especially with the good people here on FoCC. In my experience they have the most integrity and are more likely the type of people that actually would consciously purposely buck the trend of going top to bottom or buying for friends first and buy for the person on the bottom of the list and buy for randoms just as much as someone they may know. Most importantly you may have that year where you get completely shut out and are beyond thankful and indebted to your group for being able to grab you even a single day! (ie Me this year!) #loveBG1
Sub-question regarding groups:has anyone done the math to determine if/when a group is TOO big? Like, is there a point where there are too many people?*** NOTE ***I suck at math so if this is implausible feel free to tell me and mock my lack of mathiness
Popping in to say how much I have been enjoying this discussion! Opening myself to trusting FoCC members has markedly increased my enjoyment of the con. All Hail the FoCC in all its forms and frolics! ;D
I agree.. I will attempt to join a ticket buying group next year if they open up and if any groups excepts me.Thank You.
This was year three in a badge-buying group. I joined the badge-buying group after joining the group for Hall H line the previous SDCCI. At that point, I had gotten to know a good number of folks in the group, and felt comfortable trusting them. I too have general trust issues with strangers, but after getting to know people I realized everyone in the group is generally similar to me: good-hearted, easy-going, fun to hang out with, and incredibly nice/helpful. I witnessed that first year how everyone selflessly seemed to help everyone else with exclusives, saving seats, getting food for folks in line, etc. I realized that I went from waiting in line roughly 36 hours for Sat. Hall H to roughly 3 or 4 in a group, and it couldn't have worked out better (all three years so far in the group have been aces)!So I decided to join the badge-buying group, even though I felt OK with five folks in my family/close friends to buy with codes. I figured the odds were improved with more people helping out. Holy cow, have I seen that concept work out splendidly!Our group uses a messaging app during the sales to communicate in real-time: there were probably several folks physically taking via the voice option, but I didn't partake in that (I was at a HS band rehearsal). There's a good spreadsheet that we all must sign in before 9 or else no one buys a badge for you. As people are selected, the buyer immediately logs whom they're buying a badge for (there's an "in progress" signal that shows which group member is getting a badge purchased for them live), then when the process of buying the badge is complete the buyer logs whom they bought badges for. It's obviously the 'honor system' when it comes to paying up, but I don't think there've been any problems. If someone screws someone over, the badge is canceled, the person is kicked out of the group (it's a FOCC group so I assume they'd be black-listed from all groups here) and probably shunned pretty hard-corps. There are relatively a lot of group members so I suspect the black-listing would run deep.For me personally, I had multiple screens open as well as the spread sheet, so I saw my blue spinning wheel on Epic's waiting room page as well as the constant "flickering" of action on the group's spreadsheet. Before all badges sold-out everyone in our group this year got at least a Day's badge, with most getting multiple days IIRC. My codes never hit, but someone in the group got me 4-Days. Last year my codes didn't hit but someone bought me 4-Days w/PN. The first year I participated I got my own badge and was able to help someone else get 4-Day w/PN. Last year, even though I live in SD, I jumped into the Hotel fun to try to help the group, got a great hotel, and was able to help a group member with that. In turn, several people were able to help me get Group 1 parking.Of course, the helping each other out is only part of the Group benefits. Our group did a pre-Con Disneyland trip the days before PN this past summer and we had a blast together! There were plenty of after-hours hangs as well (that I missed out on mostly because 1) I have my 17 year old with me most days/nights of SDCCI and 2) I always feel so exhausted - I'm hoping to participate more with the group in 2020). The person that was able to buy me a badge this year is a real great gal that I've done a line-shift with in year's past and the fact that I feel relatively close to her makes it all the more rewarding, I think.This will be my Fourth Comic-Con with the group, and each year I've gotten to know more and more people and it has really changed my enjoying myself even more. 2020 will be my 21st SD Comic-Con, and I was kind of in a funk where I really wondered if it was worth the $$ for my family and I to go if it meant spending literally 2/4 days either in a line or in Hall H. Not only has being in a group changed that significantly (again, I think shift-wise I was only in line maybe 4 hours last year, though I helped a few people cover parts of their shift at times), but I've gotten to know a ton of great people from all over the world via the Group.Sorry for the rambling. I've seen the fruits of the Group-mentality many times over: from helping with lines, to helping with badge-buying, helping w/exclusives, helping with signings, to just having people to hang out with and chat throughout the Con.
I looked at that a while back but I can't find the post. [member=5606]tsnyder[/member] is right, the more people in the group the better your chances but there are diminishing returns to consider against the work needed to manage a larger group. The math isn't too bad if you assume everyone has equal chances but you have to make an assumption about the overall probability that a session will be chosen. If you can code a bit it is also a good problem to look at via simulation. A key thing is to fix on what questions you want to ask, for example the odds of you getting a badge versus the entire group getting a badge, and so on.
Popping in to say my group of about 6 was entirely successful in getting all 4 days (No Preview night).Now to wait for Open Reg to help out a few new friends (and maybe snag Preview Night).And then, my favorite part of them all...Hotelpocalypse. ;D