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From what I've heard there were fake wrist bands. They are distinguished by a slight difference in printing.The question is, did the criminal who sold them portray the fakes as counterfeit or as 'I've got an extra one'If it's the former they buyer has some culpability to the crime. Imnsho. If it's the latter -- it's a bit more gray.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who assumed it was an equal number of wristbands for each group A,B, C, and D. Seems likt that's not actually the case. Saturday morning, we were group A and fortunate enough to be in Chute 2 when Chutes were first loaded in the morning. When 3 was loading, I looked over and saw a group that clearly had B wristbands. And two chutes alone do not hold 1500 people.
My problem with the person who unknowingly bought and used fake Hall H wristbands is that we all know we shouldn't BUY Hall H wristbands (fake or real)- end of story. I think there is culpability on the part of the buyer. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
I tend to agree here. If the seller said "I have a few extra wristbands." that's one thing, but it sounds like he was selling them out of his backpack, so it wasn't just "a few extra." That right there would be a red flag for me. I can't imagine he said "I have fake wristbands for sale." Does anyone know how much he was charging?
I did not see it this year - but last year I saw a guy selling a small handful of Hall H wristbands back near the GOT exhibit shortly after wristband distribution for the B group was complete. We had our bands and passed by, but I want to say he was offering them for $100.
As far as set up, we tried for Friday Hall H GoT, and went to dinner at the Crab Shack first. Visually, seeing the group at the Island and then heading to the Marina looked full. After dinner, I was just planning to camp for an hour, to make a point that this would be dine by midnight.Planted ourselves by the Marina J bathrooms, which has a quick shortcut back to hotels at 930pm, and I left and came back with Kindle and just started Rogue One. My buddy said get up we're moving and I expected only line ebb and flow, back to the Island. Then he sees the red lights. So we wound up waiting 45 minutes in total for D, as they had reached the end of the line. Impressed to see wristbands over in under 2 hours, for Friday.We left and came back at 630 am just to make sure, though!
I would have taken a video of the guy doing it and ratted him out to a real CCI official. It's pretty easy to tell who are the temps and the real ones. They are pretty common on the floor. Yes, I'm that guy.
This is going to be the elephant in the room for 2018. How to fight off counterfeit wristbands.
Tattoos!
RFID chips implanted underneath the skin.