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Monday, June 27, 2011

The Most Nerve Racking Experience Of My Life...

Was purchasing passes to the 2011 Comic-Con International. We've been going to this convention for the past eight years. I've been pregnant during two of them. My little boy has been twice. And this year, my little baby girl will get to go as well.

Getting tickets to the world's largest pop culture convention was not easy. It has gotten so famous that for the past couple of years it's sold out completely months before it began. This year, however was epic. Tickets went on sale in November 2010. A few minutes after online registration opened, the site crashed due to too many people trying to buy tickets. A few weeks later, the same thing happened. EPIC, the system handling the registrations shut down again, and became associated with the phrase "Epic Fail."

February rolled around, and hardly anybody had tickets. While I was in the hospital giving birth to my beautiful baby girl, Comic-Con tickets went on sale yet again, and sold out within minutes. Thus, our only hope was to wait for the resale of the refunded tickets in June.

This past Friday, I checked the Comic-Con Facebook page and found out that 1500 of the 4-day refunded passes would be going up for sale at 10am. That was 45 minutes away! I quickly put the baby down for a nap, provided an activity for Bean, and stared at my computer. A couple minutes before 10, I began refreshing the page to make sure I didn't miss it. Then the site began to slow down, and I feared it would crash again and I wouldn't get on. Frantically, I refreshed again and this time I got through. I stabbed the green button to buy tickets and was put in a virtual "waiting room." This waiting room told me that there were 1081 people ahead of me. Every two minutes, the page would automatically refresh and tell me where I was in the line. As the seconds ticked on, my heart began to pound and my hands were shaking! About forty minutes later, when I was at number 131, the page told me that badges were running low and that we would be notified if they sold out. I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but on the next refresh I was whisked into the payment area! I leaped and with quivering fingers I pounded out my info. You were limited to two passes, and you had to buy each one separately. I GOT BOTH. I still can't believe it. We're going to Comic-Con!

The next day I felt really sick. I had a bad headache, I was dizzy and I couldn't stop shaking. I'm pretty sure it's because of my experience getting the tickets. It was totally worth it though. We can't wait to go. Hubby has even said it's his happy place and I couldn't agree more.

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8 comments:

  1. That sounds horrifying! I wanted to go so bad, but my trip to Utah this year was all I could afford. Next year, though, I'm absolutely planning on Comic-Con.

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  2. Oh, you poor dear! Sounds awful. So glad you were able to get them.

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  3. Wow! Sounds intense! You must have been jumping for joy to know you got them. Can't wait to see pics of the convention :-)

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  4. I've been to Dragon*Con in Atlanta before. Comic Con would be so awesome! I'm jealous. I had no idea buying tickets for it was such an ordeal!

    So glad you were able to snatch two tickets!!

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  5. Wow! Congrats on getting the tickets! That's awesome! Have fun.

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  6. Congrats on getting tickets! This year was crazy with the preview night badges being sold out before the con was even over! We went through that November ordeal but luckily we have our tickets now too.

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  7. I love the suspenseful build up in your post! Just the perfect amount of humor and detail. Love it!

    I have family and friends who have been to Comic Con in NYC, and I had no idea it could be so hard to get tickets. I'll have to ask if it was a similar experience for them.

    Visiting from SITs.

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  8. I'm your sister M's friend. Can I just say that I'm wicked jealous that you have tickets to comic-con? I would LOVE to go to it. The TO one just isn't the same!

    http://polishondigitalpaper.blogspot.com

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