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Locked out of the Javitts Con.

Started by dgillock,

48 posts in this topic

dgillock

dgillock

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So, I was one of the many, many ticket holders (100s? 1000s?) who got denied entrance today at the NY Comic Con. Bought my ticket for a Saturday"Express Badge" a couple weeks ago and showed up this afternoon expecting to wait in line for 45 minutes or so. I'd been warned by some industry friends about how crowded it was on Friday evening and though I wanted to show up as early as possible today, I couldn't make it by until about 2:00. Too busy last night getting John Cassaday, Paul Pope, Jim Lee, and a bunch of others a wee tipsy... Long story.

 

Huge line, wrapping around three sides of the entrance area of the convention center. Oh well, I figured a longer wait than expected, but I was there and I was determined to wait it out. But low and behold, the huge line wasn't even to get in- it was a line of people waiting for refunds and priority passed for tomorrow (Sunday) since the Con was overcrowded. This just wasn't for people who didn't have tickets, it was for everyone, including people holding three day passes, industry folk, the whole nine yards... It wasn't even a situation where you could wait in line and they would trickle people in as they could. The place was just locked down for the remainder of the day. I can't attend tomorrow, so I went for the refund. Admittedly, the guy I dealt with (from the Con I think, not a Javitts employee) was very nice and apologetic. He personally took my info and told me that he would deal with my CC refund. I'm sure that he was not enjoying his day as there were hundreds of other people in the same position as me. Luckily if the Con doesn't get around to issuing my refund, I can take it up with Am Ex directly.

 

So, I guess the Con was a "success"... It's pretty obvious that the organizers greatly underestimated the draw this show was going to be. The buzz amongst collectors and industry folk here in the city was huge in the past couple of weeks and it seemed pretty obvious that the show was going to be very well attended. The people I talked to today who did get in (those who showed up to wait in line at about 10:00) said it was virtually shoulder to shoulder on the floor.

 

My question is, is this fun? Was it good for the dealers or do crowds like that make it impossible to actually sell anything? If they try to do a show like this again, are they going to book more space at the Javitts or is this going to be repeated in the future? I'd love for NY to have a really big annual show, but I have to wonder now if it's really feasible. Interested in hearing other people's thoughts and experiences.

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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This makes me feel pretty darn good. I was going to attend the show today, but after I saw the postings late last night about how bad the lines were I decided it wasn't worth it. I do feel sorry for the folks like you that paid, showed up, and didn't get in.

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batman_fan

batman_fan

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This same thing happened at Wondercon, over crowded so they shut the doors and didn't let new people in until people left. Dealers told me it was bad because once people found out if you left, you may not be able to get back in, they just stayed in. This kept people with cash outside and people who "blew their wad" inside so sells dropped.

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Mr. Zipper

Mr. Zipper

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If they try to do a show like this again, are they going to book more space at the Javitts or is this going to be repeated in the future? I'd love for NY to have a really big annual show, but I have to wonder now if it's really feasible. Interested in hearing other people's thoughts and experiences.

 

This is proof positive of what I've been saying for a long time -- there is great demand in NYC for a truly national show. It's ridiculous that cities like Philly, Detroit and Baltimore have much larger and better shows than NYC. Perhaps once a year is not enough... I'm sure there is enough demand to have 2 huge shows a year.

 

The Big Apple shows are okay, but they are really regional shows at best. Hopefully, your frustration with the huge crowds will result in more and better NYC cons in the near future.

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dgillock

dgillock

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This same thing happened at Wondercon, over crowded so they shut the doors and didn't let new people in until people left.

 

The difference here was that it wasn't even a matter of some people leaving before they let more people in. They just weren't going to let anyone else in today at all. Someone else I talked to who couldn't get in said it was the Fire Marshal's decision. I wasn't feeling too flush today, so I'm considering it an annoying inconvience as opposed to a major disaster. I'd be pretty POed, however, if I had travelled in today from outside of the city- just a couple of stops on the A train for me. Imagine if you came in from Philly or Boston or DC only to be told that you have to wait in line for an hour or two to get a badge for tomorrow.(?!?) They were claiming that the "replacement passes" would be for prioirity admission, but I wonder how that'll work out tomorrow when all those people show up expecting to stroll onto the floor. They better figure this out or it's going to look really, really bad.

 

You make a good point as well about how this sort of situation "keeps money outside". You have to figure that the folks who did get in today had probably blown their wads by 2:00. The impression I got was that by the time I got there, once you left that was it, no re-entry. Pretty messed up.

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dgillock

dgillock

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Midtown Comics and JH's Universe were wall-to-wall packed today.

 

I'm sure. I know Midtown had people handing out flyers outside Javitts.

 

I dropped by Time Machine on 14th Street to see my buddy Roger and he was packed as well. Ran into a few people I know who made it into the show and a few other who got boned like I did. General consensus seemed to be that the Con's organizers blew it. Even people who did get in told me that the overcrowding made it a less than pleasant experience- reason #1 I went for the refund as opposed to the pass for tomorrow.

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namisgr

namisgr

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I think some of you may be getting the wrong impression. As an attendee of the Javitz show Friday, I can tell you that the layout of the show was responsible for the overcrowding condition that was experienced today and certainly will occur again tomorrow. While the Center is a huge facility, only a very small portion of it was made available to hold the bulk of the show (panels excluded) and to deal with people waiting to get in. Yes, crowds were good on Friday, but if anything were actually a tad smaller than the crowds I've seen on the first day at previous Philly and Baltimore shows - the problem is that in the Javitz everyone was being squished into a space insufficient for the show.

 

Vincent's understandable New York-enthusiast review aside, it will be interesting to get feedback on the volume of comic selling at the show from the other dealers in attendance.

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CW

CW

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This must be the new thing for 2006. Over-Crowding and lockdowns. 2 for 2 so far. WonderCon and New York.

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Bullet123

Bullet123

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A monumental success or a monumental failure.

 

The promoters grossly underestimated the turnout for the show. At 11:00 AM on Saturday they stopped selling tickets for the weekend so if you do the math they let 20,000+ plus go home without attending the show. HUGE mistake. I spoke with one of the promoters who said that they booked space equivalent to the vendors and attractions they had booked. So you have a catch 22 situation. Will more vendors and attractions come next time because of the great results. I certainly hope so because then they will book the whole Javits center, not just a small portion of it. The selling room if they had the whole thing could have been three times larger and based on what I witnessed on Friday and today, they had enough people to support that many vendors and exhibitors. At noon on Saturday they were already sold out of half the sizes for NY Comic-Con T-shirts WTF? Can someone please tell me why the promoters and vendors and exhibitors did not think that NYC could not attract 40-50K when San Diego does 100+K .The big problem is now, did they [embarrassing lack of self control] enough people off this time around to scare anyone from coming back to a second show because they were either,

 

1. turned away at the door before ever getting in to the show to begin with, or

2. Having paid for the show and then after joining my sons for a bite to eat for lunch, not being allowed back in to the sales floor for more than 1 hour and I was one of the lucky ones. I heard as the day went on the line was up to 2 hours long.

 

Will those people come back?

The promoters better think of something to encourage people to come back next year and not be so ridiculously shortsighted with their attendance figures.

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Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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My question is, is this fun? Was it good for the dealers or do crowds like that make it impossible to actually sell anything? If they try to do a show like this again, are they going to book more space at the Javitts or is this going to be repeated in the future? I'd love for NY to have a really big annual show, but I have to wonder now if it's really feasible. Interested in hearing other people's thoughts and experiences.

 

I got there at 10:00 am and knew problems with lines and getting in would be a challenge. I must have been in the first wave of folks because for the first thrity minutes it was bearable. After that, you could barely move. I know I had a tough time browsing, just not enough room to get into the boxes.

 

I did ask several dealers their take and they all seemed very happy. So, personally I'm glad they were doing well and I did actually enjoy the show, but the routing of people and space needed were definitely items for improvement.

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FFB

FFB

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Does this happen at a lot of the big shows? Like San Diego, for instance? I've been setting a little aside to go to SD this year(my first big convention)and don't want to be disappointed.

 

There is no way that would happen at San Diego. The convention center is more than big enough to handle everyone who comes. I didn't even have to wait in line last year when I picked up my badge during the middle of the day on Friday. There was never a line to get into the dealer room on any day that weekend while I was there and it was never too crowded to walk around even though there were 100K attendees.

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