For thousands of hopeful comic con nerds who hope to attend SDCC this year, yesterday was the first of many important days. Comic-Con Returning Registration (formally known as Preregistration) occurred yesterday at 9:00am PST. In previous years preregistration for the annual event was typically held in November. This year however the sale was pushed back until yesterday so everyone was very anxious at the opportunity to purchase badges. Comic-Con 2017 Returning Registration was open to all Comic-Con 2016 attendees. First time attendees were not eligible to participate in Returning Registration.
Potential attendees were allowed to log in to the waiting room one hour prior at 8:00am before the random sorting process began at 9:00am. Upon logging in the familiar spinning blue circle once again greeted past attendees as they waited (im)patiently for their chance to buy tickets to the greatest nerd show on Earth. There were some reports of people being kicked out of the waiting room for supposedly refreshing the page even though they hadn’t done so, but this appears to be small isolated incidents. Shortly after 9:00am the random sorting process began. Approximately 6-7 minutes later the system started letting people in to purchase their highly coveted badges.
Everything was flowing fairly quickly as happy nerds continued to purchase badges at a swift rate. As usual Preview Night tickets sold out first followed by Saturday, Friday, Thursday and finally Sunday. Approximately 58 minutes after the sale started all available badges were sold out. Overall I would have to say that the sale went very smooth with minimal problems. Unfortunately no system is perfect and in my buying group we did have an issue when the purchase page timed out unexpectedly when it shouldn’t have leaving one in our group badgeless.
If you were not successful at obtaining a badge don’t give up yet! Open Registration is slated to occur at a later date. If you can join a buying group I highly recommend it as it will increase your odds of getting a badge. Just make sure you join a group of people that you trust because ticket sale payments can not be split and you don’t want to end up paying for someone else’s ticket that won’t pay you back.
What were some of your experiences regarding Returning Registration? Any major problems or glitches? Please post comments below.
Crazy 4 Comic Con 
We experienced no technical glitches this year, which was nice since last year we had issues with one person getting kicked out of the waiting room. It was overall a painless problem, but all of us got badges, so we’re happy. We had 6 people logging in and two of us got in, so we were all able to get our badges! No preview night, but only two of us wanted it. It will be my cousin’s first time going all four days, since last year I could only get her two days. Can’t wait until July!
Awesome!! Glad it went well for you. Everyone in our group got badges except for the one person. We will hopefully fix
that during open registration!
We had pretty good results, all in all. We had 1 group of 7 so we needed 3 t get in to get full coverage, In the end, 6 of us got the 4-day tickets that we wanted was sadly my wife got only Thu-Fri-Sun. As I recall, in years past, we could then participate in the open registration to try to get the Sat ticket for my wife right?
Correct. This is straight from the comic con FAQ. “As long as you did not purchase a 4-Day badge with Preview Night during Returning Registration, you will be eligible to participate in Open Registration”.
My group did well. We got a few 4 day with Preview Night, a few of the 4 day, and some Thursday & Sunday badges.
Glad your group did well! Is your group going to try for more days during open registration?
This was the first time in years that we did NOT get badges during the returning registration sales. We just sat and watched as we got “sold out” messages. I’m really worried about not getting to go this year — and we go every year! Any advice on what we should do? We are ten year veterans of SDCC!
Sorry to hear you didn’t get badges. When you say we, do you mean just two people or a group? If only two people I highly recommend joining a buying group. Check out Friends of CCI website at http://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/ as they always have people looking to join buying groups cuz they increase your chances of getting a badge. Good luck!!
Yeah, my husband and I. We are so upset about it because we haven’t missed the Con in 10 years! I will check out the buying groups, thanks for the tip. I haven’t given up hope yet but this has never happened to us before. Thank you for the suggestion!
I understand completely. My first SDCC was in 1994 and I’ve always gotten badges on the years that I attempted. I would be upset as well. You’re welcome and good luck during open registration!
Same thing happened to us, and its terrifying! We are just trying to pool all of our resources… other groups of friends who (at least) didn’t get preview night, so will have the chance to buy again.
Good luck!! Networking is the key!
Yeah, it’s so upsetting! Good luck getting badges this year too.