Just for comparison...San Diego Comic-Con Con is a much, much larger con with more celebs, more to, do, and much bigger. The cost for 1 day admission? $55.
The GenCon admission price went up like $15 from last year.
I would say they need to charge even more to just go to the dealer hall or hang out in the hallways and not do events. That is the most crowded part of the convention.
Try planning in advance next year so you can preregister for discounted rates.
Because every other person is paying extra for events, the badge is just that, a visitor badge, it just gives us the right to visit the convention and the option to participate in the activities.
On top of that, there are a number of events that are taking place that do not require tickets nor is there volunteers at every event to monitor badges. All it takes is one visitor that screws the system to cause issues, things like going to the costume contest or the auction or having a friend pass you a ticket so you can play a demo.
As far as the increase in cost, I would say that is because of the expansion of Gen Con into other areas of the convention center that began this year.
Yes, $75 is very expensive if all you want to do is shop. It sounds like it may be a wash if you just stay home and just buy whatever exclusives you want on ebay (with the accompanying markup).
Some manufacturers do release a set number of exclusives and pre-releases each day and not just on the first day.
Given that attendance is going up every year in spite of the increased costs for badges and housing as well as increased crowds (and accompanying hassle), I don't see the costs decreasing: there is no incentive for GenCon to offer reduced cost badges beyond the ones on Sunday.
While I am not judging what you enjoy at Gen Con, it boggles my mind that you can "do" the entire exhibit hall in 4 hours. It takes my wife and I longer than that just to walk up and down all the aisles, noting booths we wish to return to later. For us shopping is a multi-day process: Thursday: Pick up things that are hot or in danger of disappearing, or that we know in advance we want. Scout hall. Friday: Demos and revisiting interesting booths Saturday: mostly avoid exhibit hall Sunday: Last minute purchases.
There is. It's the one that costs $75. It gives you limited access to the dealer hall, and a few other events, but for the vast majority of events it costs *extra* to play in those events. That, I think, is the key element here. Those 2 RPG sessions and 1 doomtown tournament I'm playing in? They aren't free. They did *not* come with the price of my badge.
You can think the cost of the badge is ridiculous, but as long as 60,000+ people don't agree with you, your sol.
Daddystabz, I agree that that is a difficult cost to justify if all you are looking to do is shop the vendor hall for a few hours. I know I couldn't justify it. It sounds like GenCon is just not going to be a good fit for you this year. There is a lot more to see and do at GenCon than just get promos, so maybe next year you will have enough time to justify the badge cost with your friends.
I'll counter, i spend 5+ days in Indy and usually anymore gladly skip the dealerhall. Why? because i come to play games that i am unable to or won't play with my home groups. Why shouldn't i get a discount badge since i'll likely not step foot in dealerhall if i don't have to. This year i have 1 item on shopping list and can order online direct if i need to (thanks Artisan Dice).
Gencon isn't for everyone's taste/wallet/schedule. It is too big for that to be that absolute special thing to everyone. But it is special to a lot of us. Historical note, Origins used to do dealerhall pass only. Think it lasted 2 years. I grumble and still buy my 1 day pass for a 4 hour drive each way to shop a little.
I think the biggest thing that stands out was the comment that he wanted to gen con exclusives, which is why he wanted to get in.
Maybe the people who paid full price should get those exclusives, not someone who is coming just to snipe them.
{{Never Mind}} I decided not to put out Troll Food.
Well, I checked Dragoncon, ComicCon and Origins.
None of these conventions offer exhibit hall only badges. You buy a badge for the whole event (or whatever day you want to attend) or you don't go.
Just saying...
Way back in the Milwaukee days there was a spectator badge for just what the OP was looking for.
With how many people keep attending they should probably keep increasing the ticket prices.