Some thoughts on this years event and the future :-)

[futureboy25]

There are People coming just for the convention to the united kingdom, like myself. I have to take a flight for more than 2 hours. I need a hotel etc. so thats why I dont "love" the fact nothing is guaranteed. For example, I have to bring dvd´s or books to sign. And now I have to problem, I dont know if I should bring stuff to sign because I dont even know if I get an autograph. Maybe most of the visitors live in London and I guess thats easier, but still if you wanna bring stuff to sign its not really a good thing. I did a list with all the autographs I want (actually the BTTF cast) but now I think I dont even try. I really couldnt figure out whats the virtual ticket and Im pretty sure Im not the only one. If you go to a convention you are prepared, but at that convention you cant go prepared because you dont know if you get the virtual ticket. To be honest thats frustrating for me.

[Wrong Name]

There are People coming just for the convention to the united kingdom, like myself. I have to take a flight for more than 2 hours. I need a hotel etc. so thats why I dont "love" the fact nothing is guaranteed. For example, I have to bring dvd´s or books to sign. And now I have to problem, I dont know if I should bring stuff to sign because I dont even know if I get an autograph. Maybe most of the visitors live in London and I guess thats easier, but still if you wanna bring stuff to sign its not really a good thing. I did a list with all the autographs I want (actually the BTTF cast) but now I think I dont even try. I really couldnt figure out whats the virtual ticket and Im pretty sure Im not the only one. If you go to a convention you are prepared, but at that convention you cant go prepared because you dont know if you get the virtual ticket. To be honest thats frustrating for me.

The virtual queue tickets are clearly described in the FAQ thread

http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=89051&page=1#

[Scottymotogp1]

On the flip side of Diamond Passes NOT including entry.....

 

If both the Saturday and Sunday sell out of entry tickets, that would then mean the Diamond Passes you have left for sale which is everyone at the moment would then be essentially worthless to the outside buyer so would be left unsold, your buying public would be down to the people who have already got entry (who let's be honest would have bought there diamond passes by now...)

 

Therefore, Diamond should include entry to increase your sales right up until the weekend, because it's by far your biggest earner I guess..

Catch 22 on this really....

 

Just an opinion, really looking forward to the weekend!

[Wrong Name]

On the flip side of Diamond Passes NOT including entry.....

 

If both the Saturday and Sunday sell out of entry tickets, that would then mean the Diamond Passes you have left for sale which is everyone at the moment would then be essentially worthless to the outside buyer so would be left unsold, your buying public would be down to the people who have already got entry (who let's be honest would have bought there diamond passes by now...)

 

Therefore, Diamond should include entry to increase your sales right up until the weekend, because it's by far your biggest earner I guess..

Catch 22 on this really....

 

Just an opinion, really looking forward to the weekend!

I think that would work the wrong way. Although they may make more money on each ticket for diamond, they'll be many people out there who won't want it and if the entry ticket is sold separately, they will give SM more money buying other autos and photos that they want at the show. Especially if we get to a situation like we have now, where normal entry is sold out. SM would be more likely to sell them as entry tickets than locked to a diamond pass.

 

Hope that makes sense (it did in my head!)

Edited June 29, 2015 by Wrong Name

[Swissangel4616]

how I can make any thoughts when I haven't been yet at the Event? well.. the guest list is amazing and comes close to the San Diego event. It might be busy but hell... lets have fun 3 DAYS

[Showmasters Pre Orders]

On the flip side of Diamond Passes NOT including entry.....

 

If both the Saturday and Sunday sell out of entry tickets, that would then mean the Diamond Passes you have left for sale which is everyone at the moment would then be essentially worthless to the outside buyer so would be left unsold, your buying public would be down to the people who have already got entry (who let's be honest would have bought there diamond passes by now...)

 

Therefore, Diamond should include entry to increase your sales right up until the weekend, because it's by far your biggest earner I guess..

Catch 22 on this really....

 

Just an opinion, really looking forward to the weekend!

But if someone buys 6 Diamond passes that is taking up 6 entry tickets.

[Gemma8282]

There could be an option to tick /include entry/ and one to not include entry which could be made (x) amount cheaper. This would mean your getting the option wether or not to include the entry. A bit like when your changing a postage option say.

[Wrong Name]

There could be an option to tick /include entry/ and one to not include entry which could be made (x) amount cheaper. This would mean your getting the option wether or not to include the entry. A bit like when your changing a postage option say.

That's pretty close to how it works already! You just need to make sure you select entry as well as buying the ticket. The only difference is you're saying it'll add entry by default then you'll have loads of people saying they forgot to take it off as they'd already bought it and now have multiple entry tickets.

[GoldenGreen]

I think you need to think of the Diamond Pass as effectively a super charged photoshoot ticket that comes with a lot of extras.

 

You have to get entry first to then be able to use it as with the photoshoot.

[davesimon]

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

i spent a lot of money at these events and love them but this point about the £1. extra per item is grating really hard. its not the money so much as the principle, but it also means that the photo-shoot prices are never for sale at the price advertised. ie £10. is now £11.(never mind how it stands legally) a one off small fee per order is fine. but to add £1 onto every order, when some people may book 20,30,40 photo-shoots is far too much .

 

bar that keep up the good work.

[GoldenGreen]

 

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

i spent a lot of money at these events and love them but this point about the £1. extra per item is grating really hard. its not the money so much as the principle, but it also means that the photo-shoot prices are never for sale at the price advertised. ie £10. is now £11.(never mind how it stands legally) a one off small fee per order is fine. but to add £1 onto every order, when some people may book 20,30,40 photo-shoots is far too much .

 

bar that keep up the good work.

 

Have to agree with this completely, it is really grating to have £1 extra on every ticket. I've booked around 30 photoshoots this year , with a £1 on top for each this is effectively another two £15 photoshoots. In theory I could have done this for a one off £2.50 this year, so it is a massive hike and just doesn't seem fair to customers that book a lot of photoshoots.

[kinkbunny]

Really excited about this year... obviously i dont think we can fully judge until we have been there and seen how the "crazyness" is handled.

I like the new ticketing system, my only complaint would be, that it seems from the winter events, you are charging £1 for every single item.. thats ridiculously unfair, and going to end up costing people A LOT of money, i think stick with the £2.50 fee.

 

 

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

 

I thought the change to £1 per item was rude but then out of curiosity I worked out that on my 5 orders with £2.50 fee the total paid was £12.50, with the new £1 per item I would have paid £10!

[davesimon]

 

Really excited about this year... obviously i dont think we can fully judge until we have been there and seen how the "crazyness" is handled.

I like the new ticketing system, my only complaint would be, that it seems from the winter events, you are charging £1 for every single item.. thats ridiculously unfair, and going to end up costing people A LOT of money, i think stick with the £2.50 fee.

 

 

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

 

I thought the change to £1 per item was rude but then out of curiosity I worked out that on my 5 orders with £2.50 fee the total paid was £12.50, with the new £1 per item I would have paid £10!

 

thats only if you bought each one seperatley.

[Sazzzy]

 

 

Really excited about this year... obviously i dont think we can fully judge until we have been there and seen how the "crazyness" is handled.

I like the new ticketing system, my only complaint would be, that it seems from the winter events, you are charging £1 for every single item.. thats ridiculously unfair, and going to end up costing people A LOT of money, i think stick with the £2.50 fee.

 

 

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

 

I thought the change to £1 per item was rude but then out of curiosity I worked out that on my 5 orders with £2.50 fee the total paid was £12.50, with the new £1 per item I would have paid £10!

 

thats only if you bought each one seperatley.

 

Yes, exactly. if you do one order of 4 items.. its £4 extra... 1 order now it would be £2.50...

 

I just feel like if something is advertised at £15, it should be £15.. not £16.. £2.50 to me is the same as when we had to pay postage, so i wouldnt complain about that.

[D4vem88]

I bought my photo shoots separately this year, 3 of them. so I've paid an extra £7.50 instead of £3.

 

It all depends how you book your shoots. You don't wanna hold off in case of them selling out, but don't wanna do it straight away in case there's others. I think there will be haters either way on this issue.

 

Pre paid entry only makes total sense to me. I always buy in advance anyway, I know I want to go, so I'll buy my ticket. Not take my chances on the day.

[chewer]

 

 

 

 

I'm happy with the way things have been organised this year, seems to be working out really well.

 

I agree about keeping the £2.50 fee rather than changing to £1 per item though.

i spent a lot of money at these events and love them but this point about the £1. extra per item is grating really hard. its not the money so much as the principle, but it also means that the photo-shoot prices are never for sale at the price advertised. ie £10. is now £11.(never mind how it stands legally) a one off small fee per order is fine. but to add £1 onto every order, when some people may book 20,30,40 photo-shoots is far too much .

 

bar that keep up the good work.

Have to agree with this completely, it is really grating to have £1 extra on every ticket. I've booked around 30 photoshoots this year , with a £1 on top for each this is effectively another two £15 photoshoots. In theory I could have done this for a one off £2.50 this year, so it is a massive hike and just doesn't seem fair to customers that book a lot of photoshoots.

I totally agree. I try to book all online ahead of the event and group my purchases in batches to save cost to spend elsewhere on the event. To be charged £1 extra PER ticket really is a step to far for me and I will need to think how I approach future events.

[destructogal17]

I would like to see an improvement on buying vouchers for autographs, I saw on another thread that the old shop sold these online which I never knew about them so I would like for these to come back and for them to be transferable for all SM events.

 

I would like to see tickets go on sale on a set day/time - like I know photoshoots tics go up as the guests are added but if people knew that new tickets went on sale on Fridays at 7pm for instance it might help?... or it might crash the site lol

 

What about doing a pass for a set show? For instance if you have a min of 5guests from Game of Thrones, you could buy a game of thrones pass that covers autos, photos and talks - like the diamond pass but for a show/franchise rather than just one guest.

 

I love having the set photoshoots like the iron throne (without guests) so having a variety of those would be cool.

[Sazzzy]

What about doing a pass for a set show? For instance if you have a min of 5guests from Game of Thrones, you could buy a game of thrones pass that covers autos, photos and talks - like the diamond pass but for a show/franchise rather than just one guest.

 

 

 

Oh, i LOVE this idea! it could totally work when they have a larger number of guest from one specific fandom.

[OurDek]

I would like to see the introduction of diamond-like premium/VIP ticket that was just for autographs.

 

I'd happily pay extra for the peace of mind of knowing that I will get my autograph/s on the day, but don't want a photo opportunity or additional memorabilia that I'm unlikely to keep. I appreciate that gold passes are available (and have bought them in the past) but we are yet to see how advantageous they are going to be when diamond passes are in operation.

I fully agree with this, I'd be very happy to pay for an autograph only diamond pass as I don't like photo shoots personally and I am unable to sit through a talk or panel for health reasons, so have no interest in this either. I'd be very willing to pay more for a guaranteed autograph with a bigger guest and I'm sure there are plenty of people who would also agree. I'd also like to see more of the very big guests appearing for more days, this year I can only make it for the Friday preview but there are several people I would have liked to have met, I'll just hope they can attend other events in the future.

[destructogal17]

 

 

What about doing a pass for a set show? For instance if you have a min of 5guests from Game of Thrones, you could buy a game of thrones pass that covers autos, photos and talks - like the diamond pass but for a show/franchise rather than just one guest.

 

Oh, i LOVE this idea! it could totally work when they have a larger number of guest from one specific fandom.

Not sure this would work, what if you wanted to meet only 2/5? plus 9.9 times out of 10 the guest has been in other film/TV programmes, plus guests cancel so what if you had 4 minor GOT guest and one headliner and you brought the pass and the headliner then cancelled. Can't guarantee that SM would be able to book so many guests from the same show.

If you don't want to meet them all then you don't get the pass obviously.

 

They would have to have a good number of quests for it to work but like the amount of thrones guests they have this year it would be great. As for crossover, there would be some but most are known for one show/franchise more than another for instance bill paxton comes under Alien rather than Shield

 

As for cancellations,that's no different than any pass for any guest.That's the risk we all take when getting tickets.

[Sazzzy]

As much as i think pre-booking autos would be good, i can also see the downside of it - there are A LOT of people who can not afford to pay for everything in one go, and spread things out then save a lump sum for the event, so unless some VQ's were still in place, i think a lot of people would miss out.

[amandajane7775]

I have to agree with others about the adding £1 per ticket, i think its an un-necessary extra that would put me off coming to the event. Between myself and my sister, mum and son we have booked @ 30 photoshoots placed over 5 orders. That means an extra £30 instead of the £12.50 we have paid (which, on the old system, we would have paid if they had been posted).

 

I like the pre-ordering autographs that people are mentioning but I do not think it should be limited to just pre-ordering, I feel you should be able to purchase them on the day too.. Again, if a £1 per ticket was added to this then I would definitely not be purchasing any autographs because as it stands I want 10 autographs, my sister wants around 25 and my mum 3... That would be an extra £38...

 

I live by the rule of "if its not broken then don't fix it" you are doing well at the moment so don't change anything unless you absolutely have to...

[destructogal17]

 

 

 

 

What about doing a pass for a set show? For instance if you have a min of 5guests from Game of Thrones, you could buy a game of thrones pass that covers autos, photos and talks - like the diamond pass but for a show/franchise rather than just one guest.

Oh, i LOVE this idea! it could totally work when they have a larger number of guest from one specific fandom.

Not sure this would work, what if you wanted to meet only 2/5? plus 9.9 times out of 10 the guest has been in other film/TV programmes, plus guests cancel so what if you had 4 minor GOT guest and one headliner and you brought the pass and the headliner then cancelled. Can't guarantee that SM would be able to book so many guests from the same show.

If you don't want to meet them all then you don't get the pass obviously.

They would have to have a good number of quests for it to work but like the amount of thrones guests they have this year it would be great. As for crossover, there would be some but most are known for one show/franchise more than another for instance bill paxton comes under Alien rather than Shield

As for cancellations,that's no different than any pass for any guest.That's the risk we all take when getting tickets.

A cancellation for a guest is different than for a pass with say 5 guest or 10 for example you spend £445 on MJF If he cancelled you get £445 back. If you buy a GOT pass AT £445 for 10 guests but 3 cancel SM probably won't give it back or partially back and no gaurantee of replacment 3 guests. And therefore The price of pass becomes an issue. I just see many issues with the idea.

I never said it wasn't problematic, it was just an idea, that's for SM to discuss and see if it's something they could do, or it might inspire something similar - like whatevs

 

It's just something that would interest me is all rather than just a one guest pass

[TerraHawk]

I just want to quickly share my views on virtual tickets for autographs...

 

I LOVE the fact that nothing is guaranteed. I think it adds a nice bit of excitement for the day. I would hate my whole day to be predetermined. I love the thrill of getting in the door and trying to decide which VT to get first and which to save for later.

Nothing is ever guaranteed - the guest could still cancel at the last moment, come down with food poisoning mid show, any number of events beyond our control. Being able to take the hassle away, if say 100-200 autographs were presold with the rest on the day, it would still give you your excitement, and let some of us who having been playing this game too long, who don't have the money to go gold, or want photos etc to relax a little.

 

There's some unlikely guests that, with the system as it is now I would have to go diamond for. And would get photos done I wasn't bothered about, that other people would jump up.

Edited June 29, 2015 by TerraHawk

[keithporter23]

I personally think

 

being able to preorder "some autographs" for example Sigourjey Weaver would be beneficial,

 

No longer really early mornings, (if that's your choosing)

No missing breakfast

No queing for hours,

No rushing to get in

No disappointments

No running to guest to guest to guest trying to get low numbers.

 

SM would be able to see how many auto tickets have sold and can plan ahead

The attendee can relax more knowing the have got a guaranteed ticket

They could be numbered like old photoshoots so you would still que when Your numbers on the board

And you could click a box to say how many you wanted 1-5 as they are now rather than getting the crew to circle them and take money (just something little to save time.)

 

And if people still want to que on the day for for the big guest etc they can do as normal but for those that 100% know they want that big guest they can relax in knowing they have one.

 

To me it's a no brainer and I'm not talking about for every guest just the obvious big names that you know will be manic. Stan Lee, Carrie fisher, signourney weaver, MJF (if he were doing them)

 

Because let's be honest who ISNT panicking and nervous about the queing time and whether he or she will actually get a ticket and an autograph by the end of the day and if you don't you have to do it all again the next day (if your going for more than one) this would also help attendees going for the one day.

 

Great post and totally agree.

 

For MJF, I'd pay between £150 and £200 for a guaranteed autograph, but not really too keen on paying £445 for all the 'add ons'. I don't want T-shirts that will never be worn and prints that'll end up in a cupboard. I also want the Delorean shoot (which isn't included in the Diamond pass) rather than the standard photoshoot. So for me personally, this type of Diamond Pass, isn't great value.

 

...but guaranteed autograph tickets? COUNT ME IN!