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Autographs Next Year


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Jeez who would have thought my wee post would cause so much anger.

 

The other thing that I know a few people did this year to ensure early entry and to meet the guests is to buy an exhibitor space £150 so cheaper than a gold. Rock into the venue whenever they want, straight in before all queues. Wristband acts as a VQT for all queues plus with the added bonus of they had their own table and chairs to chill at.

 

Not my thing but people have been exploiting this loophole for years now. Sometimes they bring flyers for a blog or some junk they want to sell as well so it doesn't look like an empty table.

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Jeez who would have thought my wee post would cause so much anger.

 

The other thing that I know a few people did this year to ensure early entry and to meet the guests is to buy an exhibitor space £150 so cheaper than a gold. Rock into the venue whenever they want, straight in before all queues. Wristband acts as a VQT for all queues plus with the added bonus of they had their own table and chairs to chill at.

 

Not my thing but people have been exploiting this loophole for years now. Sometimes they bring flyers for a blog or some junk they want to sell as well so it doesn't look like an empty table.

 

One of those cases where it's not what is said, so much as how it's said, I think. :-)

 

Most people here bend over backwards to be organised and get there as early as possible. Sometimes they simply aren't able to get there any earlier. So having someone come along and bluntly say "well get there earlier" will get some hackles up. People with disabilities probably can't get there for 4am. People with kids probably can't either.

 

Interesting about the loophole - not from a "ooh, I can use this POV", but it might go some way to explaining why you often see the same stalls selling the same old tat, event after event! These aren't the ones with high traffic either.

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It did feel today that unless you had Gold or Diamond it was very difficult to meet some of those top level guests. Not the end of the world, but will need to remember it for next year.

Very much so. We were queuing outside by 7am on Saturday and we still didn't get autographs for Richard Dean Anderson (172 . . . and he was still at 1-150 when we left at 5:30), Robert Englund or Haley Atwell.

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Jeez who would have thought my wee post would cause so much anger.

The other thing that I know a few people did this year to ensure early entry and to meet the guests is to buy an exhibitor space £150 so cheaper than a gold. Rock into the venue whenever they want, straight in before all queues. Wristband acts as a VQT for all queues plus with the added bonus of they had their own table and chairs to chill at.

Not my thing but people have been exploiting this loophole for years now. Sometimes they bring flyers for a blog or some junk they want to sell as well so it doesn't look like an empty table.

It's funny you say that, I walked past what looked like a dealer table yesterday which didn't have much out on display and a couple of people sitting there chatting. Did cross my mind that I wondered what it would cost to book a space like that but just use it as a place to use as a have a sit down etc whenever you fancied it. Didn't know people actually did it though!

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This is the first year i came away very dissapointed speaking to Bill Paxton was the best thing that happened yesterday i didnt even get a chance to see Chris Lloyd, Sigourney Weaver, David Bradley, and Michael Gambon i got the VQT for each of them i wanted i didnt stand a chance with any of them i was lucky with Bill as he went open que at the end of the day but all in all i wasnt happy at all i spent some money on the stalls instead. Sorry to moan but just hat to let it out

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Simple solution for Showmasters: Scale it down man!! At the moment they have enough big guests to fill 3 or 4 seperate cons! If they scaled back to just a few big guests and spread them out over multiple cons, there wouldn't be the mad crowd numbers each time. It's well and good boasting to be the buggest convention in Europe but that means nothing when the venue can't handle the crowds, the queuing, the misinformed staff, and general chaotic nature this event has now become.

 

Spread out the big guests over multiple shows!!

For once I'm actually inclined to agree with you. Sm has got far too big for their boots. They're now over promising and under delivering on the fan experience.
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As if people are complaining that there is too many good guests and too much on offer haha!

 

If you need VQs and want a guaranteed low number then queue early. It's simple

 

Thank god you came along to solve that for us...! ;)

 

Some people barely got into the 80s for signing. You could be outside at 4am, and if 85 people have gotten there before you, you're SOL. As someone else said, people will just get earlier and earlier.

 

 

Absolutely right.

 

Not just that - the time you get there is becoming irrelevant. I hear boasts of 'over 100 crew members' all the time, yet even on Friday it took some people bordering on 2 hours to get in, despite having entrance tickets in their hand.

 

Rather than have 20, 30, 40 people scanning tickets or assisting with entry (at least for the first, say, hour the event opens) I witnessed a mere 2 people scanning when I finally managed to get in. One of those appeared half-distracted, with some sort of controversy with another attendee.

Get there as early as you like. Showmasters will still have trouble getting you in the building!

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So now you'll be 500th in the queue next time because everyone will arrive the night before and you'll see what people mean. We can't all be in the first 100 however early you try to get there you know.

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As if people are complaining that there is too many good guests and too much on offer haha!

If you need VQs and want a guaranteed low number then queue early. It's simple

Only simple solution I see is go gold pass, I got to queue very early, close to front and still had a high number, even though I rushed straight to the guest.

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I don't think they need to get rid of the gold pass but maybe sell whole lot less. That way the gold holders will still feel special and be able to take advantage of the benefits - very good for those who want to see loads of guests and do loads of shoots, but then the general entry holders still stand a decent chance.

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The last lfcc i attended was the years ago and whilst it was busy I got around all of the guests I wanted to meet collecting autographs along the way. I also had a photo shoot with Danielle Harris and over all the experience was great.

 

For the record I managed all of this on a standard early bird ticket.

 

From what I'm reading regarding this show it appears that there are so many gold and diamond pass holders at the event that it became almost impossible for the day ticket holder to get anywhere near the guests they wanted to see.

 

This isn't a dig at those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford the passes and I realise that they bring in the most money for Show masters but if it comes at the cost of alienating those of us with less disposable cash then does the extra money brought in really equate to more?

 

By that I mean if you have 1000 gold passes at say £150 and 1000 diamond at £100 (these figures are for demonstration proposes only) then that's £250,000. If a day ticket is £30 then you would need 8333 guest to make that same amount of money.

 

Now obviously you get alot more guests than that over a weekend and probably sell alot more passes but the point I'm trying to make (not very well) is that if you sell so many pasession that is pointless anyone buying a day ticket then aren't you kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

But then what do I know ☺

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It does not matter how many gold tickets there are or how early you queue to get a low vt ticket if the guest does not get much time to actually be at their desk signing.

 

Very few if any of the guests were there when the show opened on Saturday or Sunday. Once they are at their desks then their queues need to be controlled better. If the guest is more popular then expected then change how the autos are done, stop photos over the desk and the long chats. Once the queues are better then let the guest do more with the people seeing them if they want to.

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I understand what people are saying about 'getting there early' but I don't think thats the point of paying! If you are camping out you may as well do that at a premiere and take your chances there (where they may or may not sign, compared to they may or may not get to your vq number!).

 

The reason I pay to go, is to meet the guests....but if I've paid for a photoshoot I don't want to be queuing at 5am to make sure I get in, in time! Likewise if Im going to pay for an autograph I don't want to be queuing at 5am for a vq ticket where I may or may not end up getting an autograph!

 

There has to be some guarantee aspect to it....maybe knowing how many GP&DP are sold would help us evaluate the situation better? I don't know what the solution is, but I don't think queuing all night is ever the answer and should be strongly discouraged (its not really safe for one thing!).

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I decided to sit-out this years show, due to the quality of guests announced I had a bad feeling things would be very busy & chaotic.

 

I attended last years show in an attempt to meet Stan Lee; having queued early around two blocks and finally getting inside the venue having got a VQ ticket in the region of 900 or so I knew there was no chance of getting an auto.

Fortunately although I had VQ tickets for Ian Mcdiarmid & Carrie Fisher, both were very high I managed to get an auto.

 

I always aim to get to the venue early and past experiences have been very good and well organised, there have been times when I just rocked up to a guest, got an auto, over table photo & time for a chat too. However the popularity of the summer LFCC show is becoming too oversized/overcrowded for my liking, fighting through crowds of people is not my idea of a fun weekend.

For these reasons I decided to pre-order autos this year, the thought of a three hour drive, queing early, battling through the crowds and then the disappointment of not getting the autos I want would lead to big disappointment.

I understand there are options of going Gold or Platinum to garauntee an auto/photo however these are expensive options for me (i am not knocking anyone for taking up these options).

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I have not gone for the last two years now and I don't regret it all. I had so many great events in the past, the over crowding of the events now would probably just put a dampener on my whole past good experience with SM events. I was always a massive fan of the quiet Sunday, lots of time for looking at stalls and talking to guests but those days are long gone but that is purely from a selfish reason and I totally understand it is not good for business having a quiet day. I am happy for people who got to meet some pretty epic big guests over last couple of years though!

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Today was a nightmare for getting autographs, getting in reasonably quickly and being 609 for Hayley Atwell and 674 for Christopher Lloyd. I was really lucky to go to Michael Gambon when the SM volunteer had a space in the queue so I could meet him without a ticket! (Thanks soo much to them!) But anyway, it really annoys me that I have had tickets since they came on sale and have planned who I wanted to meet for months, as most of us have, and then didn't get to meet them. We want to pay more money anyway!

 

Perhaps next year VQs should be done online in the week before comic con so you know your place in advance and come prepare to be disappointed, rather than find out when there. Otherwise, I had a great day, but the queues were awful and I won't go into details on the stairs! Hopefully this will be another learning curve and I look forward to next year all the more.

 

I don't know how online VQs would work - there are already complaints when announcements and ticket sales happen at 5pm on a Friday (people at work) or on a weekend (no home internet/difficulty with app on phone) or 7pm on a Thursday (prime commuting time)... you get the picture. There's no time that would work for everyone.

 

The only way it might work is if you made it like the theatre lotteries. You have a week to enter your name into the ballot. X number of names are drawn at random, and those people get a VQ ticket.

 

I'm not sure I'd want that, speaking only personally. There's no control you have over it, whereas at least now, you can get up with the cockerels and try...

 

As I understand it SDCC is a ballot to get tickets to get in, and the same again to get the autographs from certain guests. Weren't the free Sherlock autos at the LFCC a ballot for those who went to the talk?

 

I've been to events in other countries having prebooked the larger autographs, it just completely removes the stress from that part of attending. I spent more, spreading the cost too. This weekend I arrived before 6am Saturday and Sunday only wanting one VT for myself, although I picked up some for different guests for friends too. Had I been able to prebook, I wouldn't have needed to arrive before lunchtime.

 

Perhaps if you had big US names over for three days have prebooked and diamonds the first day, a free for all the rest of the weekend.

 

Simple solution for Showmasters: Scale it down man!! At the moment they have enough big guests to fill 3 or 4 seperate cons! If they scaled back to just a few big guests and spread them out over multiple cons, there wouldn't be the mad crowd numbers each time. It's well and good boasting to be the buggest convention in Europe but that means nothing when the venue can't handle the crowds, the queuing, the misinformed staff, and general chaotic nature this event has now become.

 

Spread out the big guests over multiple shows!!

 

 

I'm not sure if that solves the problem or makes it worse. If you have to choose between 3 big guests, you've a better chance of getting one of them, than having everyone go for 1 big name. For cost reasons a friend of mine had to choose between Michael Gambon and Jonathan Pryce - he chose the later, but had he not been announced he'd have got Gambon too.

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