Comic-Con 2016 Badges on Sale This Saturday, November 14

Consider this a friendly reminder that if you’d like to attend Comic-Con International in San Diego next year, the first step will take place this Saturday at 8 am Pacific time.

That’s when online preregistration for SDCC 2016 opens up, with the actual badges going on sale an hour later at 9 am Pacific time. If you’re not familiar with the Comic-Con badge-buying process, the short version is that it’s a byzantine affair but a quick one, as they sell out super fast.

Comic-Con is always trying to make it better, though, and this year’s process has a few new wrinkles. One is that badges will have RFID technology for the first time, making them much harder to counterfeit, an ongoing issue for SDCC, and allowing them to be mailed to attendees ahead of time — at least those living in the United States. That will reduce the ridiculously long (read: par for the course at Comic-Con) onsite registration lines onsite in 2016.

In classic Comic-Con fashion, the preregistration process is like a line to get in line. One nice thing is that there’s no advantage to showing up early, so being online any time within the 8-9 am time frame is sufficient in terms of entering your code and getting into the EPIC Registration waiting room.

And it really is a waiting room, as once badges go on sale, your fate is completely at the mercy of the computer gods. Good luck to everyone attempting to get a badge, and hope we see you in San Diego next summer.