Supercharge Your 2025 Comic-Con: Share the Experience with Friends

T. Gill © 2023 SDCC

Key Things to Know When Buying for Others

Before you dive into the process of buying badges for others, keep these important points in mind:

• Everyone you’re buying badges for needs to have a valid Comic-Con Member ID before the date of Open Registration.
• If you’re selected for a registration session, you can buy badges for up to three people, as long as supplies last. If you’re buying for yourself, you can grab badges for two additional members. If you’re not purchasing a badge for yourself, you can buy for up to three other members.
• You need the Member ID and last name of each person you want to buy badges for, exactly as it appears on their account. This includes suffixes and special characters.
• Children ages 12 and under are not registered in advance. They can attend Comic-Con for free with a paying adult! Check out our Child Badge Policy to learn more.

Steps To Buy Badges for Yourself

If you want to attend Comic-Con with your friends, don’t forget to buy a badge for yourself! We recommend adding your badges to the cart first. If you’re selected for a registration session, you’ll be prompted to log in to your Member ID account. On the “Registrants” tab of the registration page, your account information will be auto-populated. Under “Registration Options,” you will select each day you’d like to attend (if available) and then press “Add to Cart.”

From there, select “Register Another Member” to purchase badges for others! Do not proceed to checkout until all badges have been added to your cart.

Steps to Buy Badges for Friends and Family

Ready to help your friends and family score Comic-Con badges? Here’s what you need to do:

1. Get organized before the sale by collecting the Member IDs and last names of the people you’re buying for. Pay close attention to suffixes, hyphens, spaces, or accent marks in their last names—these details matter when entering information into the system.
2. If you’re selected for a registration session, click on “Register Another Member ID” to start adding your friends. Be sure to include any special characters and suffixes in their last names to make sure you find the right account.
3. When the Member ID and last name match, their name will appear in a green box. From there, you can choose badges from the available inventory and add them to your cart.
4. Once badges have been added to your cart, click “Register Another Member” to keep adding more people until everyone is in your cart, then head to checkout. Once you’re there, you can edit badge selections, but you won’t be able to change the registrants.

Adding and Removing Days During the Sale

Once you’ve added someone to your cart, you can edit their badge selections directly from the cart.

IMPORTANT

Badge Availability and Waiting Room Realities

Want more information? Check out our detailed Open Registration instructions HERE.

With more people eligible than there are badges available, the competition is tough! Keep in mind, entering the waiting room does not guarantee you a badge or a registration session, so it’s good to be prepared for the possibility of not securing one during Open Registration.

If someone selects all available badges for you during their registration session, and then you enter into your own registration session, you can no longer select badges for yourself since it has already been done so by a friend. You can, however, purchase badges for up to three other members if inventory is available.

Use your 15-minute session wisely, because inventory can sell out while you have badges in your cart. Your badge selections are not secured until you successfully process your order.

What To Watch For

Badge-Buying Groups

As Open Registration gets closer, badge-buying groups are a common tactic, but they’re not without risks. If you’re considering joining one, here’s what you should know:

In short, choose your badge-buying group wisely, and make sure everyone is trustworthy and well-organized.

You secured a badge for yourself and a friend . . .

What comes next?

You’ve managed to secure a badge for yourself and a friend—congrats! Now let’s cover what you should expect next:

Payment Processing

When you check out, the total amount of your purchase will be marked as “Due Later” and payments will begin processing within 72 hours. Only the buyer will get an email to confirm if the payment went through successfully or if it was declined. If it’s declined, don’t worry—the buyer will be given the chance to resubmit payment for the entire order. The original method of payment will attempt to be charged every day for 30 days until the payment is processed successfully or a different method of payment is provided.

To be safe, we recommend checking your Member ID account one week after the badge sale—if there’s still a balance due, you can submit payment for your own badges via the “My Notifications” tab of your Member ID account.