New York Comic Con Increases the Fight Against Ticket Reselling

Buying tickets to your favorite comic convention isn't always the easiest thing. The shows try to make things ideal for everyone. The last thing they want is for fans to buy a ticket from someone else and discover it's a fake.

ReedPOP has announced a new "fan verification" system to fight the rising number of resale tickets. Here's the press release:

In true superhero fashion, ReedPOP, the world’s leading producer of pop culture events, is taking a stand against the live event industry’s greatest supervillains – ticket resellers. Today, the producer of New York Comic Con, announces the introduction of a new Fan Verification process to help limit the amount of resellers and get Tickets into the hands of Fans along with other Ticketing changes. As part of today’s announcement, ReedPOP will also transition the New York Super Week brand to NYCC Presents, representing a shift that will support a broader range of NYCC content throughout Manhattan. New York Comic Con will take place October 6-9, 2016.

The Fan Verification system will launch on Friday, May 20, when Fans will fill out a profile in order to be eligible to purchase Tickets when they go on sale. Fan Verification will close Monday, June 13 and anyone who has not completed a Fan Verification profile will be unable to purchase Tickets. For the first time, purchasing Tickets will only be possible online through the NYCC Ticket website and there will be no retail sales.

“At ReedPOP we put our fans first and this process is to get as many tickets into the hands of those fans, plain and simple,” said Lance Fensterman, Global Senior Vice President of ReedPOP. “We know it is a little more work for our fans but we hope they will happily work with this new system if it helps to thwart ticket brokers and ticket resellers.”

Also new this year, ReedPOP will roll New York Super Week into new series, NYCC Presents. This will continue the rapid expansion of New York Comic Con content throughout New York City and under a brand and banner that fans will recognize. NYCC Presents will include a massive array great evening events at multiple locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. Each of these events will require a separate Ticket.

Full details regarding the Fan Verification process and NYCC Show news can be found here and at NewYorkComicCon.com/FanVerification. A snapshot of this new process can be found below.

• Fan Verification is required for NYCC 2016. Everyone who would like to attend NYCC (whether you are buying Tickets yourself or someone is buying them for you) must fill out a Fan Verification profile.
• Kids who will be ages 6-12 at the time of NYCC 2016 and will be using a NYCC 2016 Adult Ticket or Sunday Kids Ticket do not need a Fan Verification profile for their NYCC 2016 Ticket.
• Fan Verification will be open from Friday, May 20 at 12:00 PM EDT to Monday, June 13 at 11:59 PM EDT. Fill out your Fan Verification profile correctly and completely – there’s no need to rush through it.
• All NYCC 2016 Ticket Types will go on sale at the same time on a first-come, first-served basis. Fan Verification does not guarantee NYCC Tickets.
• VIP Tickets for NYCC will no longer be made available.
• NYCC 2016 Tickets will only be sold online. NYCC Tickets will not be on sale at retailers or any events leading up to NYCC 2016.
• All Fans who filled out a Fan Verification profile will be notified via email 48 hours prior to NYCC Tickets going on sale.
• The email Fans will receive with the NYCC on-sale date will include a unique link where Fans will have the opportunity to purchase Tickets first-come, first-served when they go on sale. There is a one transaction limit per link.

If Fans are purchasing Tickets for multiple people, they must be assigned to a person using the name and email address they created their Fan Verification profile with. If Fans are purchasing a Ticket for a kid ages 6-12, they will add their name and age to the Ticket.

These changes have been done with the hope that more Fans will get the opportunity to experience NYCC 2016. The full Fan Verification process and NYCC Show news can be found here and at NewYorkComicCon.com/FanVerification.

ReedPOP will also rebrand New York Super Week, the events leading up to the show. The new name will be "NYCC Presents." The aim is to continue the tradition of expanding NYCC content into New York City.

Lol, I love press releases like this because it's a great example of how you can use writing to make something that only really benefits one group sound like it benefits everyone.

If they were lazy they could just say "We don't want people to illegally make money off of our event so we're adding additional rules and restrictions and putting extra work onto anyone who wants to attend" but they spin it to sound like "Hey friends, lets work together to put the evil scalpers out of business for good!".

Really interesting stuff for me.

Good lord...I'll just stick with the small shows.

Doesn't seem too different from the process for SDCC tickets, so it's not really big news. The first-come, first-serve thing with theirs is something different though.