So, 2012 comic-con tickets were sold this weekend.

I know it's a long way off and that San Diego vets will look at this thread and
but as a San Diego first-timer, I could really use some advice to make this an awesome toy-buying experience.

My main questions:

How important is preview night to a toy collector? (I have a preview night ticket but may only get into SD around 4pm that day. Is this cutting it too short. (Is it worth flying in a day early to make sure i'm organized and on time for preview night ?)

Roughly, How long does it take to pick up your badge?

Is it worth the extra expense to hang around for Sunday?

I wanna grab some of that hot Gargamel shit. How early should I get there and how does lining up for toys generally work?

Where's a good place to get shit-faced?

Any insider-tips for minimizing the trip cost and maximizing your toy budget?

that's all for now, hate and debate away....

Preview night is probably important to some people, the one time I went on preview night I personally found it a bit annoying and way too crowded. I'm not huge on exclusives though, so if that's your thing it probably makes sense to go.

Last year, we went to the Town and Country place to pick up Thursday passes on Wednesday night. It took about a half hour to park (parking was $10 I think) , the line was through two huge rooms then outside the building and snaked behind the building. I believe it took about 2-3 hours.

You can park at the mall ( Fashion Valley ) next door and walk over, save yourself 10 bucks.

do you mean horton?

No, atease was talking about the town & country where you pick up your badge.

Not sure how it's been done in the past, but here's the info. for badge pick up locations and times for this year:

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_reg_pickup.php

thanks moody, You actually posted this before I did. First time for me too. Would really like to make this an awesome experience and spend most of my crossy country trip in line.

I won't need to park out there this year Good for others though.

We tried parking at the mall but it was a bit of a beast. The $10 was easier than driving around for an hour.

Oh another tip, if you stay out in hotel circle (or downtown, but downtown is kind of assumed) make sure you know ahead of time if the hotel charges for parking. A lot of people found this out the hard way, the hotel we stayed at the first year going was $14 a day i think.

Kind of weird that cc is earlier in the month this year.

I think it is earlier due to the political convention that will be there later in July.

Haha, that was the same scenario the first time I went. As soon as SDCC was finished they hurried our asses out so they could go over it inch by inch.

i booked my hotel room there, is that gonna be a problem or convenient?

no, it's at hotel circle and there is public transportation and shuttle buses that go out that way from the con. just allow extra time to get to and from the con if you're taking those modes of transportation, other than that it's perfectly fine. I didn't take shuttles when we stayed out there so I can't speak to that, we drove downtown and paid the $20 to park each day we were there.

My comments were about badge pickup, not the hotel itself (which looked fine from the outside pool areas, etc)

thanks for the info, will definitely have to plan accordingly. The only reason why i wondered was because it seems everyone going to try for downtown SD which is closer to where I'm going to be staying. That and the fact that everyone's gonna be over there picking up tickets might fill up the shuttles. That is assuming they can park their cars there for good amount of time. Of course I don't know how anything works there.

so who all is going so far???
lets list this business that way we know who we are up against
but seriously just looking forward to who im going to get to see/meet this year
1. Coma21

1. Coma21
2. moodydoom

1. Coma21
2. moodydoom
3. debparis

Sweet, I need a list of mules, please continue

1. Coma21
2. moodydoom
3. debparis
4.Iammordecai

1. Coma21
2. moodydoom
3. debparis
4.Iammordecai
5. Butcher Brand

Look forward to meeting more fellow SB'ers.

1. Coma21
2.moodydoom
3.debparis
4.Iammordecai
5.Butcher Brand
6.dago


SDCC is around the corner so let's keep this thread alive from now on.
I can't be more excited for this event!

1. Coma21
2.moodydoom
3.debparis
4.Iammordecai
5.Butcher Brand
6.dago
7 Damaged Bryan (maybe Fri def Sat and Sun)

Anyone doing anything outside the Con on Friday afternoon? I've got nothing going on and am always ready to hang out and talk toys, movies, music, food, beer, or whatever.

^ just don't let bryan get all smoochy on you... he says he'll call you, but he never does.

The Lincoln on the nightstand is so I don't have to.