As New York Comic Con 2016 fast approaches, Funko has released details on the lottery process for access to their booth at the convention, and ultimately the ability to purchase exclusives. I must say, this is the most interesting way of doing it to date. Here are the details.
Funko at NYCC 2016- Booth Procedures
In order to streamline the process and determine fairly who will be eligible to enter the Funko booth, we’re raffling off tickets and you could get a chance to get into the Funko booth and snag some Funko Exclusives – only available at NYCC!
Participation in this process is required in order to have a chance to visit the Funko booth at NYCC!
The lottery process will close on 12:01am EST on September 26th. All winners will be notified by October 1st of the date and time they can line up for the Funko booth.
Rules
This random drawing is for a chance to get a ticket to purchase items at theFunko booth.
- Attendee & professional badges only. No exhibitors.
- One application per person only.
- Winning a ticket does not guarantee you any specific item at the Funko booth. Items may sell out by the time you reach the front of the line.
- You must have a valid NYCC 2016 pass for any days you select. No exceptions. We will be checking your Fan Verification profiles to ensure that if you win the lottery for a specific day, you have a badge for that corresponding day.
- Tickets are awarded randomly for a specific date and time and must be redeemed for that specific session only. No exceptions.
- Tickets are not transferrable and ID will be checked.
- You must bring your ticket to the Funko booth to be scanned at the time of your session.
- There will be a strict limit of one of each item per ticket.
- You will not be able to line up at the Funko booth before your session begins.
- Every person in line will require a ticket. No exceptions.
ADA attendees must also go through the same process as noted above.
Our Take:
I do applaud Funko and NYCC for going this route with the lottery, as last year’s inaugural presence of a Funko booth on the show floor resulted in quite a bit of chaos over the course of the four days. However, while this helps ensure that the buying of the exclusives are (probably) going more to collectors and fans rather than resellers and scalpers, I have retailer friends who are legit collectors that are not even getting a chance to get into the booth, which is a shame. Also, this will create just that much more chaos at the Funko partner booths that will probably have exclusives as well, like Toy Tokyo and Fugitive Toys. It remains to be seen how this process will affect the Funko exclusives at NYCC this year, but if it is a success, we could be seeing the future for Funko booth procedures at all of their conventions.
What do you think of these new procedures? Will you be attending NYCC and, if so, what exclusives are you hoping will be there? Let us know below.
Matt Norris