I know people who used to get one badge, go home scan it really hi-res, find the exact font, put in their name, print it on matching cardstock, etc, etc ,etc...
never got caught.

>>4690324
I actually make duplicate con badges this way. If the convention has the option of mailing them out ahead of time for a little extra cash, I do that and make a shit ton of dupe badges and sell them for $10 each to people I know. If the con does not have the option of getting yours ahead of time, I will just take my notebook and scanner with me and make copies in the hotel room and print them at a kinkos near the convention center. I just make sure that the people I am giving the fakes to, have a plastic cover already from an old badge, so they can slip their new fake one into it.

I've snuck a friend into a con before. It was just the ACen dealer's room. He was only with us for a few hours and wasn't sneaking in to buy anything. He was just there to chill.

I also know some cons you can replace lost badges for like $10 instead of the usual $60 price to get a complete new badge. You can only replace it once, but it's an awesome deal if you want to get a friend in somewhere. Or you can just use a friend's badge, etcetc.

Not really a big deal unless you abuse it.

I know at Tekko this year they used Fluorescence ink and had black lights at the checkpoints.

>>4690379

That's why the rainbow stuff is on them now.

>>4690395

the sparkly shit on the edge of the AX badge would actually be easy to fake.
just buy a sheet of it at a fisherman's hardware shop.

>>4690413
all you had to do is get one of the free ones on day 1 after 3:30. I used the first free one for all the days and they never checked.
Then again I didn't go to any panels, I'm sure they would of checked harder there.

I'm a huge faggot, and I would never do any of this, because I'd like to support the convention. I figure eh, no big deal.

>>4690324
Yeah this used to be the norm, but places like SDCC or other bigger cons have barcodes or hologram stickers now.

However if they don't have any of that, this would still work.

Actually, at this past AX, I was with my friend and right after we got our badges, we headed to the bathroom. She lost it on the way there and I was worried she would have to pay for a new one.
They replaced it free of charge.
You could easily get multiples this way.

Depends on the con, the venue, and then depends on where you're going within the convention.

Big cons like Otakon and Comic-Con San Diego are fairly strict about checking badges, and buying duplicates can be difficult. However, since your name is pretty small on it, you can "share" badges... i.e. one person goes in with the badge with a 2nd person, 2nd person runs a badge out to another person. As long as you don't leave, you're fine.

Smaller cons don't usually check at all.

The venue matters... cons in hotels, they can't technically check who goes in and out of the hotel, as it's a public building. That can get you through to a point, with no badge at all. Many of these cons, however, may check once you enter a panel or a vendor hall.

Cons in convention centers will most likely check everyone's badge at every entrance point, since it is a private building for a specific purpose. If you have a decent enough fake, you might be ok.

Finally, most cons you can wander around freely without a badge. You might only run into badge checking when entering certain rooms, again like the vendor hall, panel rooms, etc.

I've never heard of anyone getting busted. The worst you'll get is a "no entry". Also you have to keep in mind that while there may be "official" security, they are only security guards. A lot of the times, the person checking the badges is a volunteer. It's not like the Inquisition or anything...

At the last NYCC/AF a friend of mine was in a pretty good cosplay. Not elaborate but just accurate and good. She walked in with a huge group and just nodded. I was pretty jelly since I paid 50 buck for 3 days of a not so great con.
I'm gonna try to get in free this year.

Me and my sister went around a local con without badges for a day, being sneaky when we needed to, and eventually snuck into one of the dances. Over the course of the dance, we found two badges lying on the ground, that people had dropped, and took those.

I like saving money.

I'm not familiar with Western cons but at most Asian cons the performing teams get free passes, but have to pay a deposit. I just get a bunch of performing friends to list me in their troupe, pay the deposit and get a free pass.

It's awesome since the performance stage passes let you come and go as you please through a side-entrance while everyone has to wait in huge lines and can't re-enter due to huge crowds.

>>4690522
a lot of Western cons offer the chance of getting a free badge if you hold and run a panel. There are really no special privileges that come with the badges, but they are free.

Are there any cons that use blacklight besides E3?
I got stopped multiple times because my badge was printed oddly and the blacklight text was on the inside so it had to be taken out and flipped around until they found it.
But I don't think other cons would be that anal about it.

I was looking over all of my old badges, and while yes, a few of them would be pretty easy to fake, I think Kumoricon's is pretty much impossible.

The badge itself is an actual plastic card, about as think as my drivers license, and the plastic container has the year stamped into it in a very visual spot. This is in addition to the standard "Authentic Original" holo sticker.

there were rumors that at this year's ACEN, all badges would be checked via the barcode upon entering panels, etc.


this never happened.

>>4690546
*about as thick

>>4690542
Tekko used blacklight this year.

>>4690542
Unless something drastically changed this year, I can say that the following cons do not blacklight:
- Otakon
- NY Anime Fest/ NY Comic-Con
- Wizard World
- Comic-Con San Diego
- Dragon Con
(Omitting small/local cons because those barely check badges, period.)

The one thing I will say is that last year DragonCon really cracked down late at night as to who went in and out of which hotel. It was to the point that they were requiring everyone to show a room key for the hotel they were trying to enter and/or convention badge. They still did not blacklight, and this was only after midnight or when trouble happened.

>>4690546
Oh look, I have that same badge sitting right here.
The Kumoricon ones are pretty legit.

>>4690564
Oh fuck I forgot to blur out my name.

>>4690559
I was at DC last year with a friend who lost her badge, and while it was annoying getting stopped between hotels while we were drunk, I was glad they checked. Those fucking football fans get really out of control.

The San Francisco Wondercon badge seems pretty easy to fake, but it's front and back so you'd have to deal with that. SDCC comes in a plastic case with the year printed on it and it has a barcode, so no dice.

Norwescon's is pretty impossible imo. It's plastic, like a library card or something, with your name, a serial number (I guess), the year, and original artwork that I assume changes every year.

I don't really mind, since the cons I go to I get badges for free since my mom is a professional. But that also means I don't go to any fan-based cons....

Sakuracon's badge looks like it would be easy to fake, but they do have their special Sakura-Con-Logo-Holo-Sticker. That could be a bitch.

The sticker wouldn't be a problem if the staff weren't completely anal about checking badges. There are two specific places where I would get stopped all the time, because my badge was on the upper arm of my cosplay instead of the front (where it would have been difficult to attach): The entrance to the games area, which also houses the Dealers Hall; and the entrance to the Main Events area, which leads to the upper floor with most of the panels and the Artist Alley.

However, if you know the layout of the convention center, it's really easy to get past both of these places by using specific entrances and taking the back hallways.

>>4690632
Wait. I was walking through my plan, and it would be impossible to completely avoid the dealers hall checkers. They're standing at the only entrance. BUT they aren't nearly as anal as the ones at the two places I mentioned, and if you walk in with a group of people and something badge-shaped on your chest, you should be fine.

The Artist Alley/Main Events is a bit tricky to get to and avoid the checkpoints, but it's possible. Take the main entrance and elevator to floor level 4 (as high as it will go), instead of going to the games area take the back hallway out. That bypasses the front of the entrance to the games area, and is actually a nice way to walk if you want to avoid crowds. From there take the elevator next to the bathrooms up to the sixth floor, where you can take one more long hallway to get to the Artist Alley/Panels, and then take the big ass escalator down for Main Events. Utilize the group-of-people method to get into events. If it's an event you line up for, wait until they start letting people in through the side door like they normally do, then go through the big double doors you normally exit through while staff is distracted (this is also a really great way to skip the line).

I have no life.

>>4690674
*escalator next to the bathrooms, there is no elevator.

>>4690605
Yeah I was glad they were checking, too, and that they got the situation(s) under control before they got any worse. I'm just saying, in the context of sneaking into/around a con, it won't happen there.

>>4690632
The convention staff in seattle NEVER EVER check badges closely. I had a really bad fake PAX badge falling apart and they didn't even take a second look.
The green shirts don't care at all. All they care about is moving people through the doors as quickly as possible since it's easy to clog up the seattle convention center.
I also got into panels with the fake badge with the PAX staff checking.
I felt bad having a fake badge for that con since I love that convention.

goddammit, just pay for it, seriously.

>>4690674

It's like I'm reading a game walkthrough or something...

SDCC actively checks now, they are printed with special ink..shows up under a black light pen.

Thats really the only con you have any right to try try and sneak into since the badges are so impossible to get sometimes. All other cons, just fucking pay for it you homeless bum

So far my SDCC badge has only been checked once via bllacklight in all my years of going and all the many entering/exiting. It was during the evening (5-6pm, maybe) last year when it was much less busy. If you have a copied badge and somehow have gotten an extra badgeholder then you can get in during the busier times where they don't have the luxury of checking everyone because of the sheer number.

>>4691359
PAX sells out way quick, man. One month, they're all gone.

>>4691560
That's why I had a fake badge.
It really makes me angry to see all the ticket scalpers right outside the convention center with fifty badges around their neck selling them for 150$

Anime Vegas has begun using shiny holographic stickers to make it possible to tell the difference between a fake and a real badge.

My captcha thinks badge-faking is terrorism.
>Stakldit al-Qiyada

I've worked for SDCC [as in being paid] - current policy is everyone gets scanned as you go into the hall.

>>4691631
how long have they had that rule? maybe it's because i spend all day in the center but i've rarely gotten scanned

>>4691678
So remember those "drawings" where they would scan your badge?

...Yeah.

I would only fake a badge/sneak in if it were a smaller con. They don't really care, so I just borrow a badge. There's also the alternative of volunteering or staffing, but it gets tedious.

I remember back when NDK had yellow paper badges that YOU WROTE YOUR OWN NAME ON WITH A PEN!!!

>>4692122
I don't think I even went into a panel with a drawing last year. Wait, what the fuck did I do last year? I am drawing a huge blank. I got Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei's autograph, stopped by Rocket World (absent this year, sadly) and that's all I can remember.

Picture kind of related in terms of Rocket World.

>>4690632
You could just do without it. This year, they forgot to put that sticker on a friend of mine's badge and she dealt just fine.

>>4690564
That's only prereg badges. I forgot if I did willcall or not last year, but my badge is paper with my name and number in sharpie. The only thing that'd be hard to get is the holder, with the year and con name on it, but you could probably go up to the reg table and say you lost it (or if you were afraid of them finding out your badge was fake, have a friend ask)

I planned on doing a fake badge with one i was attending a while back. they decided to use wristbands instead.

I honestly had no idea people even go through this much trouble to fake a badge, or that badge-faking is this widespread

Huh

Just pay for a badge you cheap landwhales.

Quit trying to cheat the system because it WILL bite you in your giant ass one day.

pay for your badge. cons, specially small cons, NEED that money to improve the con :T

>>4692155
plastic or paper? Plastic would be a bigger bitch....

Wow, this really puts things in perspective. To think, I was annoyed when Wellington Armageddon upgraded from stamps to paper wristbands...

>>4692220
>>4692220
plastic, bro...

>>4692193
>>4692214
OP here, and yeah the only con I'm really considering stuff like this for is SDCC because no matter how hard I tried this year I couldn't get a ticket.

>>4691166
>>4692193
Seriously, this. If you want to save money, THEN DON'T GO. You're not entitled to this shit you spoiled cunts.

At Sakuracon on the last night I ran into a friend that was using his VIP badge from the prior year and still got all the benefits of it even thought the design looked completely different. myDraperwhen

As someone whose been talking about how difficult some of these would be to forge, I promise it's purely hypothetical on my part. I have no problem paying for a badge, I just like the idea of the challenge of NOT paying.

I might make a fake for my next convention (already bought the badge) just to see if I can get away with it.

You're all poorfags.
or cheap, thieving pussies.

I've seen people sneak into SDCC right past the guards. First thing in the morning they're pretty good about checking. After the initial rush you just flash your badge and they look for half a second. And when you're in costume, you just have to pull enough of your badge out that they can see you have one. Cause why would you be there, all dressed up, if you didn't have a badge to begin with?

speaking of SDCC badges, I wouldn't mind helping people register for next year. Beats having to get in the ring with the shit-tacular online registration system.

>>4690495
>one person goes in with the badge with a 2nd person, 2nd person runs a badge out to another person. As long as you don't leave, you're fine.
This is what I do when a friend of mine or sister doesn't get a badge. I just make sure they don't have pins on them or something of the sort.

I have gone to SDCC for many years, you can sneak past the guards in a big group.

>>4695253

That's pretty much what I did at Katsucon, essentially.

I even got to perform in a small comedy panel. :x

>>4695705
Well, I have a ban and trespassing notice to fill out now.

A few tips:

1. Get a map of the con's facilities. I mean, get a map.....every hallway, every emergency exit, every maintenance hallway.....i've been to some cons and conferences where i've passed security by utilizing emergency stairwells and maintenance hallways. Of course, make sure those doors aren't alarmed!!

2. If the con is at a hotel.....dress and act the part of a tourist. It's much more believable if you look like an out of town person than someone that "fits in' with the con crowd.

3. If you feel extremely bold.....dress up like a civil servant. Nothing says "authority" like dressing up like a Health Inspector. Or a Building Inspector. You just gotta look the part. I've gotten into one con dressed in a Hi-Viz jacket and a Hard Hat......the con staff thought I was there to work on something because I found out they were doing some construction work in an adjacent area next to the con.....

It does take some effort to freeload, but it's worth it..