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I have been trying to register since the minute it opened and I am still getting “payment failed. I got barely any help from emailing growtix and no response through the Otakon email form. 😭😭

It is now December and the photo booth photos from Lyra's Formal Ball still have not surfaced. People who got their pictures taken there get excited to see them and keep asking about them various places online. Can we get those up please?

@Daniel Perales - Thought about this yesterday. Assuming you did the same thing I did and moved the little slide which says shipping and billing addresses are the same. Try filling in both separately and see if that lets it push through. Am going on the assumption that filling in the 2nd one manually overrides any saved information. Someone else registered me in the mean time, so I haven't been able to try this myself.

Funny thing about addresses. When you go to get certain documents renewed, they want to see 2 forms of ID. If the names are different (middle name, middle initial, etc.), they will reject the renewal. Go to the local government office to update one of the IDs and they say "Oh, looks like the Post Office changed the city name on your address." Depending in which database you look, the town name is one or the other. The Zip Code is 5 digits or 9 digits. Really annoying. I tried all combinations, but none of them worked. Not sure how you can reach someone to just get the information they have rem

I remember that. I think the Otakon 2013 shirt I have came from that. I think staff was passing out old Otakon shirts to people they were turning away, if I remember it correctly. **** Am I correct that the free shipping this year was default? For some reason I think last year's free shipping was an option to add-on.

In most cases declines come from address mismatches with what the card issuer has on file. In particular, Amex is a real stickler for everything matching exactly. Although a similar thing can happen if you are using a disposable card/gift card, and you haven't registered an address with it.

I just got home and tried, and it worked no problem. Maybe because they already had my info? Didn't get the cheaper membership, but $5 ain't gonna break the bank (though with the holidays coming up...). It's nice to get free shipping for badges. I paid / opted for mailing since the option became available. (Don't know how many of us were stuck in this debacle in... 2014(?) Funny grognard story, to lighten the mood. My original Otakon ID is under 2000. (It worked the last time I tried it.) One year in Baltimore when they still did on-site only, I handed my printout to the person behin

I've been getting that with the exception that It showed how many $70 badges were left. Then, it declined my first credit card (which I know that there's more than enough funds on it), then I went for another. Still rejected my next card. Then the next one. Then I had a notification that the badge was no longer around. I got the "Sold Out" of the $70 after I made a refresh, so I tried the $75 instead. Still rejecting my cards.

I've been having some problems. All of my cards are being rejected!

Registration is now open for Otakon 2024! Register online today to secure your spot. Badge Mailing is included with all orders made before 11:00 PM EDT on May 22nd, 2024!! All badges can be mailed, yes for $0! Of course if you really want, you can still opt-out and pick up your badges at-the-door. Full details and the access to the registration portal Click Here

It might affect attendance for Otakon and/or AnimeNYC if planning for two conventions in the same month. If both required a hotel, I would have to pick either Otakon or NYC. At least I only need a hotel for one convention. Still, Otakon has been my alternate to NY/NJ conventions since 2015 so I'll likely continue to go to otakon until Real life finally catches up to me. I did notice that while 3-day and Saturday tickets sold out quickly for 2023, Friday/Sunday waited until maybe the last week or two weeks to sell out. 200K might be an estimated challenge for AnimeNYC, but 100K may be

I keep getting a message "payment failed" when trying to submit it. Tried 2 separate browsers at least 4 times each. Guessing the $70 rate is gone, but it won't display the $75 rate. Disappointing.

For those who haven't seen it, pre-reg opens up on Monday. The pricing is the same as last year, the first 500 people can register for $70, and after that it's $75 (until the price cut-offs next year). Option for free badge mailing again too.

Let's use the attendance numbers for 2022 as a reference: Anime Expo 2022: Over 100,000 Otakon 2022: Over 40,000 Anime-NYC 2022: 55,000 Anime-NYC is the newest convention (started in 2017), and it took off like a rocket compared to Anime Expo and Otakon in their years of existence. If it wasn't for the COVID-19 pandemic interruption, it would have been probable that Anime-NYC attendance numbers would have caught up, or at least closed in on Anime Expo's numbers by now. They already surpassed Otakon numbers as you can see. According to the article, it look

Isn't Otakon the original one for the East Coast? Where do the attendance numbers land for those other conventions compared to Otakon?

Hi All! Just got back from Anime-NYC. So far, it's ok. But this news caught my attention: Anime NYC Moves to August in 2024 With Expanded Javits Presence - News - Anime News Network With this change of date, this places Otakon right between two major industry anime cons, now. With these conventions barely a month apart now, I'm afraid that Otakon is going to be squeezed out of existence. Just to put things into perspective: Anime Expo: July 4-7, 2024 Otakon: August 2-4, 2024 Anime-NYC: August 23-25, 2024

Zeno Robinson, Ricco Fajardo, Stephen Fu, Molly Searcy, Dani Chambers, Daman Mills, Alejandro Saab, Max Mittelman, Allegra Clark, Robbie Daymond, and Ray Chase

Yoshiki abruptly canceled an event in San Francisco to go to Japan as reports came out that Heath had died. Now we have official confirmation from the band. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-11-11/x-japan-releases-statement-confirming-passing-of-band-member-heath/.204340 Pata and Heath joined Yoshiki onstage at Otakon 2014:

I'd say the merchandise selection being lower is because shopping online has become more prevalent over the years, especially with the lockdown in the past few years. Then again, I've seen anime T-shirts at department stores, the local Barnes & Noble has a section for manga that's the same size, if not larger, than their science fiction section, and there's stuff like Pokemon merchandise in grocery stores and places like Target. There is still stuff out there, but it's not as concentrated in big displays in stores as much as little things here and there. (I was just at a gem show over the

I think anime/manga peaked and is on the downward side of the curve. F.Y.E., Spencer's, Hot Topic, etc. started carrying anime related material when it became hot, but the selection is going down slowly. Now it is just one genre out of other popular ones.

It's funny, back in 1994 Otakon was probably viewed by the locals as some fringe gathering of geeks and weirdos. Now, when I walk into my local Five Below they have Miku posters and my local Target has Spy x Family manga right on the "featured" front shelf. By 2007, Best Buy had an entire aisle devoted to anime DVDs. It's crazy to think how quickly anime has become popular.

Welp...I tried to view those images in my browser, but they got blocked by my antivirus program because of "riskware".

I'm glad I remembered to get pictures of some of them. These were from 2009 when Otakon was auctioning the remaining standees off. https://imageupload.io/en/l0RMlDU1GMYgMeb https://imageupload.io/hFbc2Y45Jmh5Xg4 https://imageupload.io/V6RzMx3EhbaGfZp https://imageupload.io/GAn1nTRABDnI77r https://imageupload.io/VYH2HWMCXsNWbL1

I think they also had Priss from Bubblegum Crisis" as well. I can picture Anya Forger from "Spy x Family" pointing the entrance of the "Otachan". Lawrence and Holo from "Spice & Wolf" leading everyone to the Dealer's Room.

They had Bean Bandit, Lum, and Ranma-chan, if I recall. Maybe if they made them into sign posts it would be worth it. Otherwise, those have limited novelty to today's anime crowd. You would also have to pay licensing fees for their use today. Back in 1994, Otakon was flying under the radar and could get away with using the character boards.