Please forbid Funko Pop autographs from Japanese guests

[otoxo 13]

Scalpers ruin autograph sessions. Scalping of Funko Pop figures in particular is the number one source of the problem.

In 2023, Anime Expo's autographs were marred by a large group of organized scalpers (~30 people) who engaged in highly disruptive behavior in the waiting lines and when interacting with a certain Japanese guest. All of them brought Funko Pops to be signed. This year, AX banned Funko Pops from being signed by Japanese guests. As a result, scalpers lost their incentive to participate.

Other cons are learning from that. San Japan now also forbids Funko Pops from being signed by Japanese guests, for example.

I see Otakon this year has some big-name Japanese guests that may draw the attention of organized scalpers. I hope you can consider my suggestion.

[TomDent 24]

I've seen bans like this at small conventions as well. I've never owned a Funko Pop and have only gotten one autograph at a con before (on a CD), so I never really understood why there are so many problems involving the Funko Pop autographs. Like why Funko Pops specifically and are there problems like this with other items?

[otoxo 13]

6 hours ago, TomDent said:

I've seen bans like this at small conventions as well. I've never owned a Funko Pop and have only gotten one autograph at a con before (on a CD), so I never really understood why there are so many problems involving the Funko Pop autographs. Like why Funko Pops specifically and are there problems like this with other items?

I honestly don't know how Funko Pops wound up becoming so frequently scalped. I'm guessing it's because they are cheap to obtain (~$15 per figure) and there is a huge variety of them for every fandom, so a buyer exists for every figure. They are also uniform in size so they are easy to store and display.

Regarding autographs on Funko Pops, the big advantage that Funko Pops have for scalpers over other types of products is how easy it is to manipulate an autograph written on the packaging. When Japanese guests autograph an item, they will frequently personalize it by writing the recipient's name ("To John Doe") and also include the date. When a guest signs a Funko Pop, they write on the window of the box, which is made of plastic, using ink pens. Scalpers then take some rubbing alcohol and use it to wipe away the personalization and the date, leaving only the signature. Now the scalpers can sell the autographed Pops to anyone.

I've seen other types of autographed products get scalped, usually event-exclusive items like shikishi boards or posters. But it is not possible to manipulate those other types of autographed products to erase the personalization, at least not with the same level of ease. And attempting to sell a personalized item is obviously more difficult than selling a non-personalized item, so most scalpers generally won't bother.

I don't own any Funko Pops either. I have no complaints about the products themselves and I don't dislike them. My complaints are directed only toward people who use them to cause problems, like scalpers.

[TomDent 24]

That makes sense. I don't have any Funko Pops, but I don't dislike them either. I can see how scalpers can take advantage of them and it's sad for fans who can't afford a more expensive figure to get autographed.

[otoxo 13]

I recently learned that Otakuthon (which is on the same weekend as Otakon this year) will also not allow Funko Pop autographs from Japanese guests ... at least, not for free. They will charge a minimum of $200 for each Funko autograph.

That is another option that would keep event-disrupting scalpers away. If outright banning Funkos feels like too big a step, then charge a fee to deter those disruptive people from participating.

[rotinoma 6]

I have some first hand experience with this, having been in that AX line last year and as I often do the JP guest autograph line, I've seen it there are various other cons also. Funko pops (especially limited or autographed ones) are traded like comic books so there is a vibrant second-hand market, which is just another way to say scalping autographs on Funko pops is becoming a big deal. Actually it already has been for a while for dub voice actors, and some have taken various approaches to this. The issue to me is not so much they're traded, but because these autographs now have a market value, it does not go with the free autograph system that traditional anime cons use for Japanese guests. This is part of the problem--scalpers can bring a large cohort or even buy badges for mules and it would make economic sense, but this squeezes out the usual crowd for those guests. And Japanese guests often come here not on a work visa and don't have a reasonable way to run an autograph table to charge for autographs, at a con, all weekend long. Banning Funko is actually the least friction, easiest way to solve this problem. If the idea is that fans of these Japanese guests can go see them at the autograph session, then this does the trick. If you are a fan who wants to get a Funko pop signed, that sucks, but you can get something else signed. If you are here just to get your Funko signed, you'd just not participate. To me that is a win-win with a small casualty. It is what it is.

I have to also give some props to these Funko collectors who would travel as much as I do and come up with systems to protect their stuff while out and about. It's quite neat. I hope there is a better solution for those folks but frankly it is crazy and it is why we are not going to be able to have nice things.

[otoxo 13]

Truthfully, I couldn't care less what people get signed as long as they follow the rules.

But the problem is that, more often than not, the people who don't follow the rules — who engage in bad behavior, and who cause problems for the guests, other attendees, and con staff — are Funko Pop scalpers.

I was at AX 2023 too and I witnessed the disruptive behavior that those Funko scalpers are capable of. I intentionally did not describe what happened in detail in the OP because I didn't want to showcase their negativity in Otakon's forum. Anyone who's interested can Google it and find plenty of videos and Reddit and Twitter posts about it.

 

5 hours ago, rotinoma said:

because these autographs now have a market value, it does not go with the free autograph system that traditional anime cons use for Japanese guests. This is part of the problem--scalpers can bring a large cohort or even buy badges for mules and it would make economic sense, but this squeezes out the usual crowd for those guests.

Yes, this. You understand the issue very clearly. Just the sheer number of scalpers who show up can become a problem.

Here's a hypothetical scenario:

What would Otakon staff do if 30 scalpers show up two minutes before an autograph line opens and refuse to disperse? Once a crowd forms at the start of the line, other regular attendees will see that crowd and will move in and congregate there too. What will happen then? Two minutes is not enough time to call security for help. And even if help arrives, how will they identify the people who did not follow the rules in that giant mass of people?

It's better just to ban Funkos, which would dissuade those 30 scalpers from showing up in the first place. Sorry to all the well-behaved, non-scalper attendees who also wanted their Funkos signed.

[otoxo 13]

Here's an update about Otakon and Funkos.

On Friday, Otakon displayed this sign at the entrance to the autograph lines.

This is a great start.

Nevertheless, here is why these restrictions are not enough.

(1) The Sharpies that Otakon provides the guests are just regular Sharpies. There is nothing special about them. The ink in these Sharpies can be easily erased using rubbing alcohol, if the ink is on certain surfaces.

(2) It is possible to erase the Sharpie ink written on the cardboard of Funko Pops because the box has a glossy, laminated surface. The gloss protects the box and will not be damaged by rubbing alcohol.

(3) Since it is possible to erase the Sharpie ink on the Funko box, it does not matter if you require personalization or require a specific type of personalization. Ultimately, if a scalper wants to erase the personalization, they will be able to do it.

(4) At least one guest today would not sign figures — Yumi Kakazu. (Every type of figure was forbidden, not only Funkos.) That is excellent. However, this restriction was not announced ahead of time before the autograph line formed. It was announced after attendees already lined up. As a result, scalpers (if present) were already in line when they received that news. In other words, they had already taken the spots of actual fans.

If Otakon wants to forbid signatures on specific items to stop scalpers, the restrictions must be announced ahead of time, before the line forms. The earlier the better. For example, display the restrictions in the schedule, or announce the restrictions on social media. (Ideally, during the guest invitation process, the restrictions should be spelled out in the guests' contracts.) The point of the early announcements is to dissuade the scalpers from lining up in the first place.

I'm glad to see Otakon has taken steps to stop potentially disruptive people like scalpers. Thank you for protecting the guests and the real fans. Keep it up, and keep going!

[otoxo 13]

Here's the sign posted at the entrance to the autograph lines on Saturday. As you can see, there were some changes.

Were these changes enough to stop Funko scalpers on Saturday? Unfortunately not.

Once again, Funko scalpers were out in full force. They got shut down at some signings, but there was at least one signing where they caused a lot of trouble. It was for voice actor Kentarou Ito.

Problems started even before the official line-up. After a crowd began to form at the entrance of the autograph area, the man in charge of establishing the official line told everyone to, among other things, not let families get separated from each other in the crowd. After one member of a Funko scalper group squeezed through the crowd into the official line, around 8+ other people behind him formed a chain by each putting one of their hands on the shoulder of the person in front of them so they could all walk right through together. They claimed to be family, but they were obviously not related. They were all Funko scalpers.

After the line had formed inside the waiting area, an Otakon staff member announced that Ito didn't have any restrictions on what he would sign. All official items were allowed. That's what the staffer claimed anyway.

At the autograph table, Ito was with seated with three other guests (a novelist, a producer, and a director). They were all guests of Frontier Works. Ito was at the end of the table and was supposed to be the last person to sign, after the other three. The scalpers all ignored the other three guests and went straight to Ito. That's not against any Otakon rules, but it does show you how incredibly rude the scalpers were. But the worst was yet to come.

Once the scalpers reached Ito, a woman behind the table next to Ito wearing an Otakon staff badge informed them that he would not sign their Funko Pop box windows using the markers that the scalpers had brought. The scalpers started causing a ruckus, saying things like the Funkos were their property and they should be allowed to have it signed how they wanted. They were literally at the front of the line, in front of Ito, arguing.

At one point, one of the scalpers said — and this is an exact quote — "We talked to the chairman of the con and he said it's okay." That's right, the scalpers were claiming that the chairman of Otakon had allowed them to get their Funkos signed.

Ito seemed to want to placate them by just getting the signing done and over with, and the scalpers tried to use that to their advantage. "See? He's willing to sign it," one of the scalpers said. But the Otakon staff member remained firm.

It got so bad that four other Otakon staff members went to the front of the table to try to control the situation. Two of the staffers, a woman and a man, were wearing armbands, which indicated that they were in charge of the autograph area.

What happened next is unclear. It seemed that the scalpers compromised by getting their Funkos signed on the cardboard part of the box using markers provided by Otakon (which, as I mentioned in my previous post, won't stop the scalpers from erasing the personalization anyway). But some of the scalpers may have left without getting their Funkos signed.

When the scalpers were done, they loitered around the front of the table, off to the side. The woman with the armband told them all firmly to leave. One of the scalpers pointed at another guest's autograph table and said he wanted to get in that line. She told him, "No, leave." The scalper had the audacity to ask "Why?" She pointed at the waiting area, where a massive line for that other table was already established, and chastised the scalper for his brazenness. She threatened to ban the scalpers from future cons if they didn't leave. One of them mumbled that that was fine because there was "no point" to all of this, referring to how he wasn't able to get his Funko signed the way he wanted it signed.

Eventually they all did leave. The four Otakon staffers had a little meeting amongst themselves to discuss what just happened.

 

I said it before and I'll say it again. More often that not, the people who cause disruptions at autographs are Funko scalpers.

You can bet that Kentarou Ito will remember this experience and will talk in private with his colleagues about it. I only hope that they recognize that not all American fans are terrible people like those Funko scalpers, and that this does not discourage other Japanese guests from coming here.

Please, Otakon, ban Funko Pops at future events.

Edited August 4 by otoxo
Fixed some typos and grammar errors.

[otoxo 13]

On 7/26/2024 at 9:54 PM, otoxo said:

What would Otakon staff do if 30 scalpers show up two minutes before an autograph line opens and refuse to disperse? Once a crowd forms at the start of the line, other regular attendees will see that crowd and will move in and congregate there too. What will happen then? Two minutes is not enough time to call security for help. And even if help arrives, how will they identify the people who did not follow the rules in that giant mass of people?

 

[otoxo 13]

[Please ignore the post above. I accidentally pressed "Submit Reply" too early. Because the forum kept getting 504 Gateway Timeout Errors and loading incredibly slowly, I passed the period for when you are allowed to edit a post.]

The "Funko Policy" sign Otakon put up on Sunday remained the same as the one on Saturday. I'm guessing Otakon decided that keeping the restrictions open-ended would allow for more flexibility, depending on the demands of the guests.

Now that Otakon has ended, I would also like to answer my own questions that I posed in an earlier post.

On 7/26/2024 at 9:54 PM, otoxo said:

What would Otakon staff do if 30 scalpers show up two minutes before an autograph line opens and refuse to disperse? Once a crowd forms at the start of the line, other regular attendees will see that crowd and will move in and congregate there too. What will happen then? Two minutes is not enough time to call security for help. And even if help arrives, how will they identify the people who did not follow the rules in that giant mass of people?

My hypothetical scenario did end up occurring. It didn't involve 30 scalpers, but rather 100-150 regular attendees who had no intention of causing trouble (though I'm sure some scalpers were mixed in).

Throughout the weekend, the entrance of the autograph area was monitored by the same man, and sometimes by a woman too. The official line-up time was 30 minutes before each autograph session, and they always did their absolute best to instruct people to move away from the entrance with their loud, commanding voices, to prevent people from convening before it was officially time to line up. (By the way, bless that poor man. The thankless job is so tough and he lost his voice after Saturday.)

When a handful of people would arrive at the entrance early, he could clear them away easily. But once it was alllllmost time to form the official line — 1 minute, 2 minutes, or 3 minutes prior — sometimes a massive throng of people would move toward the entrance simultaneously. And when that happened, there was nothing the poor man could do. There was just too many people. No amount of loud, firm instructions could persuade them to leave.

So what ended up happening in those cases?

He had to start forming the official line. It didn't matter that those people broke the rules by arriving ahead of schedule because there was nothing else he could do.

Otakon is lucky that all or most of those massive thongs were regular attendees (who weren't acting with malicious intent) and not scalpers.

Now imagine if an entire official autograph line was filled completely with scalpers who had broken the rules by arriving early and not dispersing when asked to. You can see how unfair to regular, rule-abiding attendees such a situation would be.

Please don't let Otakon have a reputation of being an "easy" con for scalpers to do their thing by breaking the rules.

The fix is simple. Once again: Otakon should take away the scalpers' incentive for lining up by forbidding Funko Pop autographs from Japanese guests.