[ultraman zoffy]

My friends and I don't really bother with large cons anymore since Wonder Con left the bay area and the first Wizard World Comic Con event held in our town last year (first one we'd ever been to) turned out to be an overpriced, overcrowded toy scalper fest. Aside from SDCC (which everyone pretty much knows is THE event), we've written off big cons since the smaller local cons and toy swap meets are way more fun, less crowded, cheaper/free, and yield more in the way of satisfying hauls and community connections. Exclusives are cool and all, but when you take into account all the drama it takes/costs to make it to an event, sometimes it's just worth it to pay the bumped up secondary market price online if they are the only thing someone is looking forward to from an event.