If you want to attend Comic-Con International in San Diego this year (July 21-24), you'll need a badge…and if you don't have one already, you may be outta luck. They went on sale on February 20, 2016 and sold out in about the time it takes to warm a Hot Pocket.
I said earlier here that they sometimes have another, limited sale of 'em. Well, they don't do that anymore. It used to be that enough badges were returned for refunds before the event that they could hold another sale. Now, too few are returned. Right now, I would guess that your best chance would be to connect with some exhibitor who received some for the folks who'll be manning their booth and might have an extra. Do not — repeat: do not — contact me to plead that it's the last wish of your dying child or anything of the sort.
One other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of people who are unable to secure badges go there anyway. They seem to have a perfectly wonderful time going to the street fair that occurs outside the convention hall and in nearby venues.
Last year, a fan who was at the con in search of autographs complained to me that he'd been unable to get certain ones for which he'd yearned. The particular celebs he sought were all well-guarded and/or managed to avoid a lot of mingling while in the convention hall. But what really ticked him off was that a friend of his who hadn't been able to score a badge had been able to get signatures from some of those stars outside the hall. He'd run into them coming or going or while dining in local restaurants.
If you do have a badge, you might also now be fretting about a hotel room. Rooms at hotels in the outlying areas are now on sale. Rooms at hotels near the convention center will soon go on sale. Everything offered through these channels will sell out. Do not dawdle.
If you can't be there for one reason or another, I'm sorry. It's always a great time for most of us. I know a few folks who go each year, mainly it seems so they can complain about how crowded it is and how it's not like the Good Ol' Days when con attendance was under 7,500. I've taken to suggesting to these people that they stay home so they don't have as much to complain about and so that their badges can go to persons who'll actually enjoy being there.
Most years, the only thing I can find to complain about is the food — if that indeed is what it is — that is sold in the convention center. But that's not longing for the past since it was never good…there or in any other convention center I've ever visited.