I disagree. First come first serve provides the illusion of agency and people might make the assumption that “if I fly out and get there at 6am before doors open I’ll be good to go” which actually wasn’t true. At least with the understanding that it’s an in person lottery you can help people make travel decisions with the understanding that it’s a long shot.
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I wouldn’t say that agency is an illusion. All of the E4 people I went with knew that getting there quite early was an absolute necessity. We all got through on Friday and half of us got through Saturday. With the information we had, we thought we would all get through Saturday until it became clear there were no substantial changes to Saitou’s signing speed on Saturday.
At least with first-come first-serve what you have to do is clear, all you need to do is show up early enough. While “early enough” is hard to actually pin down, it’s within your control. I would not travel at all for a lottery signing event.
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Maybe they should switch to only allowing posters to be signed 
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Posters to the moon?
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I think they need to announce a series of signings for a single artist, to eliminate the FOMO. If signings become more regular that will keep the hype down.
Those signatures look great. For my first regionals it was fun, but I feel like I’ve seen the negative part of Pokémon as well.
Glad I got my autos but some of the things I’ve done and witnessed (I guess videos as well that I didn’t expect to take or see), I can’t say I truly enjoyed. The small amount of people I’ve talked to though are great.
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Ayy, only other person I’ve seen get that meowth signed!
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That snorlax is awesome. I have to try to go to a signing one day for a snorlax. so jealous 
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The lines were long, but I am so glad to have met everyone this weekend! The sigs were the cherry on top
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Would also be cool to see (in the US at least) them to do a multiple-city tour. that way some people don’t have to travel as much, and they’ll also meet demand
edit- actually on the other hand probably not, because people who travel will go anyway. A series of signings makes more sense. Maybe one that continues after the convention is over?
Hats off to Saitou for the effort he put into this event. He put a ton of time into practicing sketches leading up to this and it shows. Every sig looks great, whether it was done at 10AM or midnight.
It was the first post-covid signing, and I don’t think anyone was expecting just how rabid people were going to be about it. The organizers made efforts to improve the experience even while the event was ongoing, so I’m sure there will be plenty of lessons learned and new systems in place going forward.
Ultimately I agree that prices will probably need to go up significantly and slots available much more limited to make things feasible. Maybe separate passes sold specifically for signing each day instead of having it open to all players and spectators.
Or maybe signings just get shut down entirely because this community is incapable of behaving, idk 
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I don’t think the price is the issue.
It won’t do much to curb demand. A large portion of autos went to people who wanted to resell them. A price increase wouldn’t deter these people, it would just increase the baseline price on the secondary market. If you truly wanted to reduce demand by a price increase you’d probably have to raise it to 1k each but then you’re obviously creating an unfair situation in a different way
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I think there is a price ceiling if artists raised prices and continued doing signings. That would increase supply. A lot of these flippers have paper hands so it would bring the ceiling down. Outside of Sugimori, I think every artist auto has a price cap.
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Yes, that is the kind of increase that I meant by “significantly”. Someone is walking away with that money anyways, I’d rather see it go through the artist/event directly than charizardballer69. I don’t imagine that will actually happen, though.
TPCI could alternatively take the other side of it and allow supply to tick up more rapidly until demand is satisfied (or just make some $5000 boxes with 1/1 refractor pikachu rookie patch autos).
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Pre-registration before the event even starts, you pick which day of the event you are going to be present.
X amount of slots per day and 3 sigs/person or whatever. Means the artist doesn’t have to sign into the night.
You get given a time slot to line up and get your signatures - Eg: 1-2pm on Saturday
Solves the issue of cutting the line, which I heard was a big problem. Also means that people aren’t forced to line up at 3am to try and get a shot at a signature (and then to not even get one).
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I feel like a possible outcome will be pokemon company stopping signing events and instead going the sports route of getting a bunch of stickers and signed cards which they release however they see fit. Then if the opportunity for a signature naturally arises so be it.
My personal opinion on the event is pretty straightforward, it wouldve been nice if everyone had a fair opportunity to get a signature. 1 signature… Also the personalization should be just that, the name you go by. Its a possible threat to the artists comfort if they dont want to be part of the reselling when they are signing stuff “to collector” “to pikachu” ect ect.
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I was way too happy for that pic there, can everyone tell? Lol
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