The Collective gals got into the blogging game because of our burning desire to attend San Diego Comic-Con and coexist IRL with other nerds. If you’ve read the 2-part “Great Comic-Con Disappointment”, you’ll know that we haven’t gotten tickets, well, ever. Still, our adversity created this amazing blog and, as we grumbled much of the summer 2013 (and well into 2014), the fire continued to burn. Over the years, the Collective bloggers spent most of our time at literary conventions (we’re nerds, yes), but the need to connect with fandom is a very real and burning desire. We know finding the perfect, attainable event can become a challenge. Fan conventions are usually sold out a year in advance, which means scoping out the scene well in advance. We attended our first official fan con as a blog team in November 2013, mulling over the $85 single day ticket price for the Burbank Supernatural Convention, for about 15 seconds, before fully committing to cosplay, photo-ops and autograph sessions that turned out to be AMAZING.

My advice? As soon as you hear about a con, Google it. Look it up. Do your research. Find out how much the tickets are, when they usually go on sale and what kind of crowd your particular fan con draws. Then, start buying stuff. A entry ticket here, a photo-op there. Spread out the cost of the items you want to enjoy at the fan con over time, and it won’t hurt as much. Next, check out the list below. It contains my top 5 picks for California fan conventions in 2014. Tell me your favorites in the comments below.

xoxo The Collective Diva