Final Thoughts (Creation)

Lesson #1: Gold seats do not equal good seats, and exclusive offers may not be so special

Last year, Creation promised the very best of the best seats as an exclusive offer to the people at the Santa Monica convention. If we bought our tickets then, they would use those (randomly shuffled) to fill the best seats. Bull puckey. I gave them my money a year ago and ended up in the 10th row. Close to the center, but the stage wasn't built very high, and when Michael Hurst and Kevin Sorbo sat down in chairs for their appearance, I gave up on seeing them after ten minutes of craning my neck until it was sore. I talked to at least three people who bought tickets later (one just a six weeks before the convention) and got first through third row seats.

Don't fall for early offers of seats - when they use this "random" assignment method, apparently they'll sell good seats right up to the bell. And when you buy gold seats, ask how many rows have been sold. If they've already sold 15 rows, you'll do just as well to your pocketbook by buying preferred or even general admission seats.

Lesson #2: Gold seats no longer guarantee autographs

This was new. In previous conventions, Creation has usually stated that in the interests of time, they could only guarantee autographs to gold seats. It was one of the prime reasons to buy gold seats. Up until now, it was never much of an issue, anyway - most Xena stars are kind enough to their fans that they'd stick around until every single fan got their autograph, or until their plane was taxiing down the runway. But now, evenings are scheduled with cabarets, so there is now a limit on how long stars can sign autographs.

Saturday, the day with the most stars in the convention, many gold seats did not get autographs. Sunday, the convention ran an hour and a half late and I had to leave to catch my plane, so I don't know how well the line went then. It was a sad new development. Many people didn't get the autographs they wanted, and a LOT of pictures were sold for autographs that people never got. Again, ask how many rows have been sold when you buy your ticket, and since they're now selling pictures in the autograph line, I'd strongly suggest not buying pictures in advance unless you're happy to take them home without a signature.

Lesson #3: Unless creation specifically says an item is being auctioned for charity, it's not

This is not new. But it's been steadily getting worse, and this convention was a new low.

When I first started going to Xena conventions, the unique/straight-from-the-set items were usually auctioned for charity. That has dwindled lately, although Creation never makes specific mention of it. Now, their charity items in the auction are frequently things that can be bought from the catalogs and don't garner an usual amount of money anyway.

This was taken to a new level this year. The past two years, unique items right from the set have been auctioned for charity: Xena's chakram and Xena's sword. This year, the unique item was Gabrielle's staff. When Adam (one of Creation's managers) began to auction the item without mentioning a charity, people in the audience asked. He finally allowed that it was "not deductible," a backwards method of saying it would not be for charity. People nearly rioted. Adam got angry and gave attitude when the auctioning didn't go as high as he wanted. He complained that last year's sword went for much more money. When a couple of dozen people at the same time angrily reminded him that was for charity, he got even more belligerent: "Right, as if you were only bidding for those other items to make a donation. If you guys don't want it, we'll sell it somewhere else!"

It was one of the most disgusting displays of greed and contempt for customers I've seen. Creation started backing away from it almost immediately; when the staff was sold, an assistant whispered in Adam's ear and he announced that Creation would voluntarily give "some" money to a charity for the sale. Since then, Creation made a strangely-worded announcement that said that somehow (I think with the addition of other donation money) a charity would get the same amount of money that the staff sold for. But it doesn't excuse that kind of attitude or the original thought: that items donated to Creation by the show's celebrities no longer need to be donated to charity.

Listen carefully at the auctions. Standard merchandise is available from a dozen or more vendors other than Creation; items don't need to be bought from them at the booths or at auction. When it comes to unique items that can't be had elsewhere, the best thing I can advise is to be aware of whether the money is going to a charity or to Creation's pockets.

Return to the Pasadena Report.

	Web www.bethgriese.com