Vendors are still cutting boxes open when you walk in, and the exclusives are all sitting untouched on the shelf. Nobody has bought anything yet. The whole hall is laid out in front of you, quiet, and for a few hours you get to learn it before it becomes a scrum.
That is the reward for planning far enough ahead. Premium badge holders get the floor, the exclusives, and artist alley first — convention-only limited editions, publisher variants, and pieces from the most in-demand creators that are simply gone by Saturday afternoon. Programming is deliberately thin, a handful of panels and screenings, because the point is the floor: map it, mark what you want, buy before the competition arrives.
Access requires the full weekend badge; there is no single-day version of this evening. The Anaheim convention center, with shuttles and the rail station close.
The people who plan ahead have already decided. Decide alongside them.