Is it me or did the 4 day badge increase again? Since this is a limited con should the price be cheaper?

Slightly. It was $110 + tax for a 4-day badge in 2019. 

It is the Fri-Sat daily badges that really went up. If the 4-day badges sell out and they hold fast with their statement that they will not sell any more 4-day badges even if capacity allowances increase, a cobbled-together 4-day badge made up of single-day passes will run you $216 + tax. Still not 100% if I am going to attend, but I bought my 4-day badges anyway, since rolling over or taking the refund charge is still a lot better than paying almost double for four days worth of badges.

I do not blame them for increasing the price by $3, cost of everything is up and they are taking a hit if they anticipate a smaller con. 

The convention is on shaky financial ground.  I'm sure they are doing what they can to manage. But many of the costs, such as renting the convention center may be fixed regardless of how many people come.  It is what it is.  Remember when we thought we were all in this together?  That didn't last long. 

I am puzzled by this as how can $3 be a deal breaker for you?  But if that crosses the line for you, you're free to make whatever choice works best for you. 

Even without the pandemic, their costs presumably go up every year due to inflation.  What else in our lives is the same price as years ago?  The price did jump a few years ago (same year that they added Lucas Oil Stadium, which enabled many more events.) That is obviously not applicable to this year, but they are also having to survive having missed an entire year.  Compared to flights, hotel, etc. a few more bucks for a badge seems like a minor part of the cost of the whole experience.  

Agreed. For locals who can just drive over it's a bump, but out of tickets, airfare, hotel, food, and some walking around money, the ticket price would have to skyrocket a whole lot more to be anything but a rounding error in many budgets, I imagine.

Not having to pay for Lucas Oil Stadium probably doesn't offset the costs this kind of event runs all that much. Shaving 10 or 20% off (I don't have their books, I have no idea what that portion is, I'm just spitballing as an example) of a giant number can itself be a lot of money, while also still having to cover the other massive existing costs, especially if they are expecting a smaller turnout (so fewer people paying to attend) and make up for last year (which surely had costs that weren't fully captured).

Fun sidebar topic to get you thinking on a Tuesday morning after a holiday here in the US!

I would to point you all towards two concepts.

The purchasing value of the USD and the Inflation rate.

These two economic concepts answer the above "59 cent hamburger" idea.

A great example. When I was born in 1987 a single USD was worth 2.29 of $1 today. Post WW2 $1 was worth almost 15 bucks today!

If you ever wonder why general costs are going up, its because the purchasing power of the dollar has gone down. This is something well beyond the control of a Gen Con or massive burger or taco franchises.

In that same year 1987, a single McDonald's hamburger was $.62 that would be $1.46 in today's dollar. Which you can currently get a hamburger at McD's for under $1. So in this case a burger is actually cheaper now than it was in 1987. But it costs more dollars because the purchasing power of the dollar is weaker than ever before.

Now consider according to national data compiled by MIT, a Single person's Living Wage in the US in 2021 is $15.41 an hour, or roughly $32,000 a year before tax.

I'll go ahead and let you all do the math what your copy of Gloomhaven would be worth based in dollars in year's past. lol

(I pulled all of this data from the all knowing internet, so if something is off, my bad)
Now back to your regularly scheduled forum discussions.

Which is why some may see, the price of gencon going up YET again (on top of already increasing housing costs, gas costs for travel etc) as being the 'final nail in the coffin' o them going.. Especially when weve seen NUMEROUS folks lose their JOBS over the past year cause of Covid.

Gen Con is not food or housing.  You don't need to go.  If someone is unfortunate enough to have employment issues because of Covid, or any other reason, it's sad, but it's not Gen Con's job to lower their prices to accommodate them.  Gen Con still needs the revenue to pay for the convention.

Also, considering it's about $3, if they can't afford that, they can't afford the rest of the travel & hotels.  Even if Gen Con lowered their price by $20, it would make no difference except to the few people who might be local & don't have to pay to park.

Gen Con and Hobby Board Gaming as a whole are luxury items. As Buffy said above, Gen Con needs to stay afloat and honestly a $3 difference from year to year with the hit the dollar and inflation and lost of revenue all took on the US economy as a whole, is really nothing.

People who cannot afford to go to Gen Con or buy games do not have to. Are they nice, yes, but games and gaming doesn't keep the food on the table for 99% of Gen Con attendees. Gen Con is a vacation, not everyone has a luxury of a vacation. It would be amazing if everyone could, but that is never going to be the case.

The point I tried to make above with some actual facts, are the .59 cent hamburger argument is silly, and you can't compare the USD 1 to 1 from year to year without adjustment. They just aren't equal. The price of something didn't go up, as much as the value of your dollar went down. This is the same for what you view as a straw that broke the camels back increase for Gen Con. Isn't learning more fun than complaining?

Using https://www.inflationtool.com/us-dollar/2019-to-present-value

2019 - $100
2021 - $103.68

Whoa... Look at that difference... It's like I've seen that $3 number floating around here somewhere. Just wait til Hyper Inflation! Ya'll are gonna love that! That's your homework assignment for the week. I expect a 3 page report by next Monday!

How about 1993 when it cost $40 and you got a free tee shirt adjusted for inflation thats $73.92 and mo tee shirt

I would guess that the costs of Milwaukee, were cheaper than the vast amount of space Gen Con uses in Indy. I would love to know more about how much space Gen Con used in Milwaukee vs Indy, and be corrected if that assumption is wrong. Just based on attendance in that year, according to Wiki, 20K in 93. Gen Con 95 had the largest Milwaukee crowd at 30K.

But a free t shirt is pretty sweet!

To give you an idea, the expo hall is about the size of Gencon Milwaukee.

Nothing beats Gencon 0 where it was free and you could raid Gary Gygax's fridge.