Hey bud, I never said anything about getting it at retail. I'm just saying justifying a price due to $X spent on the ticket/travelling is not a relevant comparison. You're going to the con to see panels and the spectacle.
Getting the badge itself still has the benefit of going to the convention. However, standing in line for 4+ hours for a figure is definitely allocating your convention time for an exclusive. What that is worth to you, that is what gets the mark up. Not the cost of travel/ticket.
Sure you can recoup some of those costs, but I don't consider those a 'Cost' in acquiring the figures alone, as you're not going to SDCC ONLY to buy exclusive figures. Unless you're just trying to scalp them later to make a profit. At that point though, I'm pretty sure there are much better ways to invest your money.
I'm not demonizing people who are scalping figures, I'm just saying that justifying it as "Oh I spent $X on my ticket/travel" is absurd. You spent that money with the expectation of going to a convention. Getting excess exclusives to sell and garner some profit on is ancillary, and you are choosing to spend your convention time standing in lines. Again, standing in a line while within the spectacle of SDCC is a definite cost, and should really be what people are paying to avoid.
Sure you need the ticket for the right to get into said line, but you also need said badge to get into the different panels and announcements also at the convention.