Hello.  This is all new to me.  My kiddo is into pokemon and looking for certain cards and looking to trade Pokemon cards so she would like to attend Gen Con Indy.  Do we need to purchase a badge or is there another type of ticket to purchase since we will not be doing any of the games.  Thanks for any info.

I think that there used to be a 'walk around' badge a long time ago, but now it's just one badge. Depending on your child's age, you might be able to get them a child badge for free with your adult badge. I think that they have to be 11 or under for this. But the child badge cannot participate in any events.

You don't have to buy a 4 day badge. You can just buy a badge for the day(s) you want to attend.

I'm not involved in the TCG world, so I don't know how easy it is to just trade cards... there may not be a designated area for it. But there should be Pokemon events in which your child could participate, and they might find other players there willing to trade.

If you're looking to trade or buy, you might want to check out the Exhibit Hall, too. The hall is HUGE, so if you know of any Pokemon vendors, that might be a way to go, too. If I remember right, it's open 10am-6pm Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but you might want to avoid the crush when it opens on Thursday (see the first 30 seconds of that link).

Gen Con | List of Exhibitors

The Crush

Pokémon usually has a large game play area where they run beginner games and tournaments. Maybe look for that area and ask the staff about trading suggestions. 
also maybe look into the tournaments Pokémon plans to run. Sometimes they run promo box tournaments those are fun and you’re guaranteed to get like 30 cards or so. 

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