I remember the good old days when Spooktacular and SDCC were HUGE with free figure and statue giveaways constantly going on. Free shipping or tax codes would be great but they would definitely limit the number of winners, pissing off most participants. This way, everyone gets at least a buck for sitting in on each event. It's a psychological win, as we've shown, even getting a buck gets us going back...
By the way, I'm sitting at $9.00 for Spooktacular and that's with the generosity of a fellow Freak who shared a $5 RP code.