I decided to upgrade to Sponsor a few hours ago. For this single reason of supporting EF. I'm glad I did this before reading your post.
Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for all the guys that support the con with their wallets and I would do too if my financial situation would be better now. Not because I want to be first in line (heck I usually show up way late anyway) but because I want to support the con.
Exactly my point. People should help because they can and want to, not because they get something in return. If they do it for something in return, then it's not helping, that's just business and nothing else.
Now, I do understand that running a con requires a lot of money and that organizers need to gather those money somehow. I am also fine with some special "thank you" gifts like towels or t-shirts or mugs. What really bugs me, though, is that you decided to include in the sponsor benefits something that's public, like Dealer's Den access. Everyone should be equal in this regard and by letting sponsors in earlier, you clearly state that they are better then everyone else because they are richer. And that's not fair.
It's done this year already and I don't suppose it can be changed, nor do I expect it. But please, keep this in mind when thinking of sponsor benefits for the next year. Public things should remain public, undivided on the part for richer and poorer.