I had no idea Mike of Anime Diet took it so seriously (via: apparently I misplaced my subscription to Anime Diet for some reason... hopefuly not a database corruption in the reader).

UPDATE: Seen in Omo's comments:

Omo - the only reason Mike got a ticket was because I (Ray at Anime Diet) wanted a Tanaka Rie autograph (I love female seiyuus) and I paid Mike via Western Union (because I really am in Taiwan). Otherwise he’d not gotten the ticket at all. He never thanked me! Ghar.

Also, Jeff answered the title of this post:

YES.

Long answer: Because you get more than just a guaranteed autograph ticket. You also get a free con t-shirt, some random junk, a 10% discount on other NYAF merchandise sold by them, and lines cut. Considering the T-shirt is 15+tax by itself, that already cuts the differential down to $30. Even if you don’t take advantage of the other perks, that will save you hours of time. To me it’s a good deal.

Duh.