Why scalpers can get tickets • Hacker News Board

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#51

Post by username332211 » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:52 PM UTC

bradleyankrom wrote: post #39

username332211 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reason why artists use Ticketmaster. Do you think they are stupid and just hand over ticket distribution to a company that routinely charges 30$ fees to a 40$ ticket? No, artists and producers aren't stupid, they get the most of the money from the Ticketmaster "fees". But when a fan sees a 70$ ticket, they'd may decide Bruce Springsteen (net worth 650$ million) isn't a man of the people. When they see a…

Artists do not get most of the money from Ticketmaster fees.

Yes, most go to the venue, which the artist/producer would have had to pay for (from the ticket price) otherwise. Because money is fungible it doesn't really matter if they pay the artist, or if they pay for the artist's expenses.

What matters is how much fees they charge and how much do they keep. Can't find it right now, but I remember an article claiming they rarely keep 50% of their fees.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#52

Post by jppittma » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:53 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #34

jppittma wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do fan-club registration in person.

Then they just pay homeless people to register. Whatever clever you can come up with, they will figure out a way around it.

They're going to pay thousands of homeless people to register for the fan clubs of how many artists? Nevermind the logistics of the hiring, the payment alone eats into the margin.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#53

Post by nayuki » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

firesteelrain wrote: post #29

I don’t know if I buy the premise of the article. We were able to have an opportunity to buy tickets after being waitlisted (I think it was 48-72hrs after the initial presale). But the tickets were extremely expensive. Ticketmaster was scalping not the scalpers. We did buy Taylor Swift tickets for next year however it was $1k for three tickets.

> Ticketmaster was scalping not the scalpers.

If I understand correctly, the definition of scalping is to buy and sell quickly in the hope of a profit. Ticketmaster is the originator of the tickets (it is not reselling from anyone else), so it cannot be a scalper.

You can't just make up meanings and assume that scalping means selling at an uncomfortably high price.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#54

Post by nayuki » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:56 PM UTC

jppittma wrote: post #52

dylan604 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they just pay homeless people to register. Whatever clever you can come up with, they will figure out a way around it.

They're going to pay thousands of homeless people to register for the fan clubs of how many artists? Nevermind the logistics of the hiring, the payment alone eats into the margin.

When you're rich, you can do that. Being rich, by definition, means having more options available to you.

That's really what money is - a transferable token to persuade other people to do stuff on your behalf.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#55

Post by phantomathkg » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

In some countries, the ticket tied to government issued ID and that should reduce the scalper a bit I guess?

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#56

Post by nayuki » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

jaybrendansmith wrote: post #49

I think unique identity is worth something. This is what the government (federal, state, local, doesn't matter) ought to have a role in protecting. If we had laws that said, for example, you must have proof of identity in the country or state or region where the arena is located, would that not solve this? We used to do it in the 90s by using phone area codes, and this worked pretty effectively: the early 90s was a g…

So tell international fans to f*ck off, right? I know many friends who fly to Japan to attend concerts because they genuinely like those artists. Way to stifle free trade and trample on people's preferences.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#57

Post by costco » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

nayuki wrote: post #53

firesteelrain wrote: post #29

I don’t know if I buy the premise of the article. We were able to have an opportunity to buy tickets after being waitlisted (I think it was 48-72hrs after the initial presale). But the tickets were extremely expensive. Ticketmaster was scalping not the scalpers. We did buy Taylor Swift tickets for next year however it was $1k for three tickets.

> Ticketmaster was scalping not the scalpers. If I understand correctly, the definition of scalping is to buy and sell quickly in the hope of a profit. Ticketmaster is the originator of the tickets (it is not reselling from anyone else), so it cannot be a scalper. You can't just make up meanings and assume that scalping means selling at an uncomfortably high price.

Ticketmaster has something called Official Platinum seats where the prices are dynamic and roughly reflect market prices. See https://ticketmaster-us.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/978244...

Not all events have this though.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#58

Post by c-linkage » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

slg wrote: post #47

fps-hero wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every action directed at making tickets more affordable will have the opposite effect of making scalping more profitable. Im amazed that a reverse auction style approach hasn’t caught on, when you are capacity limited it seems nearly optimal for extracting profit and kills the ticket scalping business model.

>it seems nearly optimal for extracting profit and kills the ticket scalping business model. Also seems nearly optimal for alienating all but your richest fans. The extra profit you might extract from the concert might not actually put you ahead in the long term when fans stop caring about you because of your profit maximizing business practices.

[flagged]

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#59

Post by rasz » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #34

jppittma wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do fan-club registration in person.

Then they just pay homeless people to register. Whatever clever you can come up with, they will figure out a way around it.

Thats ok as long as those homeless will show up with a ticked and ID at the gate to enter the concert.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#60

Post by hackeraccount » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

username332211 wrote: post #51

bradleyankrom wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Artists do not get most of the money from Ticketmaster fees.

Yes, most go to the venue, which the artist/producer would have had to pay for (from the ticket price) otherwise. Because money is fungible it doesn't really matter if they pay the artist, or if they pay for the artist's expenses. What matters is how much fees they charge and how much do they keep. Can't find it right now, but I remember an article claiming they rarely keep 50% of their fees.

I don't have a source but I've read the same thing; that a lot of what ticket master takes in is getting bounced around. It's a view I find very plausible intuitively. The artists (esp. the "name" artists) have all or nearly all of the leverage - whatever the ticket costs above what you'd paid if you bought at the gate is money they're leaving on the table.