Why do the organizations putting on events like these leave so much money on the table? Why don't they just charge the market-clearing price themselves, leaving no room for scalpers to make any profit?
Because, ironically, a show that only rich people can afford to attend will be pretty terrible. Rich people tend not to loudly enjoy the show, so the atmosphere isn't there. This is bad for the rest of the audience and for the performer. It's hard to put 100% in when all you can see is a bunch of people staring solemnly at you. It happens in football (soccer for my American friends) for clubs like Man Utd (and probab…
Why scalpers can get tickets
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Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
SMS are plaintext that can be obtained via web API. It seems on the face of it to be just about the least effective possible means of verifying human-ness.
The reason SMS verification is popular isn't because it's effective against sybil attacks. It's not. You can get access to phone numbers in bulk for little money. It's because most honest users only have one phone number, which makes it a useful unique ID for tracking the honest users. Anyone using it should immediately be under suspicion of selling you out.
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
What good is that when the scalpers and not your fans are the ones to benefit? All you're doing is screwing your fans even more because now they have to risk getting ripped off by a scam since tickets are only available from shady third party jerks. If demand is so high that people can't afford tickets and you want to do something for the fans, put the game in a bigger stadium.
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#74Scalping is such an ugly term for "the market efficiently allocating resources." This is just completely normal price discovery. /s
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#75IMO, Comic Con has done a pretty fine job at eliminating scalpers. They do this in a few ways: - Random selection over an hour at ticket sale time that is unique per device, with some 'are you human' checks along the way to make it more difficult to bot. - Requiring physical delivery of the badge with a maximum number per address, or government issued ID to pick it up in person. - Random ID checks during the con. - T…
> So even if you bought it from a scalper, you would now have the code for next year's presale. i would imagine a scalper would record the code from the badge as well, before giving it to you. So this means they're going to be able to buy just as well, and may be invalidate the code before you get to use it!
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#76Why not raise prices until you hit the supply demand cross? Yes you will visit one event out of three (just as today), but the dignity will remain with you.
I posted this elsewhere in the thread[0], but tldr I believe that concerts give value to fans and artists beyond the ticket price as a giant ad for the band’s brand and a community that forms around it, both pressures that put the optimal price for fans and artists below the market for it as a one time entertainment option. The optimal price point for the artist playing a repeated game is therefore lower than the opt…
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make the tickets named, and require ID upon entry. Completely kill the resale market. If people can’t make it, they can return the ticket for the same amount of money they bought it, up to one week before the event. Or they can get cancellation insurance just like some would on holiday plane tickets. Returned tickets go back on sale into the main pool. As far as I can tell, the scalping problem would be gone instantl…
The problem is legitimate ticketholders don't like this. You're going to a concert with your SO that you had to buy tickets for six months in advance, then you break up and get together with someone else. Now instead of transferring the ticket you paid for to your new SO, you're stuck either going with your ex (that'll go over well) or going by yourself. People don't like this.
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
What good is that when the scalpers and not your fans are the ones to benefit? All you're doing is screwing your fans even more because now they have to risk getting ripped off by a scam since tickets are only available from shady third party jerks. If demand is so high that people can't afford tickets and you want to do something for the fans, put the game in a bigger stadium.
Because it is the scalpers charging that price and not the artist so people get angry at the scalpers and not the artist.
Re: Why scalpers can get tickets
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make the tickets named, and require ID upon entry. Completely kill the resale market. If people can’t make it, they can return the ticket for the same amount of money they bought it, up to one week before the event. Or they can get cancellation insurance just like some would on holiday plane tickets. Returned tickets go back on sale into the main pool. As far as I can tell, the scalping problem would be gone instantl…
The problem is legitimate ticketholders don't like this. You're going to a concert with your SO that you had to buy tickets for six months in advance, then you break up and get together with someone else. Now instead of transferring the ticket you paid for to your new SO, you're stuck either going with your ex (that'll go over well) or going by yourself. People don't like this.