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Why scalpers can get tickets

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Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#121

Post by kelnos »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #70
slau wrote: post #17

Earlier 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.

Wouldn't this account for well under 10% of potential ticket buyers, though?

Sure, if you're in a relatively new relationship, planning anything at all 6 months out is a gamble. That's just life.

At any rate, you'd still have the option of returning your ex's ticket, and buying a new one in your new partner's name.

Or you can return both tickets, and buy a new pair that are guaranteed to be seated next to each other. Sure, presumably you didn't get full price on the ticket return, but, again, that's life.

The funny thing is that, while on occasion this situation might come up, and someone will end up paying a little more to see the show, overall they (and everyone else) will pay less to see shows in general, since scalping has been (in theory) eliminated. So for most people who see a show every now and then, they'd still come out ahead under this system.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#122

Post by analog31 »

josephcsible wrote: post #4

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?

From a cynical marketing standpoint, the perceived composition of the audience is part of the product. The same is true, oddly enough, for universities. Whom you're sitting next to matters, or whom others think you're sitting next to.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#123

Post by somerandomqaguy »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #66
slg wrote: post #47

Earlier 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.

> It has been long known among industry figures that artists regularly move tickets through backdoor channels to directly profit from resale marketplaces while shunting blame to “scalpers” when fans are unable to get tickets at face value. Ed Sheeran’s management admitted the practice itself just last year, while rumors have swirled about other big names doing the same via their own held-back tickets that fans never have a shot at. The same regularly happens with professional sports teams.

> Barry Kahn, of Texas-based dynamic ticket pricing consultancy Qcue, doesn’t believe artists should be judged for using tactics including scalping their own tickets (or it’s newer twin, “Platinum” and dynamic pricing to demand). “The issue is the transparency,” he told Billboard. “If they get caught doing something they have said is wrong, then they are deceiving their fans.”

> In this specific instance, Billboard says that Metallica’s management moved up to 4,400 tickets per show over 20 concerts on the tour through intermediaries, masking the process by packaging the tickets as if they were held back for a sponsor.

- https://www.ticketnews.com/2019/07/live-nation-admits-artist...

Take it worth a grain of salt, I have no idea how true it is but it's at least a plausible explanation as to why artists may not want scalpers eliminated.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#124

Post by bombcar »

codelikeawolf wrote: post #91

I quickly scanned the article, so I might have missed this, but can someone explain how sites like StubHub get away with what they do? As soon as I found out about them, I immediately thought "aren't these people just scalpers that offer tickets on the internet instead of standing out in front of venues?" If the argument is that they're not scalpers , they're resellers , then I'd like to try selling some concert tick…

They started out as plain scalper marketplaces but now have deals with most venues to give the venue a cut.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#125

Post by umvi »

azinman2 wrote: post #114

My impractical solution: no resale of tickets, and check of ID at the door. It’ll slow things down for check in, and people sick will miss out, but it will collectively bring prices down and increase seat availability.

The article talks about how scalpers circumvent no ticket resale - sell the entire account containing the tickets.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#126

Post by DanHulton »

azinman2 wrote: post #114

My impractical solution: no resale of tickets, and check of ID at the door. It’ll slow things down for check in, and people sick will miss out, but it will collectively bring prices down and increase seat availability.

The last Nine Inch Nails concert I went to was like this. Fans on the email list got advance sales for the event, and you could buy up to two tickets, and had to have your ID match the tickets. It was great, I was able to watch right from the front of the pit, I didn't have to fight through any weird browser nonsense, and I paid exactly the price of the ticket, no more, no less.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#127

Post by gxs »

umvi wrote: post #125
azinman2 wrote: post #114

My impractical solution: no resale of tickets, and check of ID at the door. It’ll slow things down for check in, and people sick will miss out, but it will collectively bring prices down and increase seat availability.

The article talks about how scalpers circumvent no ticket resale - sell the entire account containing the tickets.

Presumably OP is saying the name on the actual ticket never changes.

That is, even if you sell the account, the ticket is tied to the person.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#128

Post by neilv »

Could Ticketmaster have any incentive to permit scalpers?

(Besides the potential for personnel to be bribed individually. I'm wondering about whether there's hypothetically an angle for the company to permit scalpers. Maybe to be involved in scalping, as a kind of double dipping.)

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#129

Post by bbreier »

supportengineer wrote: post #100
josephcsible wrote: post #4

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?

Rolex has the exact same problem.

Rolex actively engineers this situation, though

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#130

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]
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