Live data from Hacker News

Why scalpers can get tickets

404media.co

181–190 of 487 posts

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#181
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do fan-club registration in person.

Run it like an airline, where your name is on the ticket and you don't get in unless it matches your ID. Either that or your ID is the ticket. Just bloop that big barcode on the back of your ID with your phone when you buy the admission, then let the guy bloop it again at the door when you go to the show. That would make some scenarios harder, like the trope about your boss handing you two extra tickets she can't use…

The downsides for ID-verified entry are shared with ID-required voting.

Namely, if you are aware of intergroup variability in ID-having rates, is choosing it anyways a conscious discriminatory choice?

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#182

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?

Then the view of greed falls on the organization and the artists instead of on scalpers.

It also is up in the air of the market value is really what people are paying or if it’s being inflated by scalpers. Some people will pay it but I don’t think it’s an accurate view of what the price should be in that situation.

But we saw exactly this with the recent Lorcana release. Local game stores acted like scalpers charging scalper prices, it is hurting the perception of the game of what normal prices are.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#183
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scalping is legal in most jurisdictions, sometimes with restrictions (“no selling within 1000ft of the venue for more than 20% over face”.

As it should be, without restrictions. Basically First Sale doctrine. If I buy something, I own it and should be able to sell it at market price.

The First Sale doctrine is fine, hoarding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarding_(economics)) and price gouging not so much. Rights come with responsibilities. Maybe I can buy up a pallet of toilet paper in the middle of a pandemic, but people would be right to think I was a total piece of shit if I did.

Society's tolerance for parasites who do that kind of thing has a breaking point and when the people being negatively impacted get fed up enough to take action I'll have no sympathy for anyone who seeks to make others miserable just so that they can profit off of their suffering.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#184

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 people will pay huge amount more regardless.

Kind of like how when the 4090 released and was being instantly scalped at every website it popped up on then resold for double to triple retail, and yet thousands of redditors were magically “just stumbling on to one totally randomly, oh and my 2050 also sold for $1200!!”

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#185
post #80

I’m not going to speak on how this could be hard to implement in other countries, but in my country selling a ticket above the price it was bought for is illegal, and as a result (maybe there is other factors in in play but) it’s basically a non-issue here

I’ve never heard this, what country?

Norway! I think it’s somewhat similar in the nearby countries, but I don’t know for sure. You’re not even allowed to add the ticketmaster fee to your reseller price, so it’s techincally cheaper to buy it second-hand

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#186

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?

They get the service fees for the original sale, and any subsequent ridiculously priced resale made on the platform

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#187
post #111

Make tickets online $500. When you arrive you're given a special ticket-locked voucher that lets you go back to the website and get $480 back (assuming tickets are still $20 like when I was 20 years old).

Probably doesn’t work. Buyers would happily pay scalpers $550 knowing they will get $480 back.

The idea here is that the scalped ticket would not get the refund.

Scalper pays with their card

Someone purchases the ticket from the scalper

Venue distributes special code (short like 2 letters) that gets tied to your ticket.

If you go back to the website, and enter the code, it's not benefiting your credit card, but the scalpers. So if you purchase from an unauthorized person, you have no reason to enter the code.

Wrong code entered twice - lose your 480.

Numbers could be adjusted to make more sense for more people, as long as it makes the scalper ticket seem ridiculous.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#188
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might be doing that already by acting as scalpers. I don't see why the solution isn't simply what airlines are doing where you register a ticket to a name and it's non-transferable.

Well, one reason is that it would let venues in for a lot more work to properly check everyone's ID. At an airport, Homeland Security pays for that part Both venues and airlines normally segment the market by how good a seat you get.

The flying public pays Homeland Security / the TSA a $5.60 fee to check ID and perform screening.

The cost to the concert going public of ID verification would probably be a lot lower than the costs scalping imposes. And the concert venues could certainly capture more than $5 per concert goer by raising prices closer to what the typical person actually pays.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#189
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might be doing that already by acting as scalpers. I don't see why the solution isn't simply what airlines are doing where you register a ticket to a name and it's non-transferable.

Well, one reason is that it would let venues in for a lot more work to properly check everyone's ID. At an airport, Homeland Security pays for that part Both venues and airlines normally segment the market by how good a seat you get.

Not with digital ticketing. No ID is necessary. It is a rotating code so you can't just ship someone a screenshot. You have to have the Ticketmaster app, logged into your account. Unless scalpers want to start giving away their entire Ticketmaster accounts, it would stop it easily.
Post reply on HN