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Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

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Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#141

Post by vacri »

Androsynth wrote: post #51
joezydeco wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scalping confuses demand. If 1000 people want to see a show in a theatre with 1000 seats, that would be an ideal market. But in reality you get 2000 people trying to buy tickets for that show. 1000 are the fans and 1000 are people trying to buy the tickets to flip them for a profit. The artificial demand creates a market that benefits nobody except the scalpers. The fan loses by paying higher prices, and the artist l…

But if the customers are willing to pay the scalpers price, that means the demand exists. You say 'flip them for profit' as if thats a bad thing, but as long as people buy those tickets, its just smoothing out the market.

How is that 'smoothing' the market? CK Louis seems to have smoothed it flat with $45 for all tickets.

If the scalpers didn't exist, the eventual ticket-holders would still be able to purchase from the original vendor. It's not like scalpers make tickets magically appear.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#142

Post by adgar »

masklinn wrote: post #67
Androsynth wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true fans are poor? What does having a fatter wallet have to do with your taste in comedy? Also, fans don't work the way you think they do. If I like Louis CK, I like Louis CK . If he chooses to charge $500 for a ticket, I will just watch him on TV. It won't cause me to resent him. In a perfect market, if enough people feel the same way, the price will drop down into the range that I am comfortable paying. If, on…

> So true fans are poor? No? True fans are alone, and true fans are not necessarily the earliest at the gate. If scalpers can grab half the tickets before the show's sold out by buying in bulk, they're going to make a lot of money. Because now they control the product. > he needs to increase supply by touring more. He's booked 67 dates, he's only one guy, touring more? He'll need to put his million of sales in clonin…

> true fans are not necessarily the earliest at the gate.

If we're going no true scotsman, I'd say the true fans ARE the earliest at the gate. They're the ones who camp out for weeks.

So really, you're sticking up for the fair-weather fans who can't be bothered to put in the extra effort to get their tickets at face value.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#143

Post by nooneelse »

larrys wrote: post #106
alxp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performers now know that they lose good will when a fan has to pay a scalper to see them. Louis C.K. is earning tons of good will by doing this, and the only person who loses out is the scalper. Wealthier fans have always been able to work the system to get extra tickets, back stage access, etc.

"Louis C.K. is earning tons of good will by doing this" People want to see Louis because he is funny. The minute he stops being funny all that good will won't mean a thing.

Your hyperbole ("the minute") isn't aiding in understanding reality. Lots of artists have enough good will built up in their fan-base that they can produce a few bombs and still retain enough fans to reboot their act back to something that the fans like.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#145

Post by vacri »

Androsynth wrote: post #57
AndrewDucker wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Market efficiency is not necessarily a person's aim.

Leaving money on the table does no one any favors. If people are willing to pay $150 for tickets and hes charging $50 (or whatever it is), he's only doing himself a disservice. If people are willing to pay that much and he delivers a show that is up to his normal standard, they won't hate him for charging them that much; quite the opposite actually. It's only the price gauging and poor service of monopolies that peop…

Leaving money on the table does no one any favors.

God bless the US health system!

$50 for tickets means the rich will pay less than theyre willing to pay and the poor won't get in anyways. No one wins in that situation.

Economists are crazy. A full house is a full house. The people who win are the people who attended. How you can possibly say 'no-one wins' from a full house of successful comedy on the cheap is beyond me. Yeah, bummer, the cheap tickets to a very entertaining night left us all feeling crappy...

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#146

Post by vacri »

fusiongyro wrote: post #72
Androsynth wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving money on the table does no one any favors. If people are willing to pay $150 for tickets and hes charging $50 (or whatever it is), he's only doing himself a disservice. If people are willing to pay that much and he delivers a show that is up to his normal standard, they won't hate him for charging them that much; quite the opposite actually. It's only the price gauging and poor service of monopolies that peop…

> he's only doing himself a disservice. How precisely is the scalper, by increasing costs and adding _no value_ doing us a service?

The value that scalpers add is that you can get tickets at a later time. That's about the only value I can see that they provide, and whether that benefit is moral or not I guess depends on whether you believe in first-come-first-served for that item.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#147

Post by adgar »

3JPLW wrote: post #16
majorlazer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

StubHub is not owned by Ticketmaster, they are owned by ebay. Source: http://www.stubhub.com/about-us/

Thanks, already fixed. Chacha got it wrong and confused me until I found more authoritative sources.

> Chacha got it wrong

Chacha? Really? God damn I swear HN is full of internet hipsters. A query for [stubhub] on any major search engine has the following under the Wikipedia search result:

> StubHub (often styled StubHub!) is an online marketplace owned by eBay, which provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#148

Post by vacri »

droithomme wrote: post #110
chwahoo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't match the text on the site: "If the ticket is found to be offered for resale above face value we may invalidate the barcode and refund the ticket price."

It's not clear who gets the refund here. If the scalper, then he has no risk, and earns both the money he sold it for AND the refund of the original fee. Win! This is also likely the only refund they can do since they don't have the credit card number of the person who bought the scalped ticket. If they refund the final purchaser, then the scalper still makes his money and the purchaser loses the amount above the fac…

If the final purchaser is aware that their high-price ticket could be nullified at the door, it removes motive to buy in the first place, leaving the scalper with hard-to-move tickets.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#149

Post by btilly »

blhack wrote: post #127
mhartl wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some screamed about the lottery, but capping secondary sales at face value is a deeply entrenched (and, in my view, terribly misguided) part of Burner culture.

Please explain why capping secondary sales is a terribly misguided thing...

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_ceiling for a basic overview.

This stuff is literally economics 101 supply-demand curve material. When you artificially cap the price too low, you create shortages and a black market.

Economic theory says that what you should do is set up an auction where everyone says how many tickets they want to buy and the maximum price you're willing to pay. The bids are sealed so nobody knows what the price will be until the auction is finished. Sort the bids by price (breaking ties by how fast you put your order in). Everyone actually pays the highest price that anyone not getting a ticket was willing to pay.

Economics and game theory says that the stable equilibrium for this type of auction is for everyone to honestly report the maximum price they are willing to pay. If everyone does then everyone who got a ticket is either indifferent or happy about getting the ticket at that price, and everyone who did not want a ticket would indifferent to happy about not buying a ticket at that price.

Theory assumes that people's opinions about how much they would pay don't change as the event comes closer. This assumption is, of course, wrong. But I do not know of a more fair strategy than this one.

Re: Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

#150

Post by vacri »

Androsynth wrote: post #66
sambe wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is there artificial demand? The scalpers aren't buying tickets for fun - there has to be someone to flip them TO. These people are fans and they create the demand, as stated in the grandparent. Edit: a common "rebuttal" in this thread (see diek, potch, drivingmenuts) seems to be that there is an assumption of correct market price being the aim. That isn't the assumption or the point. The point is that excess dema…

Re: Correct Market Pricing 1-This is inherently a class-based argument. It assumes that someone with more money than you isn't a 'real fan' and that his true fans are the squeezed middle class (or whatever class-bracket you happen to be in). 2-The world doesn't owe you anything. Thinking this is unfair because you can't afford tickets to a stand-up comedy show is the epitome of a First-World problem. edit: this isn't…

Class-based argument? Your prejudice is showing. The 'true fan' part is about following the goings-on of the performer and being aware that there's a show coming up, and trying to get tickets ASAP instead of two days before the event. Please stop trying to make absolutely everything about money.
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