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Tickets Are for Remembering

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Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#12
post #8

The lack of even an OPTION to get a proper, physical ticket makes TicketMaster's obscene rip-off even more outrageous.

Can you elaborate? I don't see how physical tickets factor into this. I mean, it seems like it's the same outrageousness either way to me.

If nothing else a physical ticket is a bearer instrument. You can sell it to someone else without having to give StubHub or another third party a cut of the deal.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#13
I collected tickets without giving it much thought when I was in high school and college. Every few years, when cleaning, I’d come across them again. I realized that they belong in the garbage.

“They tell us what it was like to be there.”

I could just as easily write a few lines down in my journal, and the journal would at least record my thoughts. The ticket does nothing.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#14
post #8

The lack of even an OPTION to get a proper, physical ticket makes TicketMaster's obscene rip-off even more outrageous.

Can you elaborate? I don't see how physical tickets factor into this. I mean, it seems like it's the same outrageousness either way to me.

Don't know if you read the article, but the point is that you used to get something collectible. I've saved every one of my concert ticket stubs since 1983.

Now, for your $50 per ticket in junk fees, you don't even get a tiny piece of card stock. In fact, you've been charged a "convenience fee" for using YOUR OWN PRINTER. That is disgraceful. And now I don't think you can even use a physical printout anymore.

And that's not even getting into the resale/transfer-rights aspect.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#15
post #6

They tell us what it was like to be there. Personal memories can be made in innumerable ways. The absence of tickets doesn't mean memories, or physical representations of memories, are going away. As for academic interest, I have to imagine there's a digital repository of playbills or the information therein somewhere that's easily searchable. After all, these types of resources exist for other performances like pro…

When my grandmother died, she had a little box of programs, a couple letters, and a few little clippings of newspaper items. It was such a special thing to discover. I can’t rule out that digitizing everything makes such moments impossible, particularly with photo albums, but there is memory contained in physical objects that is not the same as just taking some time to remember.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#16
I haven’t been to a broadway show in decades, but I have been to a few Westend and broadway on tour in the past 2-3 years and they’ve all featured those checkered backdrops with the shows name on that you can line up to take your picture in front of and they all have cardboard cut outs that you can stand next to for a “look where I’ve been” selfie.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#17
post #6

They tell us what it was like to be there. Personal memories can be made in innumerable ways. The absence of tickets doesn't mean memories, or physical representations of memories, are going away. As for academic interest, I have to imagine there's a digital repository of playbills or the information therein somewhere that's easily searchable. After all, these types of resources exist for other performances like pro…

Something I've noticed is I just don't produce or collect "I was here" type memorabillia, compared to people from older generations like my parents.

Photos and videos? Nope, I don't even have a camera aside from the one in my phone, and the stuff in there are so forgettable I don't even know what's in there.

Postcards, hats, shirts, and other "I was here." tourists' goods? Nope. I stopped buying them when I noticed they all just end up stuffed under nine layers of my closet's hell never to see daylight again. Waste of my money.

Tickets and other "I paid money to be here." artifacts? Thrown out in the trash asap. See above; waste of space.

In stark contrast, I do buy and collect things that enrich my present day. Books pertaining to my interests to line my shelves, hardware and software to satisfy my computing itch, and so on.

Whoever has the unfortunate privilege of cleaning up my affairs (I have no children nor a spouse and don't plan on it) will unfortunately have no idea where the fuck I've been, but honestly I don't think I could care. I just don't see value in memorializing my past. I don't know if that's good or sad, but I certainly couldn't care less.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#18
As someone who has been saving my ticket stubs for 20+ years I was very frustrated by the disappearance of physical tickets. I paid the extra fee to have them mailed to me, but eventually that went away. Printed emails are not the same.

I eventually figured out how to make the most realistic replica ticket stubs possible to add to my ticket stub album. I spent several thousands dollars on professional printers and real stock as well as months building my own software to customize and print tickets, all to scratch my own itch. Now my collection continues to grow with the 20 or so shows I go to every year and I've helped over 16,000+ people do the same with my website https://stubforge.com, which I'm now lucky enough to run full time.

A lot of people don't get it, and that's ok, but for those that do, they really get it.

People buy our tickets to give as gifts (because it's not easy to do anymore in a non-awkward or non-art project fashion), to add to their collections, to frame with posters, to use as surprise proposals, to invite people to their weddings, to announce their pregnancies and more things I never would have imagined when I started.

There are people that do miss ephemera. Even if you don't look at it that often, it's something precious to you. It doesn't matter if your kids will get it or just chuck it, it's there for you to enjoy and remember in the fashion that you want to.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#19

I have a small tin box that something or other came in as a gift. It stored concert tickets and other small memorabilia (like the movie ticket from a great first date) for every event I'd gone to for well over a decade. Gradually, as physical tickets got phased out, I had fewer and fewer items of memorabilia to add. At this point, I have no physical record of shows we see. I feel like something has been lost. But I s…

I definitely think it's a minority, but even so it's a very large group of people that liked to save tickets. It's why I made Stubforge, so I could keep adding tickets to my own collection. I've got a lot of repeat customers who have been able to keep their collections growing as well. Even if you don't look at them, it's a way to remember what you've been to in a consistent fashion.

Re: Tickets Are for Remembering

#20
Event tickets should be NFTs. They can retain the quality of bearer instruments and remain a keepsake after the event.

It would also unlock new ways to connect with audiences. For example, if your wallet holds 3 or more NFTs from this venue/director/band, you get early access to purchase tickets for future events.

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