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Why scalpers can get tickets

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Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#141

Post by justinlkarr »

hyldmo wrote: 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

100% correct.

In addition to being generally legal in the US, in key markets, resale cannot legally be constrained. A venue or artist cannot legally institute policies or practices to prohibit resale.

Even if resale were prohibited or technically impossible, it will not necessarily be any easier to get tickets to a high demand event as resale is only a factor when an event has enough demand to sell out far in advance of playing.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#142

Post by kelnos »

bagels wrote: post #26
xnx wrote: post #3

Based on nothing, I think tickets for high-demand events should be allocated: 1/3 first-come first-serve for in-person sales (you pay with your time), 1/3 random assignment (you have to get lucky), 1/3 auction to highest bidder (pay with your money).

In the time of box offices, ticket scalpers still thrived.

Their operations were much smaller, though, and arguably they affected overall ticket prices much less. There are only so many hours in the day for you to wait in line (or pay someone else to wait for you) to get tickets. And standing outside the venue for hours trying to sell your tickets is a high-touch, labor-intensive process.

Some of these scalper sites sell tickets that they don't even have yet, which helps give them the capital to actually buy the tickets later.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#143

Post by SoftTalker »

crazygringo wrote: post #37
chevman wrote: post #22

Protip I've used the last couple years (worked before that as well, but not as much need) - just check StubHub or other second hand markets a week or so before the show. Generally the scalpers over buy and will start to panic and unload tickets at very good prices the closer the show gets.

This is not true at all as a general rule. It all comes down to whether or not there's enough demand to fill the venue. If there's plenty of demand, StubHub prices will remain much higher than face value. They absolutely do not ever become available at good prices. On the other hand, if the venue is larger than demand, then yes -- you can easily score half-price tickets a few days leading up to the show. But good luc…

Yes if it's a large/unlimited capacity venue this is a good approach. I was at an outdoor festival recently and people were basically giving away tickets on the day of the show.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#144

Post by kelnos »

coding123 wrote: post #89

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).

A lot of people who'd like to see the show don't have $500 they can float for that long.

A lot of the "solutions" presented end up making shows too expensive for a large portion of the artist's fans. That's not an outcome the artists want.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#145

Post by AnthonyMouse »

kelnos wrote: post #121
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

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

For this specific example? Sure. But then people have other kinds of conflicts with other people.

And pissing off even 10% of your customers is bad.

> 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.

By then they're sold out. You can't get any other tickets. If you could exchange the ticket you have for one in another name then so can a scalper.

> 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.

The problem in this situation is not that you have to pay more, it's that you can't go to the concert with your current SO even though you have two tickets. You can get a refund for one or both of the tickets, but you don't want a refund, you want to go to the concert with your new SO.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#146

Post by chris_va »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #136
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The root cause of the problem isn't scalpers; it's the original concert seller either setting too low a price or too low a quantity. Imagine viewing a pricing scheme that allows more socioeconomic groups access to the arts as the core problem. We're experiencing a great decline and fall as social services are failing, wages stagnating, and common cultural experiences are being squeezed for profit, only enabling the…

The core problem is reality. Scarcity is reality. Free market economics, supply and demand is reality. You can try to ignore the equilibrium price point, just as you might ignore gravity, but reality will assert itself. Scalpers will always exist to rebalance the supply and demand equality. If you want to make something available to more socioeconomic groups, increase the supply. Simple as.

... and clearly not viable. Do you think an artist can do 1000 shows a year?

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#147

Post by h1fra »

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.

I don't see any reason why platform and artists are alright with tickets reselling, it's madness to me that no artists "consortium" has demanded a change already.

In France, a famous youtuber has partnered with the major platform to forbid any ticket resell for their show, and it worked pretty well. But still it was only one time.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#148

Post by SoftTalker »

whartung wrote: post #98
nayuki wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take off the "/s", because I agree with your statement at face value. If there are a limited number of tickets but many thousands of fans who are willing and able to pay, then naturally the price goes up. And whether you like it or not, people are either paying with money, or paying with time (e.g. waiting in line), or paying with frustration (e.g. going through opaque scalping networks). The root cause of th…

In the past I would routinely pay ticket brokers so as to have a better selection of seats, and to not have to deal with the "on sale" crush. Yes, of course I paid more, and I paid for the convenience, but I don't think I ever paid more than 50% of the face value. I was a dedicated concert goer back in the day, having spent a lot of time in ticket lines. By time I started, "sleeping overnight" was pretty much over wi…

> the bands I see today are cheap and unpopular

This is the way. There are a ton of bands you've never heard of that are really good, they just aren't popular because only very few acts are ever popular. You can absolutely see good live music cheap.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#149

Post by dghlsakjg »

ajb wrote: post #85
BazookaMusic wrote: post #83

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.

A lot of venues already check a id’s at the entrance for alcohol sales, and that doesn’t seem to hold up the line, especially with modern machine readable id’s. No reason why that couldn’t be applied to name checks too.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#150

Post by SoftTalker »

driscoll42 wrote: post #137
SoftTalker wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a significant difference between buying something and reselling, and then having bots buying hundreds/thousands and reselling.

Not really. The demand is what it is, and the supply of tickets is fixed. That sets the price, not the number of different people selling.
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