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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

#151

Post by jamesbritt »

jessriedel wrote: post #121
brianpan wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm definitely not an econ expert (far from it). Scalpers may not be confusing demand. But aren't they're artificially constraining supply? There are a limited number of shows and seats available. If I'm a scalper and I buy the last 100 seats (or rather, I have the last 100 seats not taken by someone who actually is going), I can now sell the tickets at a premium. If there are only 75 more fans that want to go, they…

In the short term, there are a fixed number of hard drives (and beach balls, and microwave ovens, ...). Why don't we have to worry about hard drive scalpers artificially constraining the supply?

Interesting question. It made think of another situation.

How often would CK have to perform to make scalping essentially a non-issue?

More than once a year I would guess. But once a month? Every week?

What factors determine this?

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

#152

Post by jes5199 »

blhack wrote: post #49
drcube wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain the Burning Man comment please. I'm involved in the local Burners scene, but I've never been to the the big one in Black Rock City. My wife is going this year with a friend, but she was gifted a ticket. So I would like to know what stupid decisions and exacerbated problems I will see if I decide to buy a ticket for next year's burn. Thanks.

The bmorg completely disenfranchised large parts of the community with a "ticket lottery". Earlier this year, we were seeing theme camps with something like 10% "success" rate in the lottery, and a lot of the major camps weren't going to be able to go. It was only through a last-ditch effort, cancelling a second lottery and giving the tickets to "established" camps that they were able to get some of the major theme c…

It's easy to blame scalpers, but I'm not convinced they're a major component of the shortage.

Lots of large events sold out this year much quicker than usual: the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Penny Arcade Expo, and others.

I think that the recession is less of a concern for many of us this year, so there's pent up demand being used. Add a lottery to increase the sense of urgency, and you get a lot more people registering for tickets. Not scalpers, just people who haven't been going every year.

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

#153

Post by Steko »

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…

He probably eats a charge back from the customer meaning he makes nothing if found out.

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

#155

Post by larrys »

nooneelse wrote: post #143
larrys wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Perhaps "the minute" was a bit much in trying to prove my point.

First, I think comedians are a little different then other types of artists who have a little more latitude in their work. I'm speaking specifically about the buzz that surrounds this particular artist right now who is very funny. And what I'm saying is that if he stops being funny, in general or not as funny, the goodwill that he built up won't matter in terms of bringing a significant number of people to his shows.

And if he becomes funny again people will want to attend his shows regardless of something like what he is doing. I don't believe the fact that (this type of) goodwill would make a big difference in how quickly the audience returns.

And in any case the reason any artists matters at all is because they provide entertainment that people like. That is their product. The "good will" part isn't what got them to where they are today and won't keep them there if they fail to deliver.

The old Howard Stern (haven't listened to him since he was on non satellite was quite the asshole in many cases. Despite that he had a big following even from people who thought he was a dick. Because he provided entertainment that people like they overlooked undesirable things about him.

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

#157

Post by blhack »

btilly wrote: post #149
blhack wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 kn…

Everything you just said assumes that there is never a secondary market.

There is. That is the problem. Nobody cares about spending $400 for a ticket. To burners, that's a very tiny price to pay to get "home" for a week, and is a tiny fraction of the overall cost of the trip.

If we can figure out a way (like, hello, names on tickets) to make the tickets non-transferable, then figuring our a reasonable price isn't an issue at all.

--

The burning man ticket problem is logistical, not economic.

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

#158

Post by scoot »

unwiredben wrote: post #91
peterwwillis wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost strange that they would implement a system like this just because they sold out for the first time. Other regional burns around the country regularly sell out up to a month before the event, and they never implement alternate strategies for people to buy tickets. Then again i'm not aware of a scalper market for these since they are small and regional, but I have often considered buying four tickets at the…

Burning Flipside here in Texas has had a lottery system for the last few years due to not being able to exceed 2500 people on site or be under the TX mass gathering law. They make the lottery a little inconvenient (sign up in early January, mail in a money order during one week later in the month, have the MO returned if you don't get tickets). They also have a no scalping policy and regularly go after sales on Craig…

not being able to exceed 2500 people on site or be under the TX mass gathering law

Sorry, what? have all major sporting events been cancelled too?

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

#160

Post by pessimizer »

vacri wrote: post #136
xenophanes wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not scalpers who are constraining supply. If a show has 1000 seats, and 900 fans buy the first 900, and never consider reselling at any price, then they are the ones constraining supply relative to an efficient market. (And there's nothing wrong with that, shrug.) The scalpers, by reselling tickets instead of just holding them and ignoring the market price, actually are increasing the amount of tickets available…

wow... you consider a market to be something which maximises all possible monies rather than something where you obtain something for use. No wonder this 'scalpers are helping the system' theme sounds crazy.

No, xenophanes is simply explaining how markets work. Markets are supposed to maximize utility, whether that be monies or laughter at a concert. If a price is too low for demand, any opening that allows middlemen to creep in, raise the price to demand levels, and take the difference, will be taken. If the resellers price too low, they'll just generate an opening for re-resellers.

The problem, for me, isn't with scalpers, it's with income and wealth distribution (which separates nominal demand from actual benefit to useful people), with over-regulation of commercial performance (limiting the number of venues through regulatory capture), and with the destruction of local community (since there are no local acts anymore, everyone chases the same small number of national and international ones.)

Of course Louie C.K. generates a massive demand - in a country of 300 million people, he's one of the 50 comedians that anybody has heard of because he makes it into the national media. When the average person can name a few comedians that live and work in their neighborhood, going to a Louie C.K. show will be considered a luxury good AND the price will go down.

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