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Why scalpers can get tickets

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Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#201
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.

At Hamilton shows, ticketmaster used the payment card as the ticket, you simply swipe the card used to buy the tickets at the entrance and it pulls it from that data. Seems like a fair compromise, assuming it’s actually secure.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#202
Impractical, perhaps, but sale-to-person on day of show is the only way I see that can prevent scalping. That is, you can by as many tickets as you want in person, but you must present a body for each ticket purchased.

Of course, this approach has its own problems, including possibility of riot, long queues, and surprise venue fees scaled to handle crowd control.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#205

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.

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 nega…

That’s the sophomoric take. The only reason you had the opportunity to buy a pallet during a shortage in the first place is due to idiotic “price gouging” laws.

During the pandemic the price of toilet paper should have been increased by an order of magnitude at the store level. This would prevent hoarding and it would make sure people who desperately wanted it could get it. Additionally, it would have incentivized producers and sellers to fill demand.

Price controls are the equivalent of rations. They don’t solve anything because they remove all of the incentives.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#206

Impractical, perhaps, but sale-to-person on day of show is the only way I see that can prevent scalping. That is, you can by as many tickets as you want in person, but you must present a body for each ticket purchased. Of course, this approach has its own problems, including possibility of riot, long queues, and surprise venue fees scaled to handle crowd control.

Nah, much easier solution: digital tickets that you can't sell. Ticketmaster could do this easily, their tickets are a rotating code (like an RSA key) so you can only sell a digital ticket either a) with their permission or b) by giving the stranger to whom you sold it your ticketmaster log-in creds. The latter is pretty easy to stop, you could easily make it unfeasible for scalpers to create accounts, buy a ticket, then give the account away over and over.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#207

Impractical, perhaps, but sale-to-person on day of show is the only way I see that can prevent scalping. That is, you can by as many tickets as you want in person, but you must present a body for each ticket purchased. Of course, this approach has its own problems, including possibility of riot, long queues, and surprise venue fees scaled to handle crowd control.

Not many people would take a day off or travel out of town if there's a high risk of not getting a ticket either.

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#209

The reason why artists don't sell all tickets to rich people is because they think poor people deserve nice things too, so they lower the price. But surely all poor people deserve nice things, not only your fans? Why not sell tickets to rich people and then donate the proceeds to help poor people? It seems to me that this way everyone wins: artists take the same monetary hit they would've taken anyway if they lowered…

Because they don't want to donate abstract money to abstract people in the third world, they want to see and talk to their most active and passionate fans

Re: Why scalpers can get tickets

#210

Impractical, perhaps, but sale-to-person on day of show is the only way I see that can prevent scalping. That is, you can by as many tickets as you want in person, but you must present a body for each ticket purchased. Of course, this approach has its own problems, including possibility of riot, long queues, and surprise venue fees scaled to handle crowd control.

This is an awful idea for the reasons you listed, but also for the fact that you'd only have a chance to get a ticket for shows that will sell out. You would be unable to plan in advance and would likely waste hours in a queue.

Why not just require a name for each ticket and check ID at entry?

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