A scalper who used bots to buy millions of tickets, now wants to stop them

Post by ant6n » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 12:27 AM UTC

r7000 wrote: post #212

anigbrowl wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never even mentioned record sales. I'm just saying that bands want fans who keep coming back over and over. They Might Be Giants are a good example of a band with a very 'sticky' fanbase.

I did not say you did. I mentioned record sales because the balance of from where artists revenue is coming is pushing artists to get more of their money from their gigs as other revenue sources have declined. The motivation to keep fans coming back and not seem "too greedy" keep things in check but the balance of motivations has definitely shifted towards: we want more money from live events. Decades ago concert tic…

Post by candiodari » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 12:53 AM UTC

vacri wrote: post #224

candiodari wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Scalpers are 100% middle-men who don't add value. The tickets would sell at base cost. All they do is artificially inflate the value of tickets. Economic theory would say that 1) value, in contrast to price, is personal. Everything has a different value to everyone. For instance, it's a good bet French books have more value to me than to you, because I actually speak that language. 2) inflating value is impossible.…

> 1) they maintain ticket availability far beyond the original sale By artificially and significantly suppressing it in the first place.

Post by metaphorm » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 1:13 AM UTC

lixquid wrote: post #124

ue_ wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but people have a visceral negative reaction to arbitrageurs since they didn't do anything to "earn" their profits I don't think there's anything wrong with getting money that you didn't earn (so long as you're not exploiting people, as the bourgeoisie do); I do think there is something ethically questionable about forcing (I use the word 'forcing' to refer to the idea that within the confines of show-going, it is t…

But.. they are exploiting people. That's literally what they are doing; expecting people to purchase these tickets at a higher cost for the simple reason that supply is short.

Post by adrienne » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 1:45 AM UTC

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #103

darpa_escapee wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying it's funny how we tend to find excuses to justify and moralize that behavior. The top-level comment does this by explaining why driving up the cost of a commodity by creating scarcity is a good thing because rich people who don't want to wait in line can now cut it, while everyone gets to pay more assuming they can afford the new price. By funny I mean tragic.

What's really funny is they argue against people being voluntarily able to enter in to other kinds of contracts (eg, requiring the name it's sold to match who attends) to do it. They're not advocating a free market and society, they're advocating a serf market and society.

Post by durango » Wed, Feb 15, 2017, 2:07 AM UTC

waterside81 wrote: post #158

As others have pointed out here, a lottery system with ID can help beat this. Pearl Jam's fan club ticket sales require you to choose ahead of time which concerts you want to go to (max 2 tickets per show) and then on lottery day, you're informed if you won or not and your card is charged. Although a bit opaque, it does make it harder to game the system.