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How to sell tickets fairly

barnabas.me

331–340 of 363 posts

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dice is fantastic. Another thing they do is allow you to join a waiting list for sold out events. People who have bought tickets and want to return them can return them to the waiting list (and people on the waiting list will get a notification offering them a few hours to purchase the newly returned ticket). If someone on the list buys it they are refunded.

Counterpoint: Dice is terrible. Sure it makes sense for bigger artist that will sold out, but for most it is not necessary and it forces you : - To have a smartphone - To give out your phone number - To create an account The worst? You can't even resale the ticket if the event is not sold out! Usually if I'm unable to attend a concert, I'll put my ticket up for sale for half the price, but with Dice, you just wasted…

Those three drawbacks are barely drawbacks at all nowadays. Not being able to return/resell your ticket is a big issue though.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I’m in this exact situation right now and it’s working great. I wrote a short story about an automated farming commune running on open source farming robots. But I can’t afford to spend years of my life working on a problem I’m not getting paid for. Then I met someone who dreams of running automated farming robots at his farm, and now for four years now he has been paying me to develop it. I’ve done entrepren…

And that's the point; it's his farm, they're his robots. You're an employee. You got a job in an industry you like, that's not the same thing as, "I partnered with someone to build my idea."

Take a look at your comment at the start of this thread, including the quote from the article:

>> Shameless plug: I understand how to make and launch exactly this kind of system, at least technically. If you want it built, please contact me.

> I cannot roll my eyes hard enough - if you can, then do it already. Why the hell do you need the encouragement?

There is no discussion of partnership. The point is, some people know how to do something and they want to work on it just because they would find the work enjoyable. In which case they may not care who owns it. If they are always working on someone else's product then they are used to not owning their work. They would just rather work on something they feel good about working on.

In my case, I have significant decision making power and all of the engineering work is open source, so I will maintain access to the IP no matter what. I would have to pay for a robot in the future if I want one of my own, but that is a very low cost compared to the years of engineering I've done that I have not had to fund myself. But I don't really know if I want my own farm. It was a dream I had six years ago, but now I have other dreams. Mostly I am happy that I am able to provide these machines for people who need them.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#333
post #275

Starting at $2000 for a concert where demand outstrips supply to the point where people will pay $4000 to a ticket scalper just means the minimum ticket price will be $2000. All the tickets will still sell out immediately. The audience will be entirely made up of wealthy people, or people who are willing to break the bank to see Taylor sing. The only "fair" way to sell a good that's in high demand and you want everyo…

How is that any different from the current system? The current system randomly selects web browsers to add tickets into the cart. The scalpers have more lottery tickets than everyone else (via bots). I guess the main difference is to not allow ticket transfers?

Yes, a lottery system would require non-transferable tickets, but those tickets could be refundable, and returned tickets could be redistributed in a subsequent lottery round.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#334
post #18

I think this is great if your goal is to clear the market at a competitive price. But a lot of artists want to sell tickets below market price. That makes the problem a lot harder. The obvious thing to do is have a lottery, but it's hard to stop people from using multiple identities (especially scalpers).

Not particularly hard... you give a name at time of lottery entry that must match photo identification presented at the door. Making the tickets refundable would probably help too (they could be sold in a subsequent lottery round, or at the door).

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark it's illegal to resell tickets above the original price. Occasionally you see "crate of beer 1000DKK comes with free Taylor Swift ticket" but it's rare.

> In Denmark it's illegal to resell tickets above the original price. This is the foundation of the entire of retail and investment. Why should it be banned?

Because the positive social effect is of more value than a dogmatic belief in the market.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#336
post #171

Here's an even simpler method, that's actually more fair because it doesn't bias toward those with big pockets or much time or technical skill: Open up for registration. Keep registration open until the date of the show. Registration costs the price of the ticket. As the show comes close, for as long as there are tickets not sold, randomly select some people every day who receive a ticket. On the day of the show, ref…

Prepayment isn't required. You'd could give folks a few days after winning tickets to make good on their payment. Many people would put down a credit card, and it would only be an issue for them if it was declined, etc.). Tickets that aren't paid for would be added back to the next batch of tickets to be distributed (or if close to the date of the show, sold at the door).

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes promoters hold tickets and put them on the secondary market themselves. But they sell tickets to scalpers as a way to gaurantee a certain level of profit. Which lowers their risk of losing money, especially when spread over a large amount of events. The scalper business model is to buy risk from the promoter, and then selling the convenience of not planning ahead to consumers. Said differently, If promoters…

Yes, or could simply be a live market for the tickets where people can put in limit orders etc. Then would converge to fair market value quickly and people would still have the option to bite the bullet and pay the higher prices. Though volume/liquidity would be at question, but bots/arbitrage would hopefully help there. If they really want to set artificially low prices and prioritize fans over scalpers then they ne…

Name on ticket. Check photo ID at door.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#338
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been to events that do this and if someone can’t make it tough luck. But it prevents scalping at least. Every system has pros and cons.

A lot of artists don't want to perform in a venue with 20% empty seats

Offer the original purchaser a refund, and then sell the extra tickets at the door.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#339
post #51
post #8

The obvious fix to bots and scalpers is just to not allow ticket transfers - you give your name when you buy the ticket and show your ID at the door. Why this isn't the current process is left as an exercise to the reader.

I wasn't able to go to a convention because my girlfriend already bought plane tickets to Las Vegas. If I weren't able to sell the ticket, there would be no way for me to recoup the cost

If they make tickets non-transferable, they should also make them refundable. We're talking about events that are guaranteed to sell out, they should have a problem finding someone to buy returned tickets, even at the last minute.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#340

I have a very valid question: if this method was used to sell tulips in XVII, how it can be patented in 2020?

Probably something specific about applying it to concert tickets and/or over the internet. In the US, patents are good for 20 years, so a patent expiring in 2020 would have been issued during the dot-com bubble.

Also, although the patent office does review the applications, they aren't perfect: it isn't uncommon for patents to be invalidated if they are challenged or there's a lawsuit.

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