How to sell tickets fairly • Hacker News Board

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#361

Post by somehnacct3757 » Wed, Nov 23, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #291

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, X is not a price it's a demand level (for scalper tickets). Everyone can 'bid their price' and scalpers will still buy out the bottom of the auction and take control of the pricing.

Those hypothetical scalpers will indeed have control of the pricing, but they will have no customers willing to pay what they have paid, because all customers willing to pay more will have already bought tickets. In theory, there may have been holdouts who wanted to get a better price, as you are suggesting, who then turn to the scalpers. Those holdouts are either (a) irrational for not bidding the price they were wi…

The dutch auction doesn't solve the race aspect. There are plenty of situations where people can't buy tickets when they want - they're at work when the price is reached, driving, the webserver is at capacity, etc. Scalpers have the advantage in all these scenarios.

Secondly, people will pay more money once scarcity and FOMO kick in. I may want a ticket for $40 but scalpers knew X would happen somewhere around $50 so they bought all the tickets then. Am I not going to see the concert for $75 buying a scalper ticket? Not a straightforward decision to make! These are the sorts of inputs scalpers will consider when deciding X.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#362

Post by smachiz » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 2:44 PM UTC

etothepii wrote: post #359

8note wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're selling out shows at double the price, wouldn't the next step be to reduce the sound quality so you can play cheaper shows with a higher profit?

This is a really interesting question. I feel like I see it with airlines all the time. The question that comes eventually though is do people notice and does a culture of penny-pinching trickle down into an inferior product that makes people resent the high price enough that sometimes they won't pay it.

I mean that's literally yield maximization - you don't need to capture all the demand for a given good or service. You just need to capture the right mix of it. I would broadly say that I don't think anyone who goes to a typical Arena concert is making their buying decision on the audio quality.

The bar for good enough is pretty low.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#363

Post by smachiz » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

etothepii wrote: post #252

smachiz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the variable "fixed" costs? And when are they incurred? This is about revenue maximization, not user enjoyment maximization or fairness maximization. Ultimately I don't think most artists actually want revenue maximization - they're probably far more interested in fairness maximization in ensuring their fan base of all economic strata get to see them live.

As in if I know I will make $1m in sales I might choose to use better audio equipment.

I don't think anyone would make that decision; the bar for good enough is pretty low, and if you won't get any incremental revenue (no one is selling or advertising on the various parameters of audio quality), why would you spend that money?