CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing) • Hacker News Board

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#71

Post by ahtihn » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:05 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #63

The solution is, as always, simple: regulation. In this case: - break up Ticketmaster, Live Nation and their European friends. Ban vertical integration. And for good measure (and to placate the public who is out for blood, and I mean that one in the literal sense - ask a random on the street about what they'd do to scalpers and TM, I'd bet good money on at least 50% going for one or another form of violence), place t…

Why should ticket sales be regulated? Why should the government care about what price event tickets sell for?

Concerts are pure luxury. I like going to concerts, but I don't see a reason why the government should intervene? Scalpers exist because artists underprice tickets on purpose.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#72

Post by mystified5016 » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:06 PM UTC

clipsy wrote: post #39

londons_explore wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the key thing is that the industry really wants scalpers, but must appear to act against them.

> I suspect the key thing is that the industry really wants scalpers Why?

It's more profitable and predictable for scalpers to immediately buy all tickets. The ticket seller doesn't care if the tickets are sold to fans that will attend, just that they're sold quickly and reliably and non-refundably. It's even better if tickets are sold to scalpers because some of those tickets might never be resold, which means the venue gets the ticket sale but pays none of the cost a real guest would incur.

What matters is selling the ticket, getting a guest in the door is just expense.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#73

Post by nextn » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:13 PM UTC

An option I'd like to see implemented is to make the customer put down a bond. Besides charging the customer for the ticket, also charge them another higher amount that gets refunded x days after the concert. If the customer is found to be a scalper don't return the bond.

Scalpers can't pay high bond amounts at scale combined with the risk of not having the bond returned.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#74

Post by xandrius » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:18 PM UTC

nextn wrote: post #73

An option I'd like to see implemented is to make the customer put down a bond. Besides charging the customer for the ticket, also charge them another higher amount that gets refunded x days after the concert. If the customer is found to be a scalper don't return the bond. Scalpers can't pay high bond amounts at scale combined with the risk of not having the bond returned.

Also filtering people who don't own much to begin with?

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#75

Post by kevincox » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:24 PM UTC

layer8 wrote: post #66

modeless wrote: post #44

I am unsympathetic when people insist on selling things for the wrong price and then come up with these elaborate schemes for fixing the problems they themselves caused. If they would simply sell tickets for the prices people are willing to pay in the first place then they wouldn't need to invade privacy or any of this stuff. I've heard the arguments they use to justify why they don't and they're all hogwash.

Why do you think they don’t?

Because the whole business of scalpers is exploiting the difference between the list price and the price people are willing to pay. If this gap didn't exist scalping wouldn't be profitable.

(As far as this article as discussing. They also serve some use for reselling tickets when you meant to go but can't but this doesn't have any more downsides)

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#76

Post by debugnik » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:27 PM UTC

DrillShopper wrote: post #6

charcircuit wrote: post #4

>Most organizers, including for-profit organizations, do not want to choose this option due to ethical concerns or concerns about community building. The alternative is selling the tickets to scalpers which doesn't seem ethically better or better at community building as compared to directly selling it to fans. Even if you assign tickets to IDs scalpers will sell access to bots instead to capture the delta between ma…

Sell the tickets with a decreasing price - early tickets are very expensive, late tickets are not, and hold back between 10% and 20% until day of sale at the lowest price. Make the scalping bastards choke on it, and break FOMO all at once.

But once tickets run out, the scalpers' price is the only price, and bots are better positioned to hold and time the market.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#77

Post by VladVladikoff » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:27 PM UTC

xandrius wrote: post #74

nextn wrote: post #73

An option I'd like to see implemented is to make the customer put down a bond. Besides charging the customer for the ticket, also charge them another higher amount that gets refunded x days after the concert. If the customer is found to be a scalper don't return the bond. Scalpers can't pay high bond amounts at scale combined with the risk of not having the bond returned.

Also filtering people who don't own much to begin with?

Yeah when I was a teen I might have had $40 for a show but not $500 for a bond.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#78

Post by sokoloff » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:29 PM UTC

mystified5016 wrote: post #72

clipsy wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect the key thing is that the industry really wants scalpers Why?

It's more profitable and predictable for scalpers to immediately buy all tickets. The ticket seller doesn't care if the tickets are sold to fans that will attend, just that they're sold quickly and reliably and non-refundably. It's even better if tickets are sold to scalpers because some of those tickets might never be resold, which means the venue gets the ticket sale but pays none of the cost a real guest would inc…

Surely selling concessions, parking, and merch is a significant source of income for someone associated with the concert, game, or other event.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#79

Post by debugnik » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

1propionyl wrote: post #31

A lot of overwrought digital solutions here and not the obvious one: Stop selling online. Sell the tickets at a small number of locations near and including the venue, with cashiers empowered to deny suspicious transactions. Could someone put together a small army of smurfs to buy up all the tickets in major cities? Sure. Could someone have someone on the inside sell them a block of tickets against policy? Sure. We c…

> Sell the tickets at a small number of locations near and including the venue

People frequently travel to major cities for concerts, do you expect them to travel twice to purchase the tickets? Either you join a much wider network of sellers than that, or this would only satisfy people already living not too far from the venue.

Re: CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

#80

Post by Retr0id » Sun, May 25, 2025, 9:33 PM UTC

nextn wrote: post #73

An option I'd like to see implemented is to make the customer put down a bond. Besides charging the customer for the ticket, also charge them another higher amount that gets refunded x days after the concert. If the customer is found to be a scalper don't return the bond. Scalpers can't pay high bond amounts at scale combined with the risk of not having the bond returned.

How do you figure out whether they're a scalper or not?