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Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
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Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#732Earlier quoted context omitted.
Suppose, for simplicity, that you've got 2 types of people: price-sensitive (your 17yo) and price-insensitive (let's call them rich). In reality it's a gradient, complicated by emotional aspects, but I think just 2 cohorts is sufficient for this explanation. If face value is constant over time (i.e., the current model), scalpers can buy at any time that original tickets remain available. If they predict huge scalping…
Let's make this easy. There's 1000 people who want to go to a concert and there are 100 tickets. Of the 1000 people who want to go, every 100 of them is willing to spend $10 more, starting at $100. So the first 100 will pay $100, the second will pay $110, etc. If the concert is priced at $120 there are 200 people completely priced out, but there are 800 people who will pay. The tickets are released, they all scramble…
If we will have a lottery, then it should be a sensibly managed lottery, not a scramble gamed by bots.
Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#733Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's make this easy. There's 1000 people who want to go to a concert and there are 100 tickets. Of the 1000 people who want to go, every 100 of them is willing to spend $10 more, starting at $100. So the first 100 will pay $100, the second will pay $110, etc. If the concert is priced at $120 there are 200 people completely priced out, but there are 800 people who will pay. The tickets are released, they all scramble…
If we will have a lottery, then it should be a sensibly managed lottery, not a scramble gamed by bots.
Agreed. So how do we do that? ID verification?
Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#734Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except then I'd need to have a good data connection at the venue, and the odds of that are infinitesimally small.
I see what you mean. The barcode wouldn't work offline. It seems like that didn't matter at the venue though? The spotty internet connection not allowing the code to load was the first part of the article wasn't it?
The article goes into that. If you open up the app ahead of time and download the ticket, it gets enough information to re-generate the barcode every 15 minutes. It's only a problem if you don't go into the app and fetch the data ahead of time.
Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#735Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would an iPhone app (I don’t know about android) collect any of that?
I mean...they tell you they do in the listing in the AppStore. Like, how are you not realizing this?
Of course they list those things as things the app 'collects,' because the app literally asks you for all that info as billing info when you buy tickets in that app and when you provide it, it collects it. The app isn't somehow extracting your personal info from some API. Yes, it's probably got the same adtech as the next app, but overall it's just collecting what you tell it.
Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#736Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not valid. And almost no one would except it. The real digital version is still in the making.
I knew this comment would come. But you're wrong. A photo of your ID is accepted almost everywhere, and especially at a ticketed event where the only purpose is to match your face to the name on the ticket. They're not the police, they just want to check that you're the person who should have the ticket.
Well around here if they ask for an ID, passport or driving license they don't accept copies. You are wrong on the "almost everywhere". Might be true for most places around you.
Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes
#737Earlier quoted context omitted.
People don't understand that the free market system is essentially a law of physics. You saying that a producer/seller of a limited good (in this case, space in a concert venue) cannot choose their own price is true, like it's also true that a person can't decide whether gravity pulls them down or not. You explained it pretty well yourself, the effect of supply and demand is unavoidable
I wonder though does it have to be limited. Like imagine I could make enough apples to fully satisfy the market demand for apples and I’m also willing to sell to anyone. I want to sell those apples for $1 each. There’s plenty of apples to satisfy the demand. But let’s say that the market would bear a higher price, people would love to buy apples for $1 but due to a love of apples would be willing to pay up to $5. In…
If you are able to perfectly meet demand why would anyone pay more than your price? What service or improvement are the arbitragers providing above and beyond what you are providing that incentivizes people to pay more than your price?