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How to sell tickets fairly

barnabas.me

91–100 of 363 posts

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because sports teams and singers need broad audience interest to maintain their brand’s popularity, which can drive things like merchandise sales, future concerts, music streaming, etc. If they simply sold to the highest bidders, the populace at large will stop being fans and they will move onto the next entertainer. In the short term, you might make a little extra from richer people, but longer term you will fall ou…

The scalpers grab most of the tickets at open anyway. And I doubt that a very large number of fans are concertgoers at all. How many football fans actually go to the superbowl? I looked it up and it's ~80k, while 100M watch on TV. The cheapest tickets are ~$5000 dollars

There's a difference between "the odds are against you" and "nope, sorry". Even if those odds are extreme.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#92
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that everyone willing to pay more than $X for tickets bought their tickets before the scalpers can buy it for $X.

X isn't the price in my solution it's the percent of concert hopefuls who will hold their nose and pay a scalper. Once there's exactly that many tickets left, there's no point running the auction anymore. Scalpers should use their bots to completely buy up all remaining tickets, as they do now, and then set them for a higher price on the secondary market. Buying the first 1-X% tickets nearly guarantees you will pay m…

Wait, they didn't choose to buy a ticket at the price the scalpers got (plus epsilon), so why would they pay more when the scalpers come around with a ticket?

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#93
post #4

I wonder if you'd see "bank runs" happen spontaneously as nervous fans see the number of available tickets start to drop, causing a spontaneous feedback loop.

That's not a bank run or a feedback loop, that's price discovery. Exactly the behavior you want.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#94

An NFT solution to ticketing seems like it would be trivial given how NFTs operate already. One ticket could be verifiably owned by one person. If that person wanted to resell the ticket, there could be restrictions on how much they could sell it for. If bots can't make a profit there's no use in buying out all the tickets. It would also decentralize the space. Sure you need a marketplace for the NFT tickets, but tha…

NFTs actually can't algorithmically restrict transfer prices or algorithmically take fees. The fee taking that happens today is done by an exchange as a courtesy to the "artist."

This is one of the limitations of the NFT model.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#95
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 remember Green Day doing a local show where you had to pay cash at the door. This seems to address botting, though scalping organizations can still pay people to stand in line (and presumably take a cut when they are paid to give up their spots.) Personally I think this approach helps out kids who have time to wait in line but don't necessarily have the money to pay huge markups and fees from the secondary market.

The simple solution to getting fans rather than grifters is to make the tickets cost something other than money. Time is a nice obvious cost element to add.

If only we could channel that time more productively (and in a more palatable way) than having people wait in line.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#96
Worked in the sneaker resales world. Artists, sneaker companies, etc., are all aware that the Dutch auction could solve the problem.

But they choose not to pursue because of reputational/brand damage. It’s a shame!

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#97
post #2

Pearl Jam tried to beat Ticketmaster. At the risk of sounding like the big fan I am, if Eddie Vedder and co. (at their commercial peak) can’t beat Ticketmaster, I’m not convinced that software can. I’ve been pasting this Rolling Stone link since I was in my teens. I can’t believe how old I am… https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taki...

Why can't they beat them? Advertise your website, people go to your website and click the buy button, a form shows up to fill their card data. What does Ticketmaster do that is better? Don't they have the same workflow?

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#98
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).

If they want to sell tickets below market price, there's not a good solution.

If they want some people to be able to buy tickets below market price, then they could use some form of scholarships.

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#99
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.

In New York State, it is illegal to prohibit the transfer of tickets, which complicates most obvious approaches to stopping scalpers. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/ACA/25.30

Re: How to sell tickets fairly

#100
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.

John Mayer did shows here in Montana with that model. People still drove to the venue to get their paper tickets then handed over to their saplees.
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