Posted on 10/23/2007 5:33:39 AM PDT by suspects
There are people paying $250 this week for Hannah Montana concert tickets with a face value of 25 bucks. For those of you not blessed with 13-year-old daughters who watch the Disney Channel, Hannah Montana is a fictional pop star played by the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus - also known as the Achy-Breaky Heart guy.
Anyone who’d pay 10 times face value for tickets to watch a cable TV actress sing bad pop music for pre-teens is a dope who shouldn’t have access to a checkbook without adult supervision.
On the other hand, there are people prepared to pay $500 to sit in the worst seats at Fenway Park [map] tomorrow night to watch a game they could see on HDTV for free. That person can be reached in care of this column. ASAP.
No questions asked.
How much is a ticket worth? Like everything else in life, it’s worth what a willing buyer will pay for it. Regardless of whether the state of Massachusetts likes it.
This is why so-called ticket scalping is illegal. The Legislature sees happy buyers doing business with contented sellers and concludes that something terrible must be happening:
“All these people, happily doing business and making money without government supervision? Where the hell do they think they are - New Hampshire?”
This is why the term “scalping” is so ludicrous. When I pay you $200 for Springsteen tickets, I’m getting something I want more than I want the 200 bucks. You’re getting something you want more than the tickets - my money. Who’s getting “scalped” here?
Scalping only makes sense if I’m being forced to pay for something I don’t want - say, like Deval Patrick’s drapes. But nobody’s putting the governor behind bars. Yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
And I guess in your world the actual performer has no say in the matter. Don’t you think since it is THEIR event and they are doing the work that THEY should decide on just how much it will cost to get in? Actually, they are deciding on how much it will cost, but then here comes the no talent scalper hording up the tickets so that he can sell them at ten times the value.
Now, are these scalpers giving at least a portion of the amount they get above face value to the actual performers who are doing the work? Hell no.
It absolutely DOES matter what the audience pays for the tickets because that is what the performer, and contractually authorized vendor agreed upon. Ever think that there is a reason why they put a price on a ticket, and that the reason may have something to do with not wanting to continually piss off their audiences (customers) by having them pay high prices?
Like I said in another post, the problem has gotten so bad that we are already starting to see measures taken to prevent this ILLEGAL and IMMORAL activity. Names on tickets, ID checks at the gate, non transferable tickets, etc.
Then don’t you EVER buy anything and sell it for a profit!
It's not my world, it's just the world.
And, that's as far as I'm reading your rant.
If they are hacking a site that is illegal and they should be prosecuted. That has nothing to do with selling tickets at a premium.
I have seen several on this thread claim that this hacking is occurring, but no links have been provided. Do you have a source?
Sorry, I missed your post at 29
So in that case you should only sell shares of stock for the par value of the stock?
Red Cloud to Warriors: Scalping is just a business.
The problem with scalping is that the people that pay thousands for effectively worthless tickets want me to pay for their medical care, rent, needles, pot, transportation, heat, light and water. Fortunately, they don’t demand soap.
I have seen several on this thread claim that this hacking is occurring, but no links have been provided. Do you have a source?
***
How about this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/business/06money.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
In the Race to Buy Concert Tickets, Fans Keep Losing
Ticketmaster has also filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Los Angeles against a software company based in Pittsburgh, RMG Technologies, and several ticket brokers contending that they have discovered a way to get around Ticketmaster’s defenses.They “are bombarding Ticketmaster’s Web site with millions of automated ticket requests that can constitute up to 80 percent of all ticket requests made,” Ticketmaster states in its suit. These actions deny “the public access to tens of thousands of tickets so that RMG’s customers can purchase and resell those tickets to the same public at inflated prices,” it contends.
My post #29 on this thread has a link to an article wherein the authors of said software have been told to cease selling it.
??? I have never gone to a concert, but is it customary to sign a contract to purchase tickets?
Interesting point you raise... on the other side of the coin, how much would it take to get one to sell tickets that they REALLY want?
I was very fortunate to find that the $400 per end zone seat I spent on the Jan '07 AFC Championship game in Indy was most decidedly worth it (but now am wondering if it will be the same for the NOV 4 re-match, potentially of unbeaten teams)...
In hindsight (or if I grab some seats soon for the re-match), exactly how much of an offer would it take to get me to part with those tix? Probably at least triple what I paid for them, which was 8 times face value in January).
Stubhub.com currently has NOV 4 tickets going for about 10 times face value in most cases. (Scalping has always been legal in Indy... except for the Final Four, which was an NCAA requirement to get the event.)
The reason is the socialist hatred of the concept of private property rights.
THe problem isn’t people paying what the market will bear. If that’s what we did, the tickets would all be autioned on E-bay, with the best ticket going to the highest bidder, the second-best going to the second bidder, etc.
The problem here is that Ticketmaster has set up an intolerable computer-based system which allows companies with expensive electronic equipment to jamb the lines and buy up all the best tickets, so they can turn around later and sell them when the venue sells out.
If Ticketmaster wanted to charge more for the best seats, that would be fine.
I would be 100% opposed to linking names to tickets and only those with matching names and tickets being admitted.
As an example, yesterday I had a client cancel at the last minute for the Hurricanes game so I had to quickly scramble and find a new client to take to the game.
Had such a system been in place, the 2 tickets I had for the client and a guest would have been useless.
And at around $1,000 a game I have no interest in any government or private schemes to restrict ticket usage.
Right. If you show up and there are 10 tickets left and you only needed two, you should buy all 10.
It only takes one couple then coming up to buy tickets (who otherwise would have gotten them at face value), and you can get the concert for free.
The other 6 extra tickets are pure gravy. You could even sell them back at face value once you’ve used the artificial scarcity to take advantage of people.
How about I just break it down real simplelike. IT’S ILLEGAL (a.k.a. Against the law).
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