[neodad]

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.

Don't go. My kids love Hannah Montana.

[frankiep]

Until you get organizations that buy up hundreds, or thousands, of tickets to an event with the sole intention of jacking up the prices far beyond their original sale price. Trust me, it happens - and it is the regular Joe who is left out in the cold.

[SShultz460]

You should have seen the high pitched whine here in MPLS over scalped Hannah Montana tickets. It’s legal here (newly) and this was their chance to bitch.

I still think it’s more women buyers who have never bought tickets regularly in their life for sports, concerts, you name it, that are now being exposed to how ticket markets work.

Plus Chicks read newspapers, and Dudes rule the web :) (except here of course)

[taxcontrol]

The only reason State’s do not like “scalpers” is because they cant track the sale and tax it.

[mollynme]

I'm guessing that it was a lot of well organized scalpers who brought down the Colorado Rockies WS tickets website yesterday.
The Rockies organization refuses to sell the tickets through their usual outlets which would give an advantage to local fans. Instead, we get an online bottle neck that favors only those with high speed connections.

[Lizavetta]

I don't think my kids know who Hannah is.

Their tastes run more towards comedian Brian Regan, who we are going to see in December at $39.50 a head.

Take luck...

[SampleMan]

The argument against scalping is that it interferes with the primary promoter's ability to promote their product as they wish.

If concerts are primarily promotional, then it can be counterproductive to have your customers feel they are priced out of the product. If this weren’t the case the tickets would be getting sold for much higher prices to begin with.

The true problem is that we now have a market of 300 million, where the demand for live performances is often far in excess of realistic availability. But up to the point where that occurs, doing more performances in one location would be the answer for the performer/promoter.

They could also sell tickets at the entrances only (first come first serve), but that too would likely also have a negative effect.

[woodbutcher1963]

There are ways you can get tickets to concerts.

The first is join your local radio station’s “clubs” so have access to PRESALE tickets through Ticketmaster.

The second is to join the groups/bands fan club. It may cost $25/year but it will also give you access to “presale” tickets.

The third is purchasing tickets for a Boston show at the ticketmaster location in some other city where there will not be a line on that date potentially.

These may still not get you tickets to Buffett or Springsteen but may work for most other acts.

[traviskicks]

"The Legislature sees happy buyers doing business with contented sellers and concludes that something terrible must be happening"




Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[Phantom Lord]

I was offered astronomical amounts for my tickets to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Hurricans vs. Oilers. No way was I parting with them.

[Zeddicus]

I’m a fan of Michael Graham, but he’s off-base here.

The show Hannah Montana is a decent, clean family show that our three teen and pre-teen kids thoroughly enjoy, and that we’re happy to have them watch.

Miley Cyrus isn’t a bad singer to boot. She has a decent voice, her music is fun, and her clean image is far preferable to the trashy sluts plaguing pop music and culture today.

I do agree that there is a problem here with the big ticket brokers buying out all the tickets and jacking up the prices. It’s not a simple matter of happy seller / happy buyer. Now we have these parasitic, no-value-added middle men who have no interest in either the product nor the product’s end-users, just their own profit.

[MEGoody]

It’s sad that some kids won’t get to see this show, but hey, life is full of disappointments. I hear some parents nearly crying as they talk about how their child’s life is ruined because they can’t see Hannah Montana - good grief.

[fish hawk]

Red Cloud to Warriors: Scalping is just a business.

[Navy Patriot]

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.

[mysterio]

People have decided that they don't like freedom here in America. I don't understand why they don't like being told they can't sell their tickets for market value. Did dateline tell them that they wanted that freedom or something?

I'm confused.

[CharlesWayneCT]

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.