Posted on 06/12/2025 1:13:04 AM PDT by RandFan
When a judge dismissed an appeal by prolific ticket tout (scalper) Peter Hunter and his husband and accomplice David Smith against their landmark conviction for fraud, he sounded an alarm.
The evidence, he said in a 2021 judgement, suggested the possibility of "connivance and collusion" between ticketing companies and touts, who buy up tickets for live events in bulk and sell them to the public at inflated prices.
A different judge sentencing another group of ticket touts for fraud, including the self-styled "Ticket Queen" Maria Chenery-Woods, last year raised similar concerns and suggested the possibility some ticketing sites had been "complicit" in the touts making "substantial profits" by reselling tickets.
Hunter fraudulently traded tickets between 2010 and 2017, Chenery-Woods between 2012 and 2017. They both used all of the four big UK ticket resale sites: StubHub, Viagogo and the Ticketmaster-owned GetMeIn! and Seatwave.
For years, fans had battled touts to get the tickets they wanted and to avoid heavy mark-ups on resale sites. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster had publicly insisted that it was trying to combat ticket touting, which can be illegal in some circumstances.
The company - one of the UK's biggest ticket sellers - was in a unique position until 2018, as a ticketing website which also owned two major resale platforms.
Although Ticketmaster was not involved or represented in either of these court cases, the judges' comments about the industry suggested that the full story may not yet have been told.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
My take: What is wrong with making "substantial profits" if that's what's going on. I mean, that sounds anti-capitalist to me even if a judge's patience is wearing thin it's not something you'd expect them to rule on.
The issue for me is if ticketmaster is tacking on 20% fees on sale and then another 20% on resale. It wouldn’t be illegal for them to charge a 40% fee but they are hiding it from fans and artists this way.
If it is a few tickets, it’s fine. However, some of the bigger scalpers use computer programs to tie up the lines and buy up the best tickets for resale.
One of four Taylor Swift tickets for the New Orleans show went for $78,000 on Vivid. Scalp that.
It’s not a free market if there’s only one seller, and it’s not a real shortage if the scarcity is the result of a single entity buying up most or all of what is available.
I don’t go to public concerts where I can’t buy my tickets from the original supplier.
Scalping warps the entire transaction.
The artist isn’t getting anymore money and everybody is pissed at the performer for excessive ticket prices.
I went to a Van Halen concert( Balance tour) at the Gorge in WA state. Got seats I wanted for 4 adults less than $100 total.
I always ask for aisle seating right across from the concert sound guy.
Best place for sounds, good visuals, and easy access to the bathroom.
You always want to be close to the sound guy.
Yeah I understand it’s a fine line
Gee whiz, shouldn’t the term “scalping” and “scalper(s)” be dropped for something more benign and less derogatory towards Native Americans? /s
The solution is to have the performers stop selling the tickets at a fixed price, and just list them directly on their own StubHub-like platform where anyone can bid any price on them.
What?
What did you say??
It seems to me that you don’t have to buy tickets at wildly inflated prices. If it costs too much don’t go. I personally wouldn’t pay $5 to see Taylor Swift, if people didn’t pay then the scalpers would go broke.
My ticket to see The Who at the Pontiac Silverdome in ‘75 cost me $8 (face value) and I got what I paid for.
We used to go directly to the ticket office of the venue hosting the show for when “tickets go on sale!”, being the second or third person in line at the 10:00 am box office opening time, only to be told, “sorry, all sold out.”
Ticketmaster is criminal organization. Artists hate them.
I went to Van Halen about 1983 or 1984
I was warned it was going to be an awful show - and it was
personally - I’d like to see some huge events where nobody bought a single ticket from a scalper...paying them their “sop” is like bending over and asking them to insert the broom stick.
How so?
Of all names to have for someone in his “predicament”:
Peter Hunter. Like a character in a novel.
They just clowned around on stage - hardly playing a proper set
Plus it was the tour where they always threw a cake at the bass player
Their opening act was awful and booed their entire set
I saw many concerts at that venue - theirs was the worst by far - when they would actually play, not-so-bad
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