3 ms·

It's the doublespeak justification for it - "we're helping people by maximizing our profits" - that gets me.

• bmelton 9y ago
  Airplanes not being the best example, since they control the entirety of the supply chain, but if they were more like arena ticket sales, or sports-team ticket sales, then they actually would be helping people by maximizing their profits. In the case of musicians, most of them undersupply and underprice their tickets, which means that there's a market for reselling. For a variety of reasons, they keep prices low so as to ensure a sold out venue as best they're capable, and when prices are lower than they ought to be, ensures a market for resellers. Resellers help offload the risk to the original sellers, but if the sellers were capable of maximizing profits in the first place, buyers would benefit by not having to deal with the perils associated with gray market sales. Also, the artists / venue / middlemen would make more money. http://www.aei.org/publication/ticket-scalping-as-an-efficient-market-for-risk-management-that-helps-not-hurts-mick-jagger-and-the-rolling-stones/ http://www.aei.org/publication/ticket-scalping-as-an-efficie...