4 ms·

How do you prevent scalpers? Better KYC?

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Tickets are associated to a name at purchase; you are then required to provide corresponding ID upon admission at the event. Very similar to non-refundable airline tickets (which was designed to kill the secondary market for airline tickets [1]). If you cannot attend, your ticket expires worthless. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame has been doing this as part of his fan club for over a decade, and is a vocal opponent of scalpers [2]. [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-I-resell-my-air-ticket-to-someone-else-if-I-dont-want-to-travel?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-I-resell-my-air-ticket-to-som... [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=trent+reznor+ticket+scalping https://www.google.com/search?q=trent+reznor+ticket+scalping
- monksy 8y ago
  They did say that they were doing that. However.. they're still selling tickets through Livenation. That was only happening via the Presales. Source: I have a ticket for NIN that I bought on Stubhub.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
NedIsakoff 8y ago
Do what our glorious province did, make a cap on reseller pricing.
- elorant 8y ago
  Then they'll sell them through unofficial channels.
monksy 8y ago
Pre-Auctioning tickets. That'll increase their risk and exposure. Also, do the same as Kamakazie did... don't preannounce shows.
ScoutOrgo 8y ago
Add a marketplace for resells to same place face value tickets are sold. Would be same site, but could be different pages or w/e. Cap resells at face value, removing incentive to flip. Then to prevent resells, would need an app with ticket barcode that changes over time, like most 2 factor auth apps. This should help prevent resells via printing and screen shots. I expect that's not foolproof, but could prevent the easiest alternative market. This would work offline too which is a plus since service at big events is generally bad. Could also make transfers as easy as venmo through the app. The whole idea is to remove incentives from resells and make it easy as possible for people to transfer legitimately.
ticmasta 8y ago
I think you need to use basic supply/demand economics; the original sales price needs to be near the limit people are willing to pay scalpers. There's no secondary market if the scalper needs to pay near the maximum value of the seat. The entire legit reseller market is just TicketMaster trying to get a piece of the pie that the promoter left on the table. There's a misalignment of incentives for most events. The performer gets paid for the show regardless if there's one attendee or it's a sell-out (some acts do share in gate and/or merch). They want the lowest ticket prices. The promoter is on the hook for a lot of fixed costs so they need to sell enough tickets to break-even; everything beyond that is profit from selling more tickets or higher prices. The venue gets rented but then TM "offers" them a per-seat fee in exchange for exclusivity. Then TM gets big processing and assorted fees for every act. Then resellers, legit or not, buy blocks of tickets that they resell in a dynamic market, prices floating based on demand and timing. Now we have TM coming back and saying "we'll offer you a marketplace and make it easier for you to secure supply (via bots and other shady processes)".
quantum_magpie 8y ago
Print the name of concert-goer on the ticket. Require photo ID at the entrance to the venue. No resales, get a refund from the ticket seller if you can't go.

Tickets are associated to a name at purchase; you are then required to provide corresponding ID upon admission at the event. Very similar to non-refundable airline tickets (which was designed to kill the secondary market for airline tickets [1]). If you cannot attend, your ticket expires worthless. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame has been doing this as part of his fan club for over a decade, and is a vocal opponent of scalpers [2]. [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-I-resell-my-air-ticket-to-someone-else-if-I-dont-want-to-travel?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-I-resell-my-air-ticket-to-som... [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=trent+reznor+ticket+scalping https://www.google.com/search?q=trent+reznor+ticket+scalping

monksy 8y ago
They did say that they were doing that. However.. they're still selling tickets through Livenation. That was only happening via the Presales. Source: I have a ticket for NIN that I bought on Stubhub.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

NedIsakoff 8y ago

Do what our glorious province did, make a cap on reseller pricing.

elorant 8y ago
Then they'll sell them through unofficial channels.

monksy 8y ago

Pre-Auctioning tickets. That'll increase their risk and exposure. Also, do the same as Kamakazie did... don't preannounce shows.

ScoutOrgo 8y ago

Add a marketplace for resells to same place face value tickets are sold. Would be same site, but could be different pages or w/e. Cap resells at face value, removing incentive to flip. Then to prevent resells, would need an app with ticket barcode that changes over time, like most 2 factor auth apps. This should help prevent resells via printing and screen shots. I expect that's not foolproof, but could prevent the easiest alternative market. This would work offline too which is a plus since service at big events is generally bad. Could also make transfers as easy as venmo through the app. The whole idea is to remove incentives from resells and make it easy as possible for people to transfer legitimately.

ticmasta 8y ago

I think you need to use basic supply/demand economics; the original sales price needs to be near the limit people are willing to pay scalpers. There's no secondary market if the scalper needs to pay near the maximum value of the seat. The entire legit reseller market is just TicketMaster trying to get a piece of the pie that the promoter left on the table. There's a misalignment of incentives for most events. The performer gets paid for the show regardless if there's one attendee or it's a sell-out (some acts do share in gate and/or merch). They want the lowest ticket prices. The promoter is on the hook for a lot of fixed costs so they need to sell enough tickets to break-even; everything beyond that is profit from selling more tickets or higher prices. The venue gets rented but then TM "offers" them a per-seat fee in exchange for exclusivity. Then TM gets big processing and assorted fees for every act. Then resellers, legit or not, buy blocks of tickets that they resell in a dynamic market, prices floating based on demand and timing. Now we have TM coming back and saying "we'll offer you a marketplace and make it easier for you to secure supply (via bots and other shady processes)".

quantum_magpie 8y ago

Print the name of concert-goer on the ticket. Require photo ID at the entrance to the venue. No resales, get a refund from the ticket seller if you can't go.