3 ms·

Make the tickets named, and require ID upon entry. Completely kill the resale market. If people can’t make it, they can return the ticket for the same amount o

by slau 3y ago

Make the tickets named, and require ID upon entry. Completely kill the resale market. If people can’t make it, they can return the ticket for the same amount of money they bought it, up to one week before the event. Or they can get cancellation insurance just like some would on holiday plane tickets. Returned tickets go back on sale into the main pool. As far as I can tell, the scalping problem would be gone instantly. But there’s a reason nobody is doing it: they’re making money hand over fist.

thechao 3y ago
I've been exposed to precisely this mechanism at "mom & pop" venues; it works great, and no one's upset (there's a loss of last-minute transfer between friends, but that's the cost). Ticketmaster self-scalps: it's in their best interest not to have this mechanism.
AnthonyMouse 3y ago
The problem is legitimate ticketholders don't like this. You're going to a concert with your SO that you had to buy tickets for six months in advance, then you break up and get together with someone else. Now instead of transferring the ticket you paid for to your new SO, you're stuck either going with your ex (that'll go over well) or going by yourself. People don't like this.
- slau 3y ago
  I’ll take not having shared seating with a potential future partner due to the breakdown of my relationship with my current partner over spending $450/person to see a band I liked back in high school.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    But you still don't even get to see the band, because if they sell the tickets below the market clearing price they sell out before you can get one and then aren't available at any price.
- dilyevsky 3y ago
  That is completely made up example - I’ve been to events that do this and you’re typically allowed to purchase 2-4 tickets per id
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    That doesn't work for honest people when the person who used their ID is the one who can't go. And you now have a new scalping model where you create a website for people to submit their IDs ahead of time and pay a fee to have someone try to get them a ticket in the two seconds before they sell out, but they buy 2-4 tickets per ID and resell the others.
    - kelnos 3y ago
      Simple fix for that: require the concertgoer to physically present the ID when arriving at the concert. They can also just disallow multiple tickets per ID. To clarify the proposed process: you buy one or more tickets online, and you're required to put full names to those tickets when you purchase them. You are not permitted to change those names later. You can return the tickets (minus some "restocking" fee), but that's all you're allowed to do; no transfers. When the time comes to attend the concert, everyone brings their ID, and the ticket checker matches the names on the IDs with the names on the tickets. No match, no entry. There is certainly one hole: tickets are still scarce, so someone could set up a website where they claim they'll guarantee you a ticket (because they have fast internet connections and legions of low-paid grunts clicking furiously at the website), and then charge a large premium on top of the ticket price in order to do so. You either give them your Ticketmaster (or whatever) account credentials, or they even "give" you an account after buying the ticket for you, all with your name on it. I do think this would inflate some ticket prices, but I feel like the situation would still be much better than it is now. On top of that, the ticket seller can just ban these sorts of websites. Again, not perfect, as they'll do everything they can to circumvent the ban, but you can probably make things difficult enough for them that their value prop doesn't really work out all that well, and they fail to get tickets often enough that they end up with a bad reputation. Really, ticket scalping should just be illegal, and law enforcement should crack down hard on these kinds of outfits.
- kelnos 3y ago
  Wouldn't this account for well under 10% of potential ticket buyers, though? Sure, if you're in a relatively new relationship, planning anything at all 6 months out is a gamble. That's just life. At any rate, you'd still have the option of returning your ex's ticket, and buying a new one in your new partner's name. Or you can return both tickets, and buy a new pair that are guaranteed to be seated next to each other. Sure, presumably you didn't get full price on the ticket return, but, again, that's life. The funny thing is that, while on occasion this situation might come up, and someone will end up paying a little more to see the show, overall they (and everyone else) will pay less to see shows in general, since scalping has been (in theory) eliminated. So for most people who see a show every now and then, they'd still come out ahead under this system.
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    > Wouldn't this account for well under 10% of potential ticket buyers, though? For this specific example? Sure. But then people have other kinds of conflicts with other people. And pissing off even 10% of your customers is bad. > At any rate, you'd still have the option of returning your ex's ticket, and buying a new one in your new partner's name. By then they're sold out. You can't get any other tickets. If you could exchange the ticket you have for one in another name then so can a scalper. > The funny thing is that, while on occasion this situation might come up, and someone will end up paying a little more to see the show, overall they (and everyone else) will pay less to see shows in general, since scalping has been (in theory) eliminated. The problem in this situation is not that you have to pay more, it's that you can't go to the concert with your current SO even though you have two tickets. You can get a refund for one or both of the tickets, but you don't want a refund, you want to go to the concert with your new SO.

by slau 3y ago

thechao 3y ago

I've been exposed to precisely this mechanism at "mom & pop" venues; it works great, and no one's upset (there's a loss of last-minute transfer between friends, but that's the cost). Ticketmaster self-scalps: it's in their best interest not to have this mechanism.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago

The problem is legitimate ticketholders don't like this. You're going to a concert with your SO that you had to buy tickets for six months in advance, then you break up and get together with someone else. Now instead of transferring the ticket you paid for to your new SO, you're stuck either going with your ex (that'll go over well) or going by yourself. People don't like this.

slau 3y ago
I’ll take not having shared seating with a potential future partner due to the breakdown of my relationship with my current partner over spending $450/person to see a band I liked back in high school.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  But you still don't even get to see the band, because if they sell the tickets below the market clearing price they sell out before you can get one and then aren't available at any price.
dilyevsky 3y ago
That is completely made up example - I’ve been to events that do this and you’re typically allowed to purchase 2-4 tickets per id
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  That doesn't work for honest people when the person who used their ID is the one who can't go. And you now have a new scalping model where you create a website for people to submit their IDs ahead of time and pay a fee to have someone try to get them a ticket in the two seconds before they sell out, but they buy 2-4 tickets per ID and resell the others.
  - kelnos 3y ago
    Simple fix for that: require the concertgoer to physically present the ID when arriving at the concert. They can also just disallow multiple tickets per ID. To clarify the proposed process: you buy one or more tickets online, and you're required to put full names to those tickets when you purchase them. You are not permitted to change those names later. You can return the tickets (minus some "restocking" fee), but that's all you're allowed to do; no transfers. When the time comes to attend the concert, everyone brings their ID, and the ticket checker matches the names on the IDs with the names on the tickets. No match, no entry. There is certainly one hole: tickets are still scarce, so someone could set up a website where they claim they'll guarantee you a ticket (because they have fast internet connections and legions of low-paid grunts clicking furiously at the website), and then charge a large premium on top of the ticket price in order to do so. You either give them your Ticketmaster (or whatever) account credentials, or they even "give" you an account after buying the ticket for you, all with your name on it. I do think this would inflate some ticket prices, but I feel like the situation would still be much better than it is now. On top of that, the ticket seller can just ban these sorts of websites. Again, not perfect, as they'll do everything they can to circumvent the ban, but you can probably make things difficult enough for them that their value prop doesn't really work out all that well, and they fail to get tickets often enough that they end up with a bad reputation. Really, ticket scalping should just be illegal, and law enforcement should crack down hard on these kinds of outfits.
kelnos 3y ago
Wouldn't this account for well under 10% of potential ticket buyers, though? Sure, if you're in a relatively new relationship, planning anything at all 6 months out is a gamble. That's just life. At any rate, you'd still have the option of returning your ex's ticket, and buying a new one in your new partner's name. Or you can return both tickets, and buy a new pair that are guaranteed to be seated next to each other. Sure, presumably you didn't get full price on the ticket return, but, again, that's life. The funny thing is that, while on occasion this situation might come up, and someone will end up paying a little more to see the show, overall they (and everyone else) will pay less to see shows in general, since scalping has been (in theory) eliminated. So for most people who see a show every now and then, they'd still come out ahead under this system.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  > Wouldn't this account for well under 10% of potential ticket buyers, though? For this specific example? Sure. But then people have other kinds of conflicts with other people. And pissing off even 10% of your customers is bad. > At any rate, you'd still have the option of returning your ex's ticket, and buying a new one in your new partner's name. By then they're sold out. You can't get any other tickets. If you could exchange the ticket you have for one in another name then so can a scalper. > The funny thing is that, while on occasion this situation might come up, and someone will end up paying a little more to see the show, overall they (and everyone else) will pay less to see shows in general, since scalping has been (in theory) eliminated. The problem in this situation is not that you have to pay more, it's that you can't go to the concert with your current SO even though you have two tickets. You can get a refund for one or both of the tickets, but you don't want a refund, you want to go to the concert with your new SO.