4 ms·

There's a significant difference between buying something and reselling, and then having bots buying hundreds/thousands and reselling.

SoftTalker 3y ago
Not really. The demand is what it is, and the supply of tickets is fixed. That sets the price, not the number of different people selling.
- zarzavat 3y ago
  OK but the tickets are going to different people. In most cases (music, sports) you want your tickets going to your best fans because the energy of the crowd improves the performance. We’re not selling wheat futures here. If the tickets instead go to rich people who may or may not show up, it could harm the event.
  - codelikeawolf 3y ago
    You're right, the future looks grim. Who knows how many layers of the reseller parfait you have to go through just to get a ticket? At some point it becomes prohibitively expensive and there won't be enough people that can afford to attend events. I wonder how much of this could be alleviated by selling a certain percentage of tickets at the box office only? I worked in operations for a pretty large concert venue several years ago, and the Jonas Brothers were going to play there (this was at their peak). I remember a good chunk of tickets were only sold at the box office and there was a limit per person (maybe 5 or 6)? I know it's annoying to drive somewhere and wait in line for hours, but I'm sure there are folks out there that would prefer to do that instead of paying a 500% markup on the original ticket price.
    - TylerE 3y ago
      Ironically, tiered pricing to cut out the scalpers it exactly what got Springsteen so much blow back. The artists have simply decided to sell $1000 tickets instead of $200 tickets that get scalped for $1000
      - xp84 3y ago
        It’s the correct move economically, why the hell should scalpers earn that $800 for being parasites, but people are very economically-illiterate so they’ll always see that move as greed.
- codelikeawolf 3y ago
  Very true, but very annoying for the person that wants to attend the concert. You can pretty much flush your chances of getting tickets directly from Ticketmaster right down the toilet.
- qup 3y ago
  The price is fixed. The scalpers then create a secondary market where there is a supply and demand situation like you talk about.

SoftTalker 3y ago

Not really. The demand is what it is, and the supply of tickets is fixed. That sets the price, not the number of different people selling.

zarzavat 3y ago
OK but the tickets are going to different people. In most cases (music, sports) you want your tickets going to your best fans because the energy of the crowd improves the performance. We’re not selling wheat futures here. If the tickets instead go to rich people who may or may not show up, it could harm the event.
- codelikeawolf 3y ago
  You're right, the future looks grim. Who knows how many layers of the reseller parfait you have to go through just to get a ticket? At some point it becomes prohibitively expensive and there won't be enough people that can afford to attend events. I wonder how much of this could be alleviated by selling a certain percentage of tickets at the box office only? I worked in operations for a pretty large concert venue several years ago, and the Jonas Brothers were going to play there (this was at their peak). I remember a good chunk of tickets were only sold at the box office and there was a limit per person (maybe 5 or 6)? I know it's annoying to drive somewhere and wait in line for hours, but I'm sure there are folks out there that would prefer to do that instead of paying a 500% markup on the original ticket price.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    Ironically, tiered pricing to cut out the scalpers it exactly what got Springsteen so much blow back. The artists have simply decided to sell $1000 tickets instead of $200 tickets that get scalped for $1000
    - xp84 3y ago
      It’s the correct move economically, why the hell should scalpers earn that $800 for being parasites, but people are very economically-illiterate so they’ll always see that move as greed.
codelikeawolf 3y ago
Very true, but very annoying for the person that wants to attend the concert. You can pretty much flush your chances of getting tickets directly from Ticketmaster right down the toilet.
qup 3y ago
The price is fixed. The scalpers then create a secondary market where there is a supply and demand situation like you talk about.