3 ms·

'Shock' as Olympic ticket alert feed is blocked

• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• csense 14y ago
  The fact that there's too much demand means that prices are too low. Scalpers (apparently called "touts" in British English) -- those who buy tickets with the intention of reselling them at a profit -- are simply the free market at work, attempting to equalize supply and demand. It's always puzzled me why the ticket industry doesn't just sell tickets by auction. Then the event organizers could pocket most of the money that currently goes to scalpers, and it would make sure everyone who wants a ticket and can afford the final price is able to get one. It might make ultra-popular events only accessible to the rich, but from the ticketer's point of view, higher prices can only be positive, as long as all the seats are full. Even if, for some reason, they want to sell the tickets below the market price, it seems like an organized lottery would be a fairer way to make sure everyone has a chance, rather than first-come first-served, which unduly favors people who use automated scrapers and/or repeatedly refresh the site manually.