Beginning when I was only 14 in 1986, I used to attend a lot of concerts. A lot of them. And they were not particularly popular concerts, though most were in la

Beginning when I was only 14 in 1986, I used to attend a lot of concerts. A lot of them. And they were not particularly popular concerts, though most were in larger venues such as sports arenas and amphitheaters. So I was usually able to score decent tickets without too much cutthroat camping-in-line or anything. Even in those days, most all of the tickets were sold through TicketMaster. Our main outlet was on the second floor of a Montgomery Ward store in the mall, right there among all the clothing in the department store, for no obvious reason. Now in those days there were a couple of fees tacked on to ticket prices, but of course they were typically opaque already because even the base would depend on where we wanted to sit in the venue. So we didn't squirm too much when there were "facility fees" and "convenience fees" added and so forth. If possible, I would directly approach the venue's box office for the best deal, though. It was interesting, because as the years wore on, I became interested in more obscure music, and that translated to ever-smaller venues, and more informal ticket purchases. By 1999 I had acquired my "dream job" of clerk at Tower Records, and I was able to get up-close and personal with a real TicketMaster terminal (which was accessed in exactly the same way, with arcane text commands) and by that time my concert-being activities were being strictly curtailed. But I understood how terrible the market had become, the layers of fees that got tacked on, and the financial pain of wanting to see our favorite bands was increasing. I mean, in the "good old days" each seat was $40, maximum. These $250 packages with parking fees extra, that's abominable. As for short-term rentals, while I've embraced the new food delivery services and ride-sharing over taxis, I never felt like adopting short-term rentals over hotels. For reasons of insurance, safety, and billing, among other things. So I'm thankful that the FTC is doing stuff about both of these industries. I hope that this regulation will bring about some lasting change and consumer confidence.