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Having worked for a scalper as a young person trying to get through school, I have to agree that they are parasites. I can't believe the support they're getting

Having worked for a scalper as a young person trying to get through school, I have to agree that they are parasites. I can't believe the support they're getting on techcrunch. Oh well.

mooism2 18y ago
Why? I'm curious. Don't they provide a valuable service?
- robotron 18y ago
  (I knew I would be modded down, alas) I don't think hiring a bunch of kids to go stand in line to get around ticket limits so you can buy up all the tickets, thus preventing other kids from getting them is that valuable of a service, no.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Without taking a side here: Think of the face value of the tickets as the "IPO" price. Friends and family get tickets at IPO prices. Immediately on release, the market sets the "real" price of those tickets. Scalpers are just buying at the IPO price. If that's unfair, the party it's unfair to is the artist; they're the ones who got ripped off by an artificially low face value. On the other hand, just like shares can easily close below their IPO value, demand for a block of tickets can be low, which screws the scalper. Whether scalpers buy and hold huge blocks of tickets is kind of besides the point. The tickets are, in theory, worth what they're worth. The scalper who refuses to sell at a fair market price should lose money.
  - tdavis 18y ago
    Of course you're going to get downmodded, you didn't even make an argument originally! Nobody is buying tickets so kids can't get them. They're buying them to re-sell them at a higher price because there is a market for tickets at that price. They're not buying them to hoard them for a rainy day or something. The reality is, for most events you can get tickets for face value, through the primary provider, if you do so in a remotely timely fashion. The other reality is that for most events that have a large secondary market you can get tickets well below face value. Real "scalpers", the people who stand around at games, are providing a service. They are selling tickets for cost + a convenience fee to be paid by whoever found it too inconvenient to get tickets earlier (or felt like "playing the market" or whatever).

Having worked for a scalper as a young person trying to get through school, I have to agree that they are parasites. I can't believe the support they're getting on techcrunch. Oh well.

mooism2 18y ago

Why? I'm curious. Don't they provide a valuable service?

robotron 18y ago
(I knew I would be modded down, alas) I don't think hiring a bunch of kids to go stand in line to get around ticket limits so you can buy up all the tickets, thus preventing other kids from getting them is that valuable of a service, no.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Without taking a side here: Think of the face value of the tickets as the "IPO" price. Friends and family get tickets at IPO prices. Immediately on release, the market sets the "real" price of those tickets. Scalpers are just buying at the IPO price. If that's unfair, the party it's unfair to is the artist; they're the ones who got ripped off by an artificially low face value. On the other hand, just like shares can easily close below their IPO value, demand for a block of tickets can be low, which screws the scalper. Whether scalpers buy and hold huge blocks of tickets is kind of besides the point. The tickets are, in theory, worth what they're worth. The scalper who refuses to sell at a fair market price should lose money.
- tdavis 18y ago
  Of course you're going to get downmodded, you didn't even make an argument originally! Nobody is buying tickets so kids can't get them. They're buying them to re-sell them at a higher price because there is a market for tickets at that price. They're not buying them to hoard them for a rainy day or something. The reality is, for most events you can get tickets for face value, through the primary provider, if you do so in a remotely timely fashion. The other reality is that for most events that have a large secondary market you can get tickets well below face value. Real "scalpers", the people who stand around at games, are providing a service. They are selling tickets for cost + a convenience fee to be paid by whoever found it too inconvenient to get tickets earlier (or felt like "playing the market" or whatever).