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The question of "Does the seller actually own the thing being sold" is interesting. For example, I consider StubHub jerktech, even though the owner does indeed

The question of "Does the seller actually own the thing being sold" is interesting. For example, I consider StubHub jerktech, even though the owner does indeed own the ticket. But encouraging people to buy up tickets for resale at markup seems jerky to me.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
> But encouraging people to buy up tickets for resale at markup seems jerky to me. StubHub isn't doing that; the act (or venue) is. Knowingly selling something in bulk at 50% or less of its value is "encouraging people to buy up [the thing] for resale". They do it because they like packed houses. edit: having read the article, it's striking that all three of these examples (entertainment tickets, public parking spaces, and restaurant reservations) involve valuable things being given away. It's difficult to complain that people who sign up for valuable freebies and resell them are "just being jerks"; even if Parking Monkey never makes its business work, and dies, it can perform the societally-valuable service of restructuring the parking situation generally.
jowiar 12y ago
I've bought a ton of tickets over the years on StubHub - almost all well below single-game market rate for the same seats (what the venue charges for the ticket directly). The original purchaser often bought a season ticket package and was unable (or did not desire) to attend all the games. Many of these the original purchaser is taking a loss on vs. purchase price, but they were forced to buy them in order to buy some other goods they wanted.
fleitz 12y ago
What's the big deal with tickets? I don't understand why tickets are unlike any other commodity. If you aren't willing to pay X for a ticket simply don't buy it. I'm not willing to pay $100 for an NHL game so I don't buy tickets either from the box office or scalpers, however, I am willing to pay $50 so sometimes I'll go by the stadium 10 minutes after a game starts to see whats around for cheap from scalpers. For things I really want to see I don't have time to stand in line or fuck around refreshing a browser madly / keeping track of all the events in the city, so I pay someone to stand in line for me, and work out an optimum price to keep tickets available.

thaumasiotes 12y ago

> But encouraging people to buy up tickets for resale at markup seems jerky to me. StubHub isn't doing that; the act (or venue) is. Knowingly selling something in bulk at 50% or less of its value is "encouraging people to buy up [the thing] for resale". They do it because they like packed houses. edit: having read the article, it's striking that all three of these examples (entertainment tickets, public parking spaces, and restaurant reservations) involve valuable things being given away. It's difficult to complain that people who sign up for valuable freebies and resell them are "just being jerks"; even if Parking Monkey never makes its business work, and dies, it can perform the societally-valuable service of restructuring the parking situation generally.

jowiar 12y ago

I've bought a ton of tickets over the years on StubHub - almost all well below single-game market rate for the same seats (what the venue charges for the ticket directly). The original purchaser often bought a season ticket package and was unable (or did not desire) to attend all the games. Many of these the original purchaser is taking a loss on vs. purchase price, but they were forced to buy them in order to buy some other goods they wanted.

fleitz 12y ago

What's the big deal with tickets? I don't understand why tickets are unlike any other commodity. If you aren't willing to pay X for a ticket simply don't buy it. I'm not willing to pay $100 for an NHL game so I don't buy tickets either from the box office or scalpers, however, I am willing to pay $50 so sometimes I'll go by the stadium 10 minutes after a game starts to see whats around for cheap from scalpers. For things I really want to see I don't have time to stand in line or fuck around refreshing a browser madly / keeping track of all the events in the city, so I pay someone to stand in line for me, and work out an optimum price to keep tickets available.