Ticket Touts

Author
Discussion

Tiggsy

Original Poster:

10,261 posts

252 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Venting......wait all morning to get tickets to the NBA game at the O2 in Jan. Log in early, well before box office opens, use the virtual waiting room. Get access finally and discover .....sold out. 7 mins after going on sale.

Look on ticket sites......all the tickets are there at 4+ x face value.......joke.

Andehh

7,110 posts

206 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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I don't get why it is difficult to stamp out, name and birthday on ticket with holographic etc markings and make people bring their drivers license etc to verify?

blinkythefish

972 posts

257 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Andehh said:
I don't get why it is difficult to stamp out, name and birthday on ticket with holographic etc markings and make people bring their drivers license etc to verify?
Selling tickets on at face value to mates is a legitimate thing to do and is one of the reasons for reluctance to stamp it out. The problem is, with the arrival of the internet, it is no longer people with spare tickets passing them on, it is touts buying out the whole venue and then punting them all on reseller sites.

The reseller sites argue that the inflated prices get paid, therefore there is a legitimate market. I am not to convinced, it is an artificially inflated market caused by the touts creating a shortage. It might be time for concert promoters to step up and implement stuff like you are saying.....

OdramaSwimLaden

1,971 posts

169 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Andehh said:
I don't get why it is difficult to stamp out, name and birthday on ticket with holographic etc markings and make people bring their drivers license etc to verify?
It's all extra work, the powers that be don't care and cannot be arsed. All that is important is that they sell out. A few genuine fans missing out is low on their overall priorities.

egor110

16,858 posts

203 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Andehh said:
I don't get why it is difficult to stamp out, name and birthday on ticket with holographic etc markings and make people bring their drivers license etc to verify?
because seatwave, via go go etc are owned by the ticket companies.

ticketmaster have 1000 tickets for your basketball game for sale at say £30 a ticket, they give themselves (seatwave) half the tickets before the tickets actually go on sale knowing full well they will shift them for far more than the £30 original price.

they have no interest in stopping this , with your old school touts companies could send tickets out later and later or even week before show say you have to pick tickets up at venue with the credit card that paid for them, but now the major ticket companies are now also the touts nothing will change.

Driver101

14,376 posts

121 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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This is something I really hate.

Ticketmaster have the market sown up.

Even ebay stopped tickets suctioning tickets, creating their own site for them. Ticket prices have all been fixed at higher prices.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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I despise this activity with a passion. Interviews on the radio with Ticketmaster and the inevitable sell on sites and their collusion, it is obvious they have no concerns unless their activity is to be curtailed.


egor110

16,858 posts

203 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
I've found the best way to get tickets is too go old school and phone up.

I got tickets for the small biffy clyro club show in london, phoned ticket company 10 mins early and they wouldn't sell any, booted up the computer/phone with no luck so phoned up again and just purchased a pair of tickets.

OldSpice

353 posts

137 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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There must be a way of capping resold tickets at face value. Then legitimate sellers (people who can no longer attend etc.) can recoup their money whilst the touts can't make a profit and so don't bother.

snowley

183 posts

126 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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I did the same thing this morning.

Wait all year to see a game and this happens - so mad!!!

PanzerCommander

5,026 posts

218 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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Same with many things. I have a season pass (three games) for the NFL this year and we were forced to buy them in January or risk not getting them because £265 (incl £10 booking fee) is a lot easier to stomach than either not going (if you don't get a player return) or paying £530 a month or so before the first game to a tout.

It would be very hard to stamp out as others have said because it stops legitimate ticket purchasers selling them on if they can no-longer go.

JQ

5,738 posts

179 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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PanzerCommander said:
It would be very hard to stamp out as others have said because it stops legitimate ticket purchasers selling them on if they can no-longer go.
Is it though? It's illegal to re-sell football tickets, that bit of legislation pretty much stopped the widespread touting overnight. It still goes on obviously, but without being able to openly market them on the internet it's massively reduced the market. Why not just extend it to concert tickets?

I know lots of people with football season tickets and they regularly offload their tickets when they can't attend. It just means instead of advertising them at 4 times the value on Ebay they just let mates or mates of mates have them for face value. The same would just happen with concert tickets.

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

188 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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It would be very easy to stamp out if it was illegal to sell at above face value. However, capitalism doesn't work like that, with the exception of football tickets which can't be resold due to hooliganism concerns.

Ticketmaster don't directly pass tickets to their resale unit, but they make massive fees on the resale so have no incentive to stop it, whilst most big artists can sell out enough venues to line their pockets and see no need to play extra dates.

EnthusiastOwned

728 posts

117 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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It's in the venue/acts interest for touting to continue. It creates low supply and high demand and is a marketing dream.

egor110

16,858 posts

203 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Tom_C76 said:
It would be very easy to stamp out if it was illegal to sell at above face value. However, capitalism doesn't work like that, with the exception of football tickets which can't be resold due to hooliganism concerns.

Ticketmaster don't directly pass tickets to their resale unit, but they make massive fees on the resale so have no incentive to stop it, whilst most big artists can sell out enough venues to line their pockets and see no need to play extra dates.
The links between ticketmaster and seatwave are far to cosy, you buy a seated ticket for a concert try and sell it on ebay with a pic showing the seat number/block and they will cancel under there terms and regs, but fine for them to get a nice backhander from seatwave and do the same.

Shaoxter

4,071 posts

124 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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I've been a small time ticket tout for these NBA games over the past few years, but this year demand seems to be much higher (or supply lower?) than previously.

It's only two crappy teams this year anyway though laugh

egor110

16,858 posts

203 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
I've been a small time ticket tout for these NBA games over the past few years, but this year demand seems to be much higher (or supply lower?) than previously.

It's only two crappy teams this year anyway though laugh
Up to mid 2000's i was involved with a nbl div 1 team , i'm shocked there's such a call for basketball in this country going by the trouble we had getting/keeping spectators and sponsors.

egor110

16,858 posts

203 months

Friday 31st October 2014
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
I've been a small time ticket tout for these NBA games over the past few years, but this year demand seems to be much higher (or supply lower?) than previously.

It's only two crappy teams this year anyway though laugh
Up to mid 2000's i was involved with a nbl div 1 team , i'm shocked there's such a call for basketball in this country going by the trouble we had getting/keeping spectators and sponsors.

Pints

18,444 posts

194 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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As long as there are those who will pay over the face value for a ticket, there will be touts.

Similarly with stolen goods: if everyone refused to buy stolen goods, there would be no demand and the thieves would be unable to sell on the goods.

anonymous-user

54 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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I think its very unfair on touts to blame them for this.

This is an organised rip off of the punters by the ticket companies as explained above by a number of posters. The venues and artists often get a cut of the inflated tickets and as such allow it to continue. There was a program on BBC a couple of years ago which covered it all, its a shocking practice.