Ticket Touting

Smoggy

I was listening to BBC Radio1 this morning and heard that over in the Uk the government are looking to see what can be done about ticket touts, they are giving the industry until next summer to develop a plan to cut down / stop ticket touting, hopefully they will do the same over here .....

Saruman

MCD had a good go at it this year... waiting till a week before oxegen then releasing tickets again.. touts were pissed off im sure and were selling off tickets at cost or below to get rid!!
Even on boards, apparently as soon as it happened a LOAD of tickets came on sale on boards at cost price

whiskeyman

There's certain stricter controls the promotors can bring in (matching name/ID on ticket and concert go'er), but some are just to restricting.
At the end of the day, if demand is high, some people will always be willing to pay a higher than cost price to go to an event.
It's never going to be totally stopped tbh, but hopefully they can crack down heavier on touts.

Giruilla

Touts never really used to bother me, but now i realise that they're scum. I mean making people, who have been looking forward to a band for possibly years, pay over the odds for a ticket thats already a rip off! Make money a ****ing honest way!

Prior Of Taize

Giruilla wrote:

Touts never really used to bother me, but now i realise that they're scum. I mean making people, who have been looking forward to a band for possibly years, pay over the odds for a ticket thats already a rip off! Make money a ****ing honest way!

How is it a dishonest way to earn money???

Its simple supply and demand economics... :cool:

Noelie

Yeah if i remember correctly there were extra tickets released for Eminem right before the concert, there were people outside the gig selling for less than cost.

See the price EP tickets are going for on ebay around 300 each, it radiculous

Dont be at yourself

The proposed measures include refundable tickets and an official website where fans can buy and sell tickets at face value. These are great ideas.

Toast

The venue? People selling spares at face value outside? Ticketmaster sells tickets on the day usually up till six on the day of the show as well. You can just pick them up at the venue.

lordgoat

THere'll be EP tickets available again before it... I hate touts.

acquiescefc

Prior Of Taize wrote:

How is it a dishonest way to earn money???

Its simple supply and demand economics... :cool:

So when someone buys 10/20/30 tickets they arent going to use, they are just going to sell them at 100-300% markup to people who really want to go, thats not suppl and demand, thast cornering a market, if 10 people do it thats half the fckin venue.

Youre a plum. sorry but where does it stop. they should do what glastonbury did, filter out the block bookers, after all it says 'Maximum 'x' per customer' They should make it illegal to tout outside venues, only people selling face value, it can be done, you can spot the touts miles off, hell you can smell em.

Something should be done but alas its never gona happen in this greedy country.

PiE

acquiescefc wrote:

they should do what glastonbury did, filter out the block bookers, after all it says 'Maximum 'x' per customer'.

They do this already in fairness, but the touts get around it by using multiple credit cards. There's really no better way to track people other than by CC number and unfortunately it's quite easy for anybody with a regular income to get as many cards as they like from various banks, while also using friends' and family's cards.

If they went down the road of having to link the name on the ticket to the ticketholder, nobody would be able to buy tickets as presents and a lot of kids wouldn't be able to attend concerts as it would usually be the parents paying for them.

They're scum, but they also do a service. I've seen many people only too happy to shell out 30 or 40 quid extra on tickets for concerts they thought they'd missed out on.

Dont be at yourself

Fair enough, people are happy shelling out an extra 30 or 40 quid for a ticket, but it's also at the expense of fans who were unable to buy the tickets from the promoter at face value due to these touts buying them all up.

I understand how genuine fans can miss out on tickets, and in that instance touts do come in handy. But there are always some tickets available from fans who couldnt make it on the night or credit card cancellations or whatever, and this works out fairer on everyone. If it was easier to buy these tickets from fans who need to sell theirs for whatever reason, it would be perfect. Hence the proposed website.

On a side note, an experience I had with touts a few months ago, when Presidents of the USA were playing TBMC.

I had a ticket, but the other half did not. I went down early to the gig, hung around to see if anyone was selling tickets. The touts didnt have any at the time, as they were in pretty high demand. He said he'd sell me one for 50e, I think (face was about 20e!), so I told him where to go, hoping to buy one from a fan. I asked how much he'd offer for mine, and he said 10e, the cheek! If a fan appeared with a ticket to sell, they'd go straight to the tout, take the 10 or 15e being offered and leave, wouldnt even look around for ticketless fans to sell to! In the end I ended up selling mine at face to a fan and fecking off for a few scoops.

PiE

I reckon anyone who's willing to pay double the face value must surely be classed as more of a 'genuine fan' than they lazy bums who roll out of bed on the onsale date and get lucky when ordering online!*

A few weeks ago someone pointed out Ticketmaster's TicketExchange site to me and I agree it's a great idea. Only works for US events at the moment by the looks of it though. A lot more security for fans buying tickets, hopefully it'll help people avoid getting shafted by fake tickets and whatnot.

*I may or may not actually believe this

Toast

#Elites wrote:

thats only if its not sold out:/
and half the time you only pay 5-10€ over face value to the touts...unless its a big name like u2 etc..
i have no problem with touts.

We were discussing a hypothetical situation where the touts were illegal. In which case youd get your last minute tickets at face value from people whod normally sell their spares tickets to touts and less gigs would sell out because your ticket wouldnt have been bought by a tout and sold back to you for €5-10 more.

I dont buy from touts and I dont burn a tenner before I go into each gig either.