Concert ticket scalping

[Frank Cox]

I was just reading that tickets for the Oasis concert that originally sold for a few hundred dollars are now being offered for resale on third party websites for thousands.

Which raises a question that maybe some of you smarter-than-me folks could answer.

If a concert ticket can be sold for thousands, why aren't the artists selling them at that price themselves?

It appears they're leaving (millions?) on the table.

[Frank Angel]

Shhh...don't give them any ideas, Frank!

That whole scalping thing is a pile-o-unfair-sheet from the get go. If you are some Joe Schmo who purchased some tickets and decide you'd rather make a few bucks and sell them because, well, you've come to your senses and you realize you've seen just about all you can stomach of TayTay, not to mention some of your buddies actually started calling you a Swiftie, so there you are in front of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami trying to sell your Taylor Swift tickets, and yes, for a few hundred $$ more than you bought them -- why not -- when all of a sudden, undercover cops come and arrest you for scalping. YET, should you be a bunch of "entrepreneurs" and you form a shell company and get yourself a fancy website -- HardToFineTickets.com, and you buy up as many tickets as you can the second they come on sale, then sell them at super inflated prices, somehow YOU are not scapers, you're just business men. The laws differ from state to state, but bottom line -- there is little clarity between who's a "scalper" and who's some nebulous business entity merely doing legitimate business in the entertainment industry -- it;s all very, VERY murky...and it never, NEVER favors the little guy. Set up a website to sell HardToFineTickets (at 10 times the stated value)? no problem; go on Craigslist and offer two tickets that you can't use for double the face value, and you're in handcuffs in front of a judge for scalping.

[Terry Monohan]

Watch out buying tickets from Ticket Master on line they will sell your e mail address to a ton of other companies. They charge so much fees and now they tack on extra money to have the actual tickets mailed to your home. You will get a alert letter from them about a recent hack from their ticket ordering site. Isn't that great information to receive. for just buying tickets for a event.

It is almost better to make a trip to the theatre or arena box office If you can find one open and purchase your tickets in person . Local theatre/arenas still have the nerve to charge you a surcharge fee.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It is almost better to make a trip to the theatre or arena box office If you can find one open and purchase your tickets in person . Local theatre/arenas still have the nerve to charge you a surcharge fee.

In case of Oasis and other "hot topic items", the only way to get a chance at getting tickets is by joining an on-line queue on the Ticket Master site.

[Lyle Romer]

Ticketmaster sort of does what Frank suggested. They make part of the inventory "platinum tickets" which they dynamically price for more than the "face value" of similar seats but less than what the scalpers try to get. They are basically trying to throw a wrench into the scalper's machine and, at the same time, get more for the promoter (usually Ticketmaster owned Livenation) and the artist if the artist gets a percentage of ticket sales. Although, a lot of the time, the artist gets a flat fee plus a cut of the merchandising but no benefit from ticket prices.

[Mike Blakesley]

Concert tickets for hot acts are indeed a ripoff, however I don't have a problem with Ticketmaster adding fees. The fees are their markup. It's the only industry in the world that lays their profit number out on the open for all to see. I agree that some of the fees get a little ridiculous, but it's how they make their profit. Same way we make ours by selling a soda that costs us 50 cents for four dollars or more.

What the concert industry has been ruined by, like so many other things, is the computer and the internet.

When I started going to concerts (1976), the tickets would be on sale at record stores. You never knew what day they'd show up. At some point you would hear on the radio, "tickets for the Stones concert are now available at Budget Tapes and Records, get yours today!" And you would hustle your ass down there and buy your tickets. There was no hurry because there were no reserved seats. I still have the ticket stub from a Fleetwood Mac concert I went to in 1977. The price was $7, which we all thought was outrageous, because all the other concerts to that point had been $6. But...it was Fleetwood Mac!

On concert day you'd show up early if you wanted a good seat, and when the doors opened you would hustle your ass down to the arena floor and stake out your two square feet of space, hopefully alongside of a bunch of your friends. When the show started you would either stay where you were, or you'd slowly work your way up to where you were just a few rows from the stage. (The front couple of rows were always packed with hordes of pretty girls.) If you wanted to get high, you would head for the abandoned seats in the upper reaches, or maybe you'd just fire one up right where you were, hoping security wasn't paying attention (and they usually weren't).

Now, most of the tickets are sold via the "pre-sale" which anybody can get the secret password for... but when you log in, all the best seats are already marked unavailable. That's because the front rows are jacked up to hundreds or thousands of dollars and referred to as "VIP seats." If they don't sell, the price starts to drop. If you're OK with mediocre seats, you maybe have two minutes from the announced on-presale time before all the even slightly desirable tickets are gone. The poor slobs who wait for the actual announced "on sale date" are met with an arena that has most of the seats already gone except for the shit seats. But immediately you start to notice "certified resale" seats that are available for, yes, hundred or thousands of dollars.

Whenever people bitch about movie ticket prices I just point to concert prices, which are far more out of control.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Here in the US of A., a bunch of States got together and filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster for over charging on Concert Tickets. Then a bunch more states joined the lawsuit, and that made it enough for the DOJ to take over the lawsuit.

Back in the early 1970's, I remember going down town Chicago to the Auditorium Theater where my best friend's dad was the head IATSE carpenter. Got in free that way, but had to watch what ever was playing from back stage and not get in anyone's way. Saw some great concerts that way. One time it was the Joffery Ballet... We left and went to Old town.

As far as Ticketmaster selling your email address, of course they do... and so does just about everyone else in the music biz that you might email. We go to lots of concerts here in Nashville, of all types, so after I moved here in 2018, I created an email just for Ticketmaster, and a couple of other Ticket purveyors used around here. After I log in, I just hit "select all" and delete the garbage when ever I log in to purchase new concert tickets. To be honest, there hasn't been that much garbage mail... It's also usually about upcoming concerts, or upcoming concerts I already have tickets for...

Around here the other really good places are a certain few Bars, the Blue Bird is a very famous one, but the bar is small and fills up quickly. Seems like every night some famous musician shows up and does a couple numbers and then turns the joint back over to the other groups. It's quite an experience!!

[Lyle Romer]

I think the biggest issue with Ticketmaster is the fact that they own Livenation who promotes a large majority of concerts and then Ticketmaster is the exclusive ticket seller so they have no competition when it comes to their fees.