mikeb Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) we're just lucky that Eavis often charges less for a ticket than it's worth. Edited May 27, 2009 by mikeb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toilet Duck Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'll get slated for this but I think he's right. At the end of the day touts will only charge what people will pay. If touts were selling tickets for £1,000 in 04/05 then that's what they were worth, likewise last year they would have ended up having to sell them at roughly the same value as the festival as it only just sold out. What would people think if all the Glastonbury tickets were put on ebay and you had to bid for them? Either way you find the fair value of a ticket, we're just lucky that Eavis often charges less for a ticket than it's worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farewellandgoodnight Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) I'll get slated for this but I think he's right. At the end of the day touts will only charge what people will pay. If touts were selling tickets for £1,000 in 04/05 then that's what they were worth, likewise last year they would have ended up having to sell them at roughly the same value as the festival as it only just sold out. What would people think if all the Glastonbury tickets were put on ebay and you had to bid for them? Either way you find the fair value of a ticket, we're just lucky that Eavis often charges less for a ticket than it's worth. Edited May 27, 2009 by farewellandgoodnight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodimusPrime Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'll get slated for this but I think he's right. At the end of the day touts will only charge what people will pay. If touts were selling tickets for £1,000 in 04/05 then that's what they were worth, likewise last year they would have ended up having to sell them at roughly the same value as the festival as it only just sold out. What would people think if all the Glastonbury tickets were put on ebay and you had to bid for them? Either way you find the fair value of a ticket, we're just lucky that Eavis often charges less for a ticket than it's worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanoL Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'm split on this. I've been annoyed by touts, I've used them, and occasionally I've been one. Not on purpose, but if a friend cancels on me and I have a spare ticket that has a market value on Ebay of 5x the price I paid then I'm not cheating myself out of that money out of some moral sense. Because if the market value on Ebay is half of what I paid for it the ticketing company sure aren't going to make up the difference or give me a refund. Glasto do offer refunds up to a limited point, so I'm willing to cut them a lot more slack than others. But if I've got a concert ticket that's non-refundable it bloody well better be transferable. And if that's the case you just got to sell at the fair market value. That's capitalism, it's how the world works. It don't work that well, as we can see right now, and it's fundamentally unfair and crap, but unless we all stick to the rules we screw ourselves. I'll campaign for change but I sure can't afford to be so philanthropic in real terms. If you can then more power to you. It's not a directly analogous situation, but imagine if Ford suddenly decided that cars would be locked to their initial owner, and that you couldn't sell on your second-hand car. Or if you weren't allowed to sell on old books or DVDs on Ebay. It might sound ridiculous but video-games manufacturers are already starting to come up with systems to license out games instead of selling them so they can't be sold on. And the fifty quid or so worth of albums I have on iTunes can't be sold on to anyone else. We're moving in a dangerous direction, and abandoning the ability for people to sell on tickets at a fair market value is a another step that way. A fairly benign and helpful one, but still a worrying one. The real problem we have here is that the selling of tickets to start with is not a fair system. If you logged in, got put in a queue by the time you logged in, and got sold up to two tickets, then after an hour or the queue was clear, you could join again and buy more, then touting would be fine. Everyone gets an equal shot at tickets, then the touts can sell on the secondary market to people that were too lazy or un-decided to get in the queue. If everyone gets a fair and equal chance to buy then it's fine. The problem is when events sell out before the queue is even cleared the first time around as demand is so high. The touts got lucky or had a faster net connection and everyone else loses out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Ploppy Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 If you've got spare tickets give 'em away if you can afford it, face value if you need the money. any more than that, you're pretty much a twat in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farewellandgoodnight Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) I'm split on this. I've been annoyed by touts, I've used them, and occasionally I've been one. Not on purpose, but if a friend cancels on me and I have a spare ticket that has a market value on Ebay of 5x the price I paid then I'm not cheating myself out of that money out of some moral sense. Because if the market value on Ebay is half of what I paid for it the ticketing company sure aren't going to make up the difference or give me a refund. Glasto do offer refunds up to a limited point, so I'm willing to cut them a lot more slack than others. But if I've got a concert ticket that's non-refundable it bloody well better be transferable. And if that's the case you just got to sell at the fair market value. That's capitalism, it's how the world works. It don't work that well, as we can see right now, and it's fundamentally unfair and crap, but unless we all stick to the rules we screw ourselves. I'll campaign for change but I sure can't afford to be so philanthropic in real terms. If you can then more power to you. It's not a directly analogous situation, but imagine if Ford suddenly decided that cars would be locked to their initial owner, and that you couldn't sell on your second-hand car. Or if you weren't allowed to sell on old books or DVDs on Ebay. It might sound ridiculous but video-games manufacturers are already starting to come up with systems to license out games instead of selling them so they can't be sold on. And the fifty quid or so worth of albums I have on iTunes can't be sold on to anyone else. We're moving in a dangerous direction, and abandoning the ability for people to sell on tickets at a fair market value is a another step that way. A fairly benign and helpful one, but still a worrying one. The real problem we have here is that the selling of tickets to start with is not a fair system. If you logged in, got put in a queue by the time you logged in, and got sold up to two tickets, then after an hour or the queue was clear, you could join again and buy more, then touting would be fine. Everyone gets an equal shot at tickets, then the touts can sell on the secondary market to people that were too lazy or un-decided to get in the queue. If everyone gets a fair and equal chance to buy then it's fine. The problem is when events sell out before the queue is even cleared the first time around as demand is so high. The touts got lucky or had a faster net connection and everyone else loses out. Edited May 27, 2009 by farewellandgoodnight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanoL Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Yes but when touts operate and buy up all the tickets artificially inflating the prices then it's basically a Cartel. An illegal one at that. Free market principles don't apply when you restrict access to commodities in the first place. NO TO TOUTS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squall Moogle Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I suppose the name Mean Fiddler is rather appropriate here, certainly not a company name that fills you with confidence and a sense of trust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanoL Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 See your point fella but the flaw in your argument is that you selling a spare ticket no matter what you get for it is not the same as companies deliberately buying up all the tickets immediately thus forcing the price up to a stupidly high level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farewellandgoodnight Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) Yeah but what is it when a single company sell all the tickets at a price artificially set by themselves and prevent the formation of any secondary market. Not cartel... ahh, the other one: monopoly. And while secondary markets often inflate ticket prices, I've seen touts buy up tickets for shows they expected to sell out, which then didn't, and they end up selling them below cost price. Which is beneficial to the consumer and to the original company selling them. As I said, I cut Glastonbury a lot of slack as they allow refunds up to a fairly late point (with a reasonable admin fee) and purposefully price tickets a little below market value to encourage more people to come. But most festivals and event organisers don't. Edited May 27, 2009 by farewellandgoodnight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farewellandgoodnight Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I suppose the name Mean Fiddler is rather appropriate here, certainly not a company name that fills you with confidence and a sense of trust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.