Ticket Touts

[Guest]

hehehe, the thing about absolute c**ts is you have to respect them a bit

[Mardy]

Or not...

[scarletmist]

I've only just read this thread, so apologies for coming in late.

I set up and run the Scarlet Mist website. I don't much like ticket touts. But there is one important aspect of this debate that nobody has raised.

Generally in a free-market economy then the price of a commodity depends on the demand for the commodity.

(Interestingly as an aside, tickets are not a commodity, they are a contract between purchaser and promoter. It cannot be freely traded without the permission of the promoter, and there are strings attached to the contract. The only promoter that I know who has enforced this (and it went right up to the Court of Appeal) was the Rugby Football Union. More info

So in a free economy then tickets would be priced as high as the market would bear. If there are a bunch of bankers prepared to pay megabucks for a hot ticket then the price would rise until even the bankers chickened out. A free economy maximises prices.

Thing is, though, that promoters managers and bands do not want to sell the tickets at the highest possible price, for a multitude of reasons. But mostly they don't want to alienate their core fans and they want to ensure their long-term careers. So in effect they deliberately sell their tickets at BELOW market value (where 'market value' is the top price that the market could bear).

And in doing this then they create a situation where touts are bound to flood into the market, since there is an unmet demand.

The close links between the primary and secondary ticket markets, where promoters pass ticket directly to touts, has been revealed - see http://evolver.fm/2011/04/04/stubhub-says-artists-promoters-venues-and-fans-not-scalpers-cause-price-inflation-and-ticket-shortages/

It seems to me that given the artificial market situation then the only way to control touts is to make resale of tickets a criminal offence. But I would be worried that if this were to happen then the prices might just go up instead.

[frostypaw]

Very glad to see you post old bean, you're probably more informed on the realities of this than all of us

[Guest]

I've only just read this thread, so apologies for coming in late.

I set up and run the Scarlet Mist website. I don't much like ticket touts. But there is one important aspect of this debate that nobody has raised.

Generally in a free-market economy then the price of a commodity depends on the demand for the commodity.

(Interestingly as an aside, tickets are not a commodity, they are a contract between purchaser and promoter. It cannot be freely traded without the permission of the promoter, and there are strings attached to the contract. The only promoter that I know who has enforced this (and it went right up to the Court of Appeal) was the Rugby Football Union. More info

So in a free economy then tickets would be priced as high as the market would bear. If there are a bunch of bankers prepared to pay megabucks for a hot ticket then the price would rise until even the bankers chickened out. A free economy maximises prices.

Thing is, though, that promoters managers and bands do not want to sell the tickets at the highest possible price, for a multitude of reasons. But mostly they don't want to alienate their core fans and they want to ensure their long-term careers. So in effect they deliberately sell their tickets at BELOW market value (where 'market value' is the top price that the market could bear).

And in doing this then they create a situation where touts are bound to flood into the market, since there is an unmet demand.

The close links between the primary and secondary ticket markets, where promoters pass ticket directly to touts, has been revealed - see http://evolver.fm/2011/04/04/stubhub-says-artists-promoters-venues-and-fans-not-scalpers-cause-price-inflation-and-ticket-shortages/

It seems to me that given the artificial market situation then the only way to control touts is to make resale of tickets a criminal offence. But I would be worried that if this were to happen then the prices might just go up instead.

[mrtourette]

very good points...

the whole thing stinks to high heaven as far as I can see. The agencies/promoters have always had this thing ('touting') sewn up. They sell tickets to touts. That's all. The touts have various disguises. Sometimes it's the c**ts outside the venues, sometimes it's more organised, like viagogo, or the agencies own secondary outlets

it's amazing how content people are with it. Usually it's simply because they've managed to get a ticket for less than face value

how very Thatcherite

[Guest]

[jeffie]

[frostypaw]

I do like it when she dresses like a cupcake.

I'm all for legally enforcing the already existing ticket condition of no resale, they're already doing it with prestige events why be so discriminating