Jambands.com - Need We Say More?

kylie mcgregor December 4, 2011, 18:10:37

OR fans can take a stand against scalping themselves!!! https://www.facebook.com/groups/magnoliamiracle/ KEEP THE TICKETS IN THE FAMILY ~ BOYCOTT EBAY, CRAIGSLIST, SCALPERS, STUBHUB ~ THIS GROUP IS STRICTLY DEDICATED TO POSTING TICKETS FOR FACE VALUE OR LESS ONLY! ... Magnolia Miracle is here to help you trade, sell or buy FACE VALUE or LESS Tickets to Shows/ Festivals without getting ripped off by brokers, scalpers, fake tickets, etc
~ post what tickets you have, need or want to trade & if you DON’T know the person that has/wants the ticket, CHECK YOUR MUTUAL FRIENDS & ASK ONE IF THAT PERSON IS LEGIT

sd December 4, 2011, 18:20:41

I think the answer is simple: hold out until ticket prices drop. Yesterday, the lowest-priced tickets for 12/28 on StubHub were $112; today they’re $99. In another week, I’m will to be there will be some decent seats available for under $100, which is reasonable. The more people who are unwilling to buy at outlandish prices, the less demand that exists; that forces sellers to drop prices in order to get rid of their tickets.

Barry December 5, 2011, 00:24:26

Great article but I was hoping for a current look at the ticketing scene and how the scalpers are getting such a large amount of the tickets. Also, why ticketmaster isn’t doing anything more to stop the computer programs that scalpers are using to accrue tickets and why tickets pop up on secondary sites like stubhub and ticketliquidator minutes after tickets for shows go onsale?

Benny Saint December 5, 2011, 17:22:19

@ Barry: it’s easy. They have computer programs that hack into the online sales and bypass the waiting rooms, which allow them to go in and gobble up hundreds of tickets while the rest of us helplessly wait in a “virtual waiting room”. However I think that some scalpers out there have even taken it a step further and figured out how to get in on the pre-sale, which is quite something (and quite dickhead-ish). I suppose if you were a scalper you could have a program create thousands of fake names, addresses, and what not…but how/where does the credit card come in? You need a real credit card to submit an order and purchase tickets, so how do they get around that?

Howard Riverport December 5, 2011, 17:53:58

I’m one of those people who’s couple of hundred of bucks has to go to rent and feeding my family. Thanks to scalper’s mysteriously scooping up almost all of the phish MSG tickets for all four nights, I will be at home this New Years eve. A trip to NYC for 4 nights alone, not including the scalper’s extortion priced tickets, would have broken my bank. Add Hotel, Airfare, Food, Ect into the mix on top of the only option for tickets being through scalpers and it’s a price i’m not willing to pay to go see a couple of shows. It is pathetic that the bands do almost nothing to prevent the tickets from being hoarded by the scalpers. I know a lot of people who simply can’t afford this lifestyle anymore with the added $$$ required just to score tickets.

trey a December 5, 2011, 19:42:00

@ howard!! if u have family and are that hard up for money than maybe staying home and spending time w your wife ands kids isnt such a bad thing

Howard Riverport December 5, 2011, 20:29:38

money dosen’t come easy these days. I can understand if you have a trustfund or sell drugs to draw from how it would be easy to part with a cool $800 for tickets alone. Don’t think that I wouldn’t have liked to have a shot at going, but being outpriced at every level will make it a perfect time to just chill at home with the family. In case it wasn’t obvious, we are in a serious economic downturn and every $ counts. It’s pretty shitty that it had to be this way when a new years festival or even caring about the scalping problem would have made it easier for people to actually go. It’s pretty effng hard just to make ends meet these days. Don’t think i won’t appreciate the time at home with the family. but it’s damned fucked up how this shit went down this year and i’m sure i’m not the only one who has issues with it.

Scalper Boy December 6, 2011, 15:57:44

I got your “MIRACLE” right here, only $500 you lot wookie!

DaleC December 7, 2011, 11:51:59

To answer the question of scalpers getting pre-sale fix… simple, they join the bands fan clubs. Credit cards are easy to get with different addresses, like private po boxes, and slight variations on the name… John Smith, John Alan Smith, JA Smith, etc etc Another place prime fix land are in the pockets of season ticket holders. Maybe they don’t like jam bands, but love classic rock acts, so they scalp the tickets they don’t want. Those two alone can easily scoop up a few thousand fix to any show. Add in the pro’s with the computer bots and it’s game over for the average fan to get good seats. Paperless is one solution, but definitely has it’s own problems.

Reseller December 8, 2011, 00:06:48

The problem with your argument on reputation is that reselling sites like Stubhub are completely anonymous. If I happen to land some good seats for a show I want to see, I list them at a price at which I am willing to part with them. If someone wants them that badly, then I take the profit and buy some worse seats, or save the money for the next show. If they don’t sell, I go. Nobody has a gun to their head when they buy the tickets.

Level Headed December 9, 2011, 10:43:03

Then again, no one puts a gun to anyone’s head to pay more than face value. If I buy a ticket, it is my property. What I choose to do with it is my business. So, if I post a ticket for sale on Ebay starting at face value and it gets bidded up to a higher price, that is the nature of the beast. And, to be honest, this country was founded on capitalism and the principle of making a dollar.

Hey Bro December 9, 2011, 22:01:23

Panic is trying a tactic to combat scalping. Access to the “Wood Tour” (insert joke here) requires a photo ID, the Credit Card used to purchase, and check-in at the box office. The main thing that sucks is that there is no ticket stub for the the memorabilia collection.

zzyzx December 10, 2011, 09:03:37

Hey Bro: the one problem with the ticketless thing is that it prevents people whose plans fell through helping someone else. It’s a more minor problem, but getting an extra to 10/10/10 was kind of rough. As for Phish, some basic protection on their MO site – I could write a script to spam it with MO requests in 20 minutes – along with shorter MO periods would help some… but if it’s fans helping, things do become a lot harder.

Brad December 12, 2011, 11:04:03

Tickets are a limited resource with too high of demand. I personally think that bands should eliminate the margins by charging way, way more for tickets or offering them initially on bidding sites to see what the fair market value actually is. Obviously this would price a lot of dedicated fans out of the shows but at least the profits would go to the band rather than rent-seekers whose ability to exploit value arbitrage contributes neither a good or service to the overall economy. Then, if the band was most interested channeling those profits to helping fans, they could do so. How cool would it be if Phish played smaller, free gigs for randomly selected fans or live streamed their every show to various theaters around the country with themed costume parties and events. Or what if they just randomly gave away a portion of non-transferrable tickets to people who showed up in costume or could answer an obscure fan-friendly question, or had tweeted a setlist or whatever. What doesn’t help is perpetuating the idea that self-interest doesn’t exist or that tickets values should be kept artificially low by trading or selling at face value. If YOU are interested in doing a good deed then go for it. But people will generally act in their own interests and will make money when and where they can. I also think there is a much blurrier line when it comes to “Scalpers vs. Fans.” Here’s an example: Last summer I paid face value for 4 U2 tickets. The problem was that they were in two different parts of the venue. So I bought two tickets near one of the sets from a scalper then sold the other two for a markup in order to pay for the first scalper’s elevated prices. Should I have sold the second pair for face even though they were worth more in the market? This is a matter for dispute. Did I have a better time because I enjoyed the show in the company of my family rather than strangers? Absolutely. My two cents. I’ll expect a tirade of anti-community sentiment along with a few disses that I went to see U2. Go ahead, do your worst…