Does NZ need scalping laws?

Submitted by dantheman on Sun, 2005-12-11 18:44

I am sure most of you are aware about the people buying the U2 tickets and then selling them on trademe etc and making a profit 4 or 5 times what they are worth.

This pisses me off, now I was never going to go to U2, but I am annoyed at the amount of people on trademe selling these rare tickest as if they are nothing, and the nerve to put the tickets on on the same fucken day they went on sale.

Things like " oh my and mr 5 mates each brought 4 tickets so now we have 3 tickets each to tell" is bullshit, because about 95% of people that are selling tickets have used this same excuse...It is called communication people not very hard nowdays with cell phones and whatever. I am sure you could have found out if he needed a ticket or not before you purchased your full ticket limit.

Then you have others who only need two tickets but buy their maximum anyways meanwhile some poor bastard further down the que misses out coz of that greedy fuck up front.

This leads to the scummiest fucks of all, they buy tickets with NO intentions of going simply to sell off and make a profit, the same thing happened with the Lions test match tickets when they were here.

Now this isn't sour grapes because I missed out on a ticket because I wasn't ever going to go, but it is pretty sad that some genuine fan misses out because of a greedy wanker trying to make a buck. It is lame.

Anyways thats my rant, what are your views on this?

Comments

Submitted by noizyboy on Sun, 2005-12-11 19:43.

// This leads to the scummiest fucks of all, they buy tickets with
// NO intentions of going simply to sell off and make a profit

bah! filthy capitalists.

Submitted by Jon Jr. on Mon, 2005-12-12 15:36.

The Anti-Capitalist Alliance could be the ones to help you out Dan...

Submitted by Joanna on Sun, 2005-12-11 19:52.

Weren't the members of U2's fan club offered tickets before everyone else? That's the impression I was given from one of the articles about people queuing for tickets.

Submitted by DarkNick on Sun, 2005-12-11 19:53.

I have a couple views on this:

One is it is unfair for those that line up for ages only to have somebody ahead buy the last tickets to onsell. But I don't think that they are denying 'true fans' because when you think about it, only a true fan would buy a ticket at that inflated price or someone with lots of money and too lazy, too busy or too slow to line up and buy tickets. Either way, the place will still be filled with people that want to see the show, places are limited, so someone has to miss out anyway. Perhaps it is just another example of money opening doors.

What really pisses me off is the thought of someone making money at the expense of someone that can't afford to buy more expensive tickets. That's the real rub. But I don't think it should be illigel. Instead I think all the fans out there should band together and not buy the tickets from scalpers, making the practise unprofitable. Of course that won't happen - tragedy of the commons etc...

Submitted by Tragedy of the ... on Mon, 2005-12-12 08:28.

Thanks for the plug... ;)

Submitted by DarkNick on Mon, 2005-12-12 11:30.

no problemo - your my fravorite ecological lesson

Submitted by Heather on Sun, 2005-12-11 20:14.

One of my buddies suggested the promoters should've outbid all the trademe tickets (at least the ones that went onsale on the first day), then when the scalpers got in contact, quietly reminded them of their contractual obligations (with knuckledusters).

Problem's really bad in the UK, I had a friend who queued for Madonna tickets, and she reckoned there were about half a dozen scalpers harassing people in the queue, like pushing them around and stuff, to try and get them to leave. There were security guards there but apparently they wouldn't do anything cos the queuers were on public property or something. Apparently some tickets eventually sold for 2000 pounds.

This year, Michael Eavis FINALLY took some serious (but pretty obvious) measures - restricted the number of Glastonbury tickets that you could buy to two, and stamped them all with the name and address of the recipient.

Submitted by Heather on Sun, 2005-12-11 20:17.

// (with knuckledusters).

well, maybe not knuckledusters, perhaps they could set the IRD on them..

Submitted by limegreen on Sun, 2005-12-11 20:21.

The only real solution to scalping is to change the supply/demand balance, so that such high prices can't be acheived. Although some people have been questioning U2's appeal/merits on a different thread, you'd have to say that selling 1 ticket for every 52 New Zealanders is pretty fucking impressive (although admittedly, hardcore fans will probably go to both).

Submitted by mking on Thu, 2005-12-22 13:57.

I think its a combination of a few things re U2 tickets. Ticketmaster should have limited ticket sales to four per transaction for the first concert in the first place. The promoters should have known (and probably always have) that they were going to have two concerts, and this would have helped alleviate the demand issues of the first concert.
However this probably would have meant that their website and telephone services would have probably been even worse than what they were in the first instance. Ticketmaster should have known that demand would have been really high considering U2 haven't played in NZ for 12 years and say what you may like about them and their music, they are probably one of the few bands in the world that can fill a stadium and put on a "show".
I didn't get tickets and spend an hour and a half on the website trying to get through, but obviously other people had no problems buying tickets. Guess I was unlucky.
Also I'm sure that on the tickets themselves, there is some clause saying that the ticketholder cannot resell their ticket wihtout permission of the promotional company blah blah blah......