My position on scalping...

[slappy]

6 dollars for a pack of Woodchuck!? I've never paid less than 8.

$6.50 at Total Wines stores in VA

[slappy]

Redskins Fans Waited While Brokers Got Tickets
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/01/AR2009090103984.html?hpid=topnews

So the Skins Ticket Sales Team is responsible for a small portion of the scalping problem in DC.
I would guess they got their hot little hands on some U2 and McCartney tickets as well.
Danny not knowing about it and being 'livid' is as true as Fox News being 'fair and balanced'.

[RatBastard]

News does not have the properties of being fair and balanced. Opining does but not news reporting.  Which is exactly what is wrong with 99.999% of the so called news media these days.

[Seth Hurwitz]

Scalping is different from beer reselling -- Scalpers profit without adding value to the transaction, and are therefore essentially leeches on society (much like derivatives traders).   Bars profit because they add value to the beer they're selling -- an enjoyable atmosphere, for example.   

I'm rather surprised this obvious difference needs to be explained.   

Yes, BARS do that.  But when I go to a concert venue, I have already paid for the atmosphere with my ticket.  I'm not even suggesting that concert venues should charge less for alcohol than bars; however, I don't believe that it's too much to ask that they charge the SAME.  After all, I pay to go to a concert venue, but I almost never pay to go to a bar.

I institued a simple policy long ago that I will simply not drink at a venue that charges too much (and as much as I love the 9:30, it's a prime example).  The way I see it, lower alcohol prices would be greatly offset by greater volume sold.  When I can go to a venue like Spaceland and buy a draft pint (of GOOD beer) for $5.50, I'll probably have at least one or two.  And venues like that make me see venues like the 9:30 who charge $6 for a bottle (the price of a six-pack, in some cases, such as with Woodchuck Cider) in a very poor light.  If the price for a bottle of Woodchuck were even $4 (still about four times its store price), I'd probably have one or two.  Most smaller venues aren't that bad, though.  It's the really large venues I can't stand, with their $9 and up plastic cups of crappy beer (thanks to their horrible selection).

I hold a passionate hatred for scalping, and long ago resolved not to buy tickets from scalpers no matter how much I want to see a show.  I'd rather miss a show I really want to see than pay $60 for a $20 ticket and support some lowlife out to ruin it for true fans who just want to see a band play.  However, I will say that I very often buy tickets the night of a show, but only from people who just want to get rid of an extra ticket or two.  I've gotten into many, many sold out shows that way.  I don't know about anyone else, but I really don't know what'll be going on one, two, three months down the road, and will very rarely commit to a show more than a week or two in advance.  That means that I very often have to find tickets for sold-out shows.  I'm all for instituting methods to limit and prevent scalping, but printing names on tickets and checking IDs would completely ruin that option for people like me, and for people who do commit months in advance and end up not being able to make the show.  Ticket selling between fans is completely different from scalping, and any attempt to curb scalping needs to take that into account.

whew...I'm not sure happiness is in your future no matter how all this is handled

[RatBastard]

I am not making any statements for what I think prices should be on a damn thing, but it is indeed the buyer who sets the market price.  A seller can ask what the heck he wants.  You have the buyer has the dollars in your hand.  You determine if something is worth the price being asked.  If something is being offered at a price you think it is worth, buy it, if not, don't.

[Sir HC]

If you don't like the beer prices, you can go down the street, grab a beer, and run back for the show.  And why do you assume your ticket price did more than pay for the band and security and all the other workers and that the club makes its money off bar sales.  I know some of the smaller venues where the bands get the door and so what does the venue make?  Beer sales, that is all.  So don't think that your ticket is necessarily paying for the venue, because it might not be, just for a greedy band.

[slappy]

Add Van Halen and Ticketmaster to the pile.
http://beatcrave.com/2009-09-01/van-halen-caught-up-in-scalping-scheme/

Van Halen Caught Up In Scalping Scheme
By Jeffrey Hyatt

The Van Halen classic ?Runnin? With the Devil? might very well be changed to ?Runnin? With the Scalpers? now that the rock band has been alleged to have conspired with ticket scalpers during a fall 2007 tour in order to reap an extra $1 million, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The plan, part of a Ticketmaster initiative named ?Project Showtime,? was devised to grab a piece of the exorbitant prices charged by scalpers, which sometimes surpass a general ticket?s face value by hundreds (often thousands) of dollars.

Van Halen?s part, according to the paper, was involved in farming out up to 500 of the best seats from about 20 of its concerts with original frontman David Lee Roth to secondary ticket brokers.

Irving Azoff, Van Halen?s manager and Ticketmaster?s chief executive, is said to have spearheaded the scheme in the summer of 2007.

Under the proposed plan, the scalpers (who prefer the term ?brokers?) would keep 30% of the marked-up ticket sale price for themselves, and the remaining 70% was divided among Ticketmaster, the band and its handlers, the paper reported. Van Halen?s involvement in ?07 was actually part of a test run.

Ticketmaster, which is now pursuing a merger with Live Nation, was negotiating with ticket brokers such as Ace Ticket, a Boston-based broker, Barry?s Tickets Service in Los Angeles and Elite Ticket Service in New York to launch the above-mentioned ?Project Showtime.?

The project also included negotiations with concert-promoter AEG Live, and Madison Square Garden-parent MSG Entertainment.

One of the main reasons ?Project Showtime? fell apart was because Ticketmaster execs were gun-shy about going into business with the leaders of an industry they had long opposed, which makes sense. From a purely illegal standpoint, the deal makes sense. But clearly the trust meter in the room between the brokers and Ticketmaster was registering a 1 out of a possible 10, so everyone just walks away thinking about ?what if??

Of course, before the deal was completely shelved for good the ticket brokers had already been given tickets to scalp, and rock stars Van Halen pocketed an extra $1 million.

[hutch]

I am not making any statements for what I think prices should be on a damn thing, but it is indeed the buyer who sets the market price.  A seller can ask what the heck he wants.  You have the buyer has the dollars in your hand.  You determine if something is worth the price being asked.  If something is being offered at a price you think it is worth, buy it, if not, don't.

WHat market? One seller is not a market!

It is the SELLER in a monopoly environment that determines the price. Or you think the 930 does not determine the price of the beer they sell? Since there is no possible competitor its a "take it or leave it" situation.

[chaz]

Jesus how long does this debate have to go on.  Beer prices will continue to rise and scalpers are not going anywhere.  If it bothers you that much, stay home.  Otherwise quit yer bitchin.

[hutch]

Jesus how long does this debate have to go on.  Beer prices will continue to rise and scalpers are not going anywhere.  If it bothers you that much, stay home.  Otherwise quit yer bitchin.

Talk about bitchin! I count four five different bitches in 30 words! Good stuff Chaz!

[chaz]

Jesus how long does this debate have to go on.  Beer prices will continue to rise and scalpers are not going anywhere.  If it bothers you that much, stay home.  Otherwise quit yer bitchin.

Talk about bitchin! I count four five different bitches in 30 words! Good stuff Chaz!

Don't you have a milk bottle to suck on somewhere?

[hutch]

Jesus how long does this debate have to go on.  Beer prices will continue to rise and scalpers are not going anywhere.  If it bothers you that much, stay home.  Otherwise quit yer bitchin.

Talk about bitchin! I count four five different bitches in 30 words! Good stuff Chaz!

Don't you have a milk bottle to suck on somewhere?

More bitching.

WHy don't you ram the milk bottle up your ass nice and hard?

YOU know asshole if you don't like the topic don't open the thread, ok? 

[hutch]

Anyways the topic was started by Seth who is against ticket scalping. I think comparing ticket scalping to gouging people on beer sales is not a very good comparison.

With all these things coming out about promoters etc acting in concert with scalpers there may emerge some concensus on the need to do something.. I thought I saw a paper today with a cover about the Redskins now scalping tickets.. now you got the Van Halen story..add that to the Springsteen, the ticketmaster-Live Nation proposed merger and maybe there will be some sort of reaction to finally do something..

[chaz]

OK hutch...you can go back to your delusions of adequacy and pointless ramplings on the politics and injust practices the 9:30 has perpetrated upon you.

[wml7]

wow