this is an ongoing debate.... the money is on the side of keeping them transferable... the whole resale industry, scalpers, stubhub would sufffer a big blow if tickets were not..they have pumped money into into front groups representing themselves as being on the side of the "fans" that are nothing more than lobbyists for stubhub etc.. they lobby government for precisely what atomic wants... "fan power" anyone?
i happen to think that for many shows the fan would win out if tickets where non-transferable...is it an inconvenience at times? yes.. but an example of how it could work:
in 2008 or so AC DC had not toured in like 8 years or something.. demand was sky high... they had a fannclub and if you joined.. i think it may have been 50 bucks you could participate in the presale.. all tickets where 99 but the really good seats where offered first to the fanclub members with one condition: non-transferable and you could only buy 2.... i ended up with second row center for opening night... dream.
if the tickets had been transferable i have little doubt that scalpers/ticket resellers would have bought almost all of them... and I'd have had to pay hundreds more making it impossible..instead of me, a diehard ACDC fan, in that seat it would have probably been some suit without much of a clue about ACDC
I predict tickets will stay transferable with the consequence that because resellers keep scooping them up when there is a difference between "market price" and "face value" which will encourage concert acts to keep raising prices so that resellers can't arbitrage/skim the diference.....the Stones did this recently...they raised prices so high that essentially resellers were shut out...with the exception of lottery 85 dollar tickets which were nontransferable and you did not know where your seat would be... I want to be clear before Julian's 5 year old kids jumps on me: I am not defending the Stones ticket selling prices simply making a point about how they cut out the middleman
eventually we will probably move to a system resemblilng airline tickets where the prices for tickets fluctuates much like it does on orbitz or travelocity... and you'll have somebody in seat a who paid $300 and the person next to him $88.. its already happening..
so I guess my feeling Atomic is you don't have much to worry about although ocassionally an act that gives a shit bout their fans will make them non-transferable and charge below market valuef ..in the case of ACDC it should be noted all seats were 99$... so in essence they arguably helped out their "fan" in the fanclub while charging others the same for far worse seats..although there was the 50 fanclub charge..there were some prizes you were supposed to get..... they subsidied their fans..... .. but moving forward in the main you're going to have to pay way more but at least will be able to do what you want with your ticket..
your mileage, as always, may vary.
