[Rant] I really hate scalpers

redthirtyone

redthirtyone

It's a hatred that's always been there, but is especially large under the current situation.

Next weekend the extended family is flying across the country to Seattle to visit even more family. They've lived in Seattle for ~25 years, but we've seen them at a few major family get togethers in the meantime. My sister has a conference there in a couple of weeks, so we're vacationing the week before.

It occurred to me last week that I'll be flying in on the 29th, and the Emerald City Comic Con is that weekend. Of course it's been sold out for a while. My geeky cousins that live in the area have failed me (us, really... they're Whovians).. I've checked secondary markets - ugh.

I don't mind some markup. I don't expect there to be hordes of people on Stubhub, eBay or Craigslist selling badges for face value. I don't mind people who post - "Bought 4 tickets, now a friend can't go. Selling the extra for a few bucks above face". That happens.

What I'm burning about is the multiple posts I see on those sites that say something to the effect of - "Badges for sale!! These are in HIGH DEMAND!!! 3X face value, they won't last long!!! 20 available"

20 available huh... wonder why they're in such high demand? :mad:

I would LOVE for these bastards to get stuck holding several thousand dollars worth of unused badges. But... we're geeks, and some of us aren't all there... so somebody will pay the prices they're asking.
 
LordRendar

LordRendar

That used to be the case for a festival I visit every year. people would buy a dozend or more tickets and sell em 3x the price. The organizers combated this practice by forcing everyone to sign up to their website,
register with your real name and adress which will put your name onto a list. at a preset date 50k people are randomly choosen.you can also organize groups which will be treated like a single person in the lottery, but everyone in the group will be able to buy a ticket with their name on it if they win.
Killed the whole scalper thing almost overnight.
If you cant go,you can log onto the site,cancel the ticket (you will get all your money back) and it will be given to someone else.
 
LittleKagsin

LittleKagsin

That sounds a lot like San Diego Comic Con @LordRendar. They're trying to combat scalpers so hard. And it frustrates me so much that they have to go to such great lengths to do it I'm in agreeance: scalpers are the worst!! I dislike them, so much.
 
redthirtyone

redthirtyone

Yup - there's ways to combat it. The ticket lottery method is a decent idea. Final Four tickets available to the general public are done this way. There are other methods that would help. Limiting the # of tickets available per person / payment method would help. Although a resourceful scalper willing to pay with cash gets around that pretty easy.

Unfortunately, it appears most of the tickets for ECCC were available via ticket "outlets" at most of the comic shops in the Seattle area. Go to your local comic shop, buy tickets, at a later date exchange tickets for badges. While this may be trying to keep the tickets in the hands of the target market, it probably does no more than make things awkward when the scalper has to exchange a huge block of tickets for badges at once.

One thing I think would help - keep a somewhat small percentage of tickets available for same-day sales. 10-15% maybe. Have them go on sale a couple of hours the night before & the day before if available. Limit 1 per person. Thursday night around 7-8, open a ticket window. Sell 3-day passes & Friday passes, limit 1 per person, for 90 minutes or until they run out. Close the back of the line @ 60 minutes or whatever, sell til the line or the tickets run out. If anything's left, open @ 8 the next morning & sell til they run out. Friday night - do the same thing starting @ 8pm, selling Saturday passes. Again on Saturday night. If you really wanted to make it restrictive, make sales credit card only, or with valid ID only. ID would make sales take longer but allow you to maintain a database of persons to go against the "limit 1 per person" rule. Credit card would help keep from scalpers paying people to stand in line & buy tickets for them.

I dunno. Just spitballin here. I'm just thinking that if you know going in that there's a decent chance you can get tickets for face value the day of the event, it might keep scalping prices down a little bit because the perceived "high demand / low availability" factor will be reduced.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

Scalpers here made it so no one could buy tickets for Bruno Mars at the actual box office. They were totally sold out by the time they opened up. Go on CraigsList though and there were ticket packages for $1000-$2000.
 
Jay

Jay

Scalpers are a huge problem. Hockey games, concerts, shows.... it's big business and the police in general don't give a shit while hundreds of them are outside these things trying to sell tickets at inflated prices.

I wanted to go to a Russell Peters show a few years back and was only willing to pay a certain amount for a certain emplacement. All sold out before I can buy it. By the end of the day hundreds of tickets were on sale online at 2x the price. I didn't go to the show.

I like them but they are always short term experiences, no investment made. Paying more than a certain amount for a seat is ridiculous. When it's doubled, you stop caring about these shows.
 
doomdragon6

doomdragon6

Staff member
One way to look at it though, is that by this time those tickets would be sold out no matter what. Scalpers, if nothing else, allow you to still get a ticket if you care enough to pay way more than original price. So, IN A WAY, it's almost a service.

Normal: All nerds buy tickets and it's sold out early on and you can't go.
Scalpers: Scalpers buy up X tickets, and YOU can buy a ticket, far later than you normally might be able to, if you can pay a higher amount. And those tickets will be available to you for a while, because they're being held for a much higher cost.

So, is it a terrible practice? Yes. But, in a way, it can be considered helpful.
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

It's not so much that police don't give a shit, but very often, there is nothing LEGALLY we can do... despite the fact that it is unethical as hell, and makes one about as high as a squished turd, the purchase was done legally - after the fact, what they choose to do with their tickets/badges is not something the law can do about, without getting even more invasive than it already is.

If you wanted to sue them AFTER the fact, that's within your rights, too... but totally not what you're wanting to do, which is how the leeches get away with it.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
It seems to me there is a major missed opportunity here. Ticket sellers could eliminate the scalpers, get rid of the cries of foul play and yet make potentially much more money if, instead of actual physical tickets, they started selling non-transferable seat reservations in an e-bay style auction (where you put in your maximum bid and the machine automatically bids up to that until closing). Then you just show/scan photo ID at the door to get in. Of course, it eliminates last minute "oh I forgot they were playing I'd sure like to go" sales because obviously you can't keep the auction going right up until curtain, have to end it some time earlier so travel plans can be made, but is that really such a high price to pay to eliminate scalping?
 
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