Quote:
Originally Posted by Edge34
I'd say it really slllllloooooowwwwwwwlllllyyyyy so you could understand, but this is the internet, so it probably wouldn't help.
Putting "FAIR MARKET PRICE" in all caps is moronic. There is a finite number of tickets available for any given event. There are no "similar tickets from other sellers", at least not beyond a certain point. Those tickets go on sale for $x. People like OP use cheat technology (ok, used, past tense, maybe) and teams of buyers to buy tickets to events they have no interest in going to, then resell them for $Y, where Y is 4-5 times X, and sometimes more. Just because there are people out there willing to pay X doesn't mean it's "FAIR MARKET PRICE", it's just bastardizing the concept of supply and demand.
"I have teams of people sitting in front of their computers at the second tickets go on sale so I can keep people from buying them at $20 and then turn around and charge those same people $100 for the same seat".
Yes, Ticketmaster is garbage. Yes, they're a monopoly. But exchanging garbage fees for markups by greedy people who hoard tickets to sell at some exorbitant markup...maybe even you and Triumph can see why people have a problem with this. Does it take work? Clearly. Is it a real "service" to anybody but those who are OK paying $100 for a $20 event ticket? Not even close.
I have appreciated your posts and demeanor in this thread, I'm glad that this topic is generating constructive discussion.
With that said, You don't understand basic economics. The price the tickets go onsale for initially is 100% irrelevant. Whether the face value of an event is $1, $500 or $10,000 each, the tickets will still trade on the secondary market for the fair market price. (
I'm not talking about "fairness" in the traditional sense here, that is an important point. I have said already in this thread that the ticket distribution system isn't fair in a moral sense).
This market price is determined by the number of tickets available in the open market vs. the total demand of people who want to go to the event.
What you don't realize is that in a very basic sense, the more tickets I (and other brokers/scalpers like me) purchase when the tickets go onsale in the first place, the cheaper the price in the open market. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense right away, but think about it.
In my example of the releasing of the $11 tickets that are worth $50-60, if the only people who catch them are fans who want to go to the game, those tickets will never get to the open market, and thus the price of tickets available will not go down. If I buy a bunch of them strictly to resell, the "market price" of the tickets will actually come down, as the total supply of available tickets in the market has gone up.
If Tyco released 10,000 super-special-limited-edition beanie babies tomorrow morning for $10 each on their website at 9am, and all 10,000 people who buy them are kids who love to collect beanie-babies, the market price of those beanies will be THROUGH-THE-ROOF, because there's no supply on the open market! Those kids will never part with their beanies. Some 30-year old weirdo who loves beanies will have to pay a fortune because there might be only a few on ebay or at shops.
Suppose a bunch of people like me heard about the sale and went in and bought 2,000 just to resell (Hey, those $10 beanies are way underpriced and they didn't make enough to satisfy demand, I will buy them and put them on ebay).
What is the result? The market price of the beanies be significantly lower (there are 2,000 available for sale). Collectors who didn't have time to hit the onsale or were busy at work, they get to buy them at a lower price!
You seem to be mostly upset at the unfairness of this system. I bought 2,000...that's 2,000 fewer little kids who could have gotten them at $10. But $10 is an artificially low price. At $10, demand is WAY higher than supply so they will sell out instantly.
When there's a playoff game at a 40,000 seat stadium, there might be 150,000 people ready and willing to pay face value. Only 40,000 will get in. The more ticket brokers who buy up seats, the more people will actually have a chance of going to the game by buying them on the open market.
Who should have the most right to see a sold out game? The ones who were lucky enough to be at a computer at 10am with a fast internet connection? or the ones who value the ticket the highest thus are willing to pay the most?