Guncho,

Unfortunately, that's often the case.

The artists often have ways to get more tickets in the hands of people like you, but that usually comes at the cost of sacrificing guaranteed revenue numbers.

The overhead is the capital outlay required to purchase the ticket and it's associated opportunity cost. They also bear the risk of losing money either on poor demand, short squeeze situation (see last years SB), etc.

I really don't think major artists are as altruistic as you seem to think they are.

for the record, i'm not a broker.

Interesting article.

http://evolver.fm/2011/04/04/stubhub...ket-shortages/

Hi,
I have been following this thread for over a year now from the UK and have been buying and selling tickets for major sports and music events. In this time I have probably bought a couple of thousand tickets (through the likes of Ticketmaster, See Tickets, AXS etc) and have sold them through the 4 main secondary sites - Stubhub, Viagogo, Seatwave and Getmein.
I've administered all of this using just an Excel spreadsheet, which is now becoming a bit cumbersome because of the sheer volume of tickets I am buying and selling. In fact the spreadsheet is so big now that I am sure that mistakes have been made that are going to result in the wrong tickets being sent to Customers etc. The secondary websites themselves are pretty poor for providing adequate financial summaries and are all in different formats from each other.

Does anyone have, or know of, any type of software that will help me keep records of all of my transactions in a more robust and reliable way? I will also need to produce profit records for my tax returns.
At the moment I basically record where I bought the tickets, what event they are for, how much I paid for them, how much I sold them for and where I sold them etc.

YES GUNCHO! Hopefully you trust me a little bit more now. This is exactly what I was trying to explain to you. The industry is a farce and ticket brokers are the obvious and easy scapegoat. The fact is, most artists, and I really mean MOST, scalp their own tickets. This is a FACT. I see it every day. And the same goes for professional sports team. It's completely understandable too. No artist wants to risk the wrath of their fan base by charging high prices at or near fair market value. So they'll sell a few through Ticketmaster (typically less than half the venue) for reasonable prices and withhold the rest which they will scalp themselves.

What do you think a Ticketmaster "VIP package" or "Platinum Seats" means? All they do is throw in a lanyard and water bottle and all of a sudden it's a "VIP Package" at 10x the face of the regular tickets. This is another way artists scalp their own tickets.

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I can tell you for a fact that I know a number of artists and promoters list substantial amounts of tickets for their tours through StubHub, because that’s probably what they want to charge for a ticket, but can’t do so publicly.

Evolver.fm: Really.

Lehrman: Yes, and this is the way of the world forever. You’ve had promoters selling tickets in back alleys, and now they have found a legitimate way to do it. People condemn us for having the brokers, resellers, scalpers or whatever you want to call them buy up all the tickets and list them on our site. But those are not necessarily the people who list them on our site. Yes, they exist, but they’re a smaller percentage than you would ever believe.

Haven't you ever wondered why the best seats become available two hours before the show starts?

Also, I made a living selling tickets at face value. Have to love lawn seats at amphitheaters.

I assumed it was season ticket holders and brokers speculating.

Did you pay below face value?

Personally I don't have a problem if the artist lists Platinum or VIP tickets on Ticketmaster. It's their right. It's clear what's happening. No one is deceiving anyone. But for an artist/venue/promoter to list tickets on a resale site pretending to be a member of the public selling their tickets, I have a problem with that and can't believe that is legal or that people have been apparently getting away with it for so long.

"Getting away with" selling their ticket to their show in whatever manner they wish? What a weird world this guy lives in...

You don't think it's deceitful for an artist to post tickets on Stub Hub under a fake name with the purpose of hiding who is actually selling the tickets?

If that is what is happening.

Or if they are selling directly to brokers they certainly are awfully quiet about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-...b_5659944.html

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?59,548515,548550

It's amusing to watch Guncho learn about the ticket marketplace in real time.

I want to learn!

Stubhub is anonymous. You don't know your counterparty in any transaction.

I think it's commonly accepted that artists/venues/promoters if they are directly selling on the secondary market or to directly to brokers are not being transparent about it to the public.

I would guess 98% of the general public have no idea this is happening.

Who cares?

An artist has a right to sell tickets however they want. They don't have to disclose anything, nor do they have to sell via an onsale.

So you've basically admitted to committing theft and fraud, yet we are the bad guys?

You know street scalpers often buy them up cheap outside from people with extras and try to mark them up to make money for themselves. They are also assuming risk that someone will pay $60 for $80 ticket they paid $40 for. Or they are selling tickets belonging to a broker hoping to make a commission. Often these people really have no other marketable skills, yet they need to eat too.

What you are doing is committing crimes and possibly causing people to starve or rack up debts they would have a hard time paying.

Absolutely they do as long as they are being honest about it which they are not.

Do you feel that it's ok for an artist to say "Bah it's the scalpers fault no one can get tickets!" and then put 500 seats on stubhub themselves?

Do you have any references as to artists who say this AND list tickets on stubhub? These could be mutually exclusive.

This is a business. Artists have a finely crafted image, if it serves them to say that, then they should say it.

So in your opinion lying is ok when it's a business?

Remind me not to do business with you.

Are you Ferengi by chance?

Actually artists often sell their own best tickets through broker networks for the maximum they can get for them. The broker site the tickets are purchased from naturally get their 10% commission.

Sadly I am starting to believe this is true. It does explain a lot.

By broker network do you mean like Stubhub?

Sometimes more. Some artists have deals that in many cases have them pocketing upwards of 100% of the take, so the intention of the artists and promoter is to sell as many tickets as possible and not worry about who is getting them and how those tickets are ultimately being used.

Often artists will VIP out seats in the first ten rows then reduce the leftovers back to normal price a week before the show so you have people who paid $80 sitting next to people who paid $300 thru the exact same avenues except a few extra trinkets or the chance for line free merch might be among the perks of the additional $220 spent.

Artists are all doing VIP Tickets today. All the best seats, first row in good 100/200 sections etc.

Garth Brooks was doing $80 flat rate tickets any section, and VIP packages for $2500/$3500.

These are often released within 24hrs of events. I have a few friends who prey exclusively on these releases.

are they being dishonest if they never told you a huge chunk of tickets in the first 5 rows you thought you missed out on never went on sale ... anywhere?

I can't even do moment of sale anymore because I am getting speedbumped or blocked yet I am stumbling across tickets like this ALL * THE * TIME.

and I just started reading this.

"Eliot Van Buskirk, Evolver.fm: Should ticket holders only be able to sell concert tickets to people with whom they’ve been friends for 30 days on Facebook, as I recently suggested?"

Too bad none of my 180 friends took my offer of FRONT ROW for Black Sabbath last week at face value or nosebleed at face value (2 different ends of the pricing spectrum) so I had to settle for the whims of the free market.

Okay so a friend took one of the nosebleeds and I sold the other as a single for $40 profit. She says the person showed up drunk and passed out during the opening band then took off never to return. Am I really supposed to feel bad about taking an extra $40? He was probably drunk when he bought it. Not my problem.