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A good day for music fans, a bad day for touts.

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(@chuckster)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
Topic starter
 

Glastonbury beats the touts.

I for one hope that this catches on for other festivals and music events.

I don't mind losing out to other music fans but being beaten to the tickets by the touts grinds my gears.

8)

Edit: Corrected my bad spelling. :oops:

I've had a lot of sobering thoughts in my time.
It was them that turned me to drink.

 
Posted : 03/04/2007 5:47 pm
(@ricochet)
Posts: 7833
Illustrious Member
 

What's a tout? A scalper?

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

 
Posted : 03/04/2007 8:54 pm
(@chuckster)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
Topic starter
 

Yeah I've heard them called that (amongst other things).

They're the scum that buy up all the tickets then sell them on at a vastly inflated price. :twisted:

8)

I've had a lot of sobering thoughts in my time.
It was them that turned me to drink.

 
Posted : 03/04/2007 9:17 pm
(@basilisk)
Posts: 7
Active Member
 

That's an impressive system... wish they'd used it here when Clapton came :(

Still kicking myself for not just fronting up the $500 scalped price, still would have been worth it.

 
Posted : 03/04/2007 9:56 pm
 jimh
(@jimh)
Posts: 144
Estimable Member
 

Scalping is illegal most places in the US.

Music is the universal language.

 
Posted : 04/04/2007 2:28 pm
(@ricochet)
Posts: 7833
Illustrious Member
 

Nevertheless widely practiced. My kids were watching on the computer for a big concert's tickets to go on sale recently. Missed 'em because they were all sold within a couple of seconds of the opening. That was done by scalpers' programmed automatic bloc purchases.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

 
Posted : 04/04/2007 3:40 pm
(@chuckster)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
Topic starter
 

Don't think it's legal in the UK but everybody turns a blind eye. The promoters don't care they've sold all their tickets, ebay doesn't care cos they get a percentage of the inflated price, the police are too busy harassing motorists. The only losers are music fans and sadly there is always somebody willing to pay the touts/scalpers extortionate prices.

A friend of mine actually contacted the Office of Fair Trading about V Festival tickets last year. Quick as a flash nothing happened.

Interesting to note that the English Premier League have made it illegal to sell tickets to football matches on ebay and they are actually listed as a prohibited item. Why don't the concert/festival promoters do the same.

One thing about the Glastonbury system that does interest me though. What if somebody has a genuine reason for wanting to sell their ticket on. There is always people who having bought tickets in good faith who later find they can't go (illness, bereavement, work commitments etc). This new system may make it difficult to recoup the cost of their tickets. Unless of course they can return the ticket to the organisers and the tickets are reallocated to one of the many thousands who registered but were unable to get hold of them. I'm sure they have though of this scenario.

8)

I've had a lot of sobering thoughts in my time.
It was them that turned me to drink.

 
Posted : 04/04/2007 4:43 pm
 jimh
(@jimh)
Posts: 144
Estimable Member
 

Nevertheless widely practiced. My kids were watching on the computer for a big concert's tickets to go on sale recently. Missed 'em because they were all sold within a couple of seconds of the opening. That was done by scalpers' programmed automatic bloc purchases.

Oh yes that's true. It is widely practiced...

Music is the universal language.

 
Posted : 04/04/2007 6:40 pm
(@petandro)
Posts: 15
Eminent Member
 

This is also a big problem in NZ. Tix to major sold out concerts in NZ (U2, Chili Peppers come to mind recently) and big sporting events (like the rugby 7's) frequently change hands on our local auction site http://www.trademe.co.nz for vastly, vastly inflated prices. As far as i know there is no law prohibiting the on-sale of tix in NZ, and TradeMe have stated numerous times that they will not close down these auctions. In my opinion, it is totally immoral, but unfortunately the majority of people don't really care about that anymore, its just a relatively easy way to make a quick buck.

 
Posted : 04/04/2007 8:56 pm