Here's Where All The Tickets Went

[BigMacPhisto]

Beyond Ticketmaster's own reselling site, well, read it and weep...

U2 | Concert Tickets!

Literally adds up to the thousands for a lot of arenas. And they seem to be completely legitimate and are even selling lower level seats for way under the $300+ price range over on Ticketmaster. This is where most of the action went, people. Although the deals are way better than what's on TM, it's absolutely heartbreaking. Just taking a quick look at the second San Jose show, I'm eyeballing about 2,000 tickets alone.

 

[Daddysgonnapay]

how does this happen? How can they resell them if you have to be the person that bought them to gain access? I just don't get it

 

[BigMacPhisto]

People, that site has 2,274 tickets just in the upper level alone. That's one night. In San Jose.

At this point, someone needs to point this out to the band. This is the Springsteen situation all over again. Do we really live in a world where the actual onsale doesn't exist and it's expected of you to buy tickets from the resellers? Over 2,000 tickets in just the upper deck! It's no wonder nothing was available this morning.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

how does this happen? How can they resell them if you have to be the person that bought them to gain access? I just don't get it

What do you mean? They use bots or it's just a cover for Ticketmaster or whomever else. I don't really see GAs on here but I haven't really looked for them yet. I'm just pointing out actual seats since those can be transferred. GAs can't be transferred, theoretically, but all Ticketmaster has to do is shuffle them off to another one of their sites and the buyer they scalp them to will be the first buyer and have the only matching credit card information.

So freakin' lame.

 

[Raid]

They are selling GA's for Van1 for a mere $8950.00 each! What a steal!

 

[weinerdog]

For example, the first Chicago show has 106 GA tickets listed, starting at the low price of $234. Of course, the prices are in addition to stupid fees as well.

GA ticket = $234 x 2 ($468)
Service Charges = $57.89 x 2 ($115.78)
'Special' Delivery = $14.95 (so the scalper can lovingly attempt to escort you into the venue?!?)

Total for two GA = $598.73

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Final total for May 19th in San Jose? 3149 total when adding in the lower level, plus (somehow) 82 GA tickets gives us a grand total of 3,231 tickets being scalped on OnlineCityTickets alone for a single gig.


Seriously, fellow fans on @U2, Interference and elsewhere. Get writing articles. I know a lot of you might not care or whatever because you easily landed GAs in the presale but this should be brought to the band and everyone's attention.

 

[Wendyandkevinca]

Empty sections in Toronto with 30-40 seats in the uppers just upped and sol after being empty 2 hours earlier. Bullshit.

 

[weinerdog]

I very much doubt that all those tickets are only the property of OnlineCityTickets.

The vast majority of these companies are tied into the same database of tickets - only the prices and fees vary.

 

[YBORCITY]

Final total for May 19th in San Jose? 3149 total when adding in the lower level, plus (somehow) 82 GA tickets gives us a grand total of 3,231 tickets being scalped on OnlineCityTickets alone for a single gig.

BigMac, with all do respect for you and please DON'T take this ad I'm at all siding with TM or Ticket Agency's because I'm not, but this happens every year with DMB tickets and even with the last two U2 tours. I take sales trips to different cities where these bands are playing and take customers to these shows. It's a double edged sword, if you wait to buy tickets 36-24 hours before show date the prices drop in most cases by at least 50%. I now have this down to science and haven't missed a show since figuring this out.

As I said I don't condone this but it can work against these guys two.

 

[LyricalDrug]

Yeah, it sucks but that's the reality we live in these days, when it comes to concert tickets and the white-hot aftermarket. I think the band does about as much as they reasonably can to control it, but you can only do so much. This basically happens with every U2 tour.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

BigMac, with all do respect for you and please DON'T take this ad I'm at all siding with TM or Ticket Agency's because I'm not, but this happens every year with DMB tickets and even with the last two U2 tours. I take sales trips to different cities where these bands are playing and take customers to these shows. It's a double edged sword, if you wait to buy tickets 36-24 hours before show date the prices drop in most cases by at least 50%. I now have this down to science and haven't missed a show since figuring this out.

As I said I don't condone this but it can work against these guys two.

Nah, I have no problem with anything you said, but the last two U2 tours have NOT had as great a percentage of tickets hawked this way...Ticketmaster only recently started swallowing up their own tickets and pulling these sort of stunts. You can't tell me for Vertigo that over 3,000 people at a single gig were getting tickets via resellers. And again, we don't even know what the actual total of tickets are currently held by said scalpers, just that this particular site links to over 3200. There are surely more not listed on this site and there are surely some that have already been sold via the scalpers to some other fans.

For what it's worth, prices are fluctuating...nosebleeds with the fees are running about $78 total ($64 before fees) (and not including a small delivery fee), so that's at least getting closer to the $40 that they were supposed to sell for in full this morning via TM. I'll take your advice about prices dropping near show day...that's usually when the scalpers get antsy and have very few options left at their disposal. I don't think they'll be able to even get face value for these more expensive tickets ($300+) when those dates of the shows actually roll up.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Yeah, it sucks but that's the reality we live in these days, when it comes to concert tickets and the white-hot aftermarket. I think the band does about as much as they reasonably can to control it, but you can only do so much. This basically happens with every U2 tour.

If the band wanted to control it, they could have done paperless tickets across the board. There would be no aftermarket except for some idiots trying to show up with you at the venue.

And that shit isn't going to work. I get the feeling there will be a GA line and then you will pick up your tickets one by one as you enter the building. So how is the fan that wants to wait for U2 early in the afternoon going to get into the show when their scalper person doesn't want to show up until like 7 PM to let them in? And how is he going to be in line multiple times to keep picking up his endless batch of tickets that he scalped?

Obviously, some of the scalpers with GAs are practically sitting on worthless tickets at this point, but if they do sell some for some outrageous sort of money they might figure something out.

 

[weinerdog]

Yeah, it sucks but that's the reality we live in these days, when it comes to concert tickets and the white-hot aftermarket. I think the band does about as much as they reasonably can to control it, but you can only do so much. This basically happens with every U2 tour.

There isn't the will to do anything about it. There are many things that could be done to dissuade scalpers. One would be to delay mailing tickets until 7-10 days before the show (with tracking). Another would be to make more sections paperless, and open the venue doors a bit earlier. But then TM/LiveNation and these scalper sites wouldn't be as filthy rich.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Yeah, it sucks but that's the reality we live in these days, when it comes to concert tickets and the white-hot aftermarket.

And it's not a reality so much as that it only effects premium events which include major mainstream artists. I and everyone else have next to no trouble seeing hundreds of the best indie acts out there with relative ease and few of those tickets end up on the resale market. It's just that these nefarious groups take advantage of the huge names since there's bigger profit potential involved. Most shows don't cost what a U2 show costs or anywhere in that range. Your indie band playing The Warfield in San Francisco for $30-40 plus fees doesn't really go for much higher on the resale market, if anything, because the fans just don't go if they can't get tickets. Whereas the resellers for major acts know that people don't want to get shut out of Bieber or Taylor Swift or U2 or the Stones and thus exploit that.

 

[Sweepingsound]

They have some GA for Boston, $99 service charge for each ticket. What a steal, only $1,000.17 for two tickets....


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[ClaytonsKitten]

I wouldnt buy ANY GA tix. Those are paperless CC/ID entry for all venues, it seems. Not worth risking.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using U2 Interference mobile app

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I wouldnt buy ANY GA tix. Those are paperless CC/ID entry for all venues, it seems. Not worth risking.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using U2 Interference mobile app

Yep, totally not worth it. Safer route would be to buy the leftover $300 seated tickets that are out there for some shows or even use a scalper for nosebleeds or whathaveyou. Scalped GAs wouldn't even be worth $150 each just given the potential risk of the whole thing.

 

[YBORCITY]

BigMac, I do agree with you, this in the end really isn't right any way you slice it. And while not as blatantly 360 always had resources for tickets. My biggest question on this is the pricing structuredidn't make sense the other day and today it seemseven more ridiculous.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I very much doubt that all those tickets are only the property of OnlineCityTickets.

The vast majority of these companies are tied into the same database of tickets - only the prices and fees vary.

True.

 

[djparky]

how does this happen? How can they resell them if you have to be the person that bought them to gain access? I just don't get it

(apparently) sometimes TM and LN dump them straight onto the secondary market...

 

[Martinski]

Well if the tickets still are there on the resell sites same week as the concert is, the prices drops below face value. Because they dont wanna sit on tickets and not get anything at all for them.

This has been the case as of late for some scalpers in Sweden, for example when Madonna were here the last time you could get golden circle tickets for like $30 from scalpers at concert day. Needless to say that concert flopped badly and only sold like 40k tickets at a 70k stadium.

But also if the concert is "sold out" they wanna get rid of the tickets they sit on.

 

[Hallucination]

I very much doubt that all those tickets are only the property of OnlineCityTickets.

The vast majority of these companies are tied into the same database of tickets - only the prices and fees vary.

That's irrelevant. The fact is there is still at least 3000 tickets being scalped and common sense dictates there's much more than that because not all tickets being scalped would show up on that site.

 

[Tommy WM]

At the first Chicago show they have 4 tickets behind the stage in section 304 (upper level) for a measly $10,609 EACH!

I seriously think the people who posted these tickets think the stage is facing there way but it isn't

 

[Tommy WM]

On second glance it has to be BS because if you were to buy all four tickets with an included service charge of $1,648.09 on each ticket, it would equate to a total of $49,508!

It has to be someone taking the piss...right?

 

[weinerdog]

That's irrelevant. The fact is there is still at least 3000 tickets being scalped and common sense dictates there's much more than that because not all tickets being scalped would show up on that site.

I mentioned it because the original disgust was that a single company could have so many tickets, which isn't the case. It's very relevant in the context of how all these companies work together in a sense to screw fans.

 

[stefbrands]

On second glance it has to be BS because if you were to buy all four tickets with an included service charge of $1,648.09 on each ticket, it would equate to a total of $49,508!

It has to be someone taking the piss...right?

What a bargain...

So when is someone going to step in and say WHAT THE ACTUAL **** ARE YOU DOING and arrest these sons of *******

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

That's irrelevant. The fact is there is still at least 3000 tickets being scalped and common sense dictates there's much more than that because not all tickets being scalped would show up on that site.

it's not as common sense as you would think.

most second hand sites deal from the same pool of tickets, as far as actual professional ticket brokers go.

there's an obvious connection between ticket brokers/concert promoters that funnel tickets to professional brokers. Louis CK actually did a study on it on one of his last tour. He had a certain number of tickets sold only through his site, with the condition that his team has the right to cancel any ticket that is found on a second hand market being sold for more than face+fees. He also had a second group of tickets that were sold through traditional means (ticketmaster, etc).

He found that, of the tickets that he sold through his own site (with the face value rule), less than 1% of those tickets ended up on second hand sites.

Of the tickets that were sold through traditional means, an almost uniform across the board 25% of tickets ended up on second hand sites; and the majority of sites had the same tickets for sale.

Case in point...

For opening night at Rogers Arena

Section 328, Row 15 - 2 tickets at $63

these exact same seats are available on
ticketliquidator.com
worldticketsource.com
ticketnetwork.com
showticketbooth.com
barginseatsonline.com

etc etc etc

a look at the source code for all of these second hand sites shows one thing in common. all of the ticket queue areas are run by the same site... tickettransaction.com. Each site has their own unique broker ID# listed, and each event has it's own unique ID as well. There is also a line for "price multiplier," a number that automatically increases the price of the ticket. The standard multiplier on most of these sites was 2.0, or double the face value of the ticket. But some of the sites, like say barginseatsonline, had a smaller multiplier... Their number was 1.7543859649123. They sold the same tickets listed above for $60. What a deal!

They also put in a suggested price of $105, which is crossed out, because hey... it's a deal! (1.7 times face).

These same sites are also already selling tickets for Sunday July 26th and Monday July 27th at Madison Square Garden... shows that have yet to even go on sale.

 

[Popmartijn]

These same sites are also already selling tickets for Sunday July 26th and Monday July 27th at Madison Square Garden... shows that have yet to even go on sale.

That's another thing with these reseller sites, which some people can't seem to comprehend. The scalper does not necessarily have to have the tickets in order to list them. If some sucker buys the listing at this inflated price then they might take the effort to get an actual ticket.

Example:
They have MSG GA listed for $1,500. Some sucker buys them. In the case the scalper didn't have the actual ticket yet they have until next year July to find them. Should they find them for, say, $1,000 then they've made a profit of $500 on a ticket they didn't have when it was initially sold.

 

[clerks]

Exactly. 95% of all those listings are just people like you and me who put up crazy high figures and if someone buys them, great. If not, they keep them. It's just stubhub broken up into 10 other sites that are just listing services like people have been saying.

It's not some conspiracy. People are going overboard. This is much better than it was back in the day when the Tough Guys would literally cut you in line, intimidate people and the last time I bought tickets they had 4 handicapped kids ahead of me that they were using to scalp. Now that is what made me sick. This online bullshit is a lot lot better than buying in person from all my experiences.

If people can make money off others hard work (see U2) then they will try. But just don't buy the tickets. People are upset about the face value prices and if they set them any lower, than the scalpers would just make them the same prices... it's a crazy system. And it happens to any big event. Did you ever look at Super Bowl tickets? How about World Cup tickets?

Don't worry about it so much. Don't buy the 10,000 seats. And yes as others have said, sometimes you wait until a show is about to start and you beat the scalpers and make them cry. Win! Solved that problem! It seems most people got tickets. This is what you would call "white people problems." We are upset about concert tickets. This is not a big deal. We will all find a way in. Most of us already have.