Ticket brokers: capitalism at its finest

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cmaly

The Fly
Joined
Oct 14, 2002
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70
Location
Nebraska
With high demand and small venues, tickets will be scare and set at a high price. It's simple economics. Moreover, this tour has become a ticket broker's dream fulfilled. It's capitalism at it's finest, wherein, the wealthy will flourish and the poor will toil. No pre-sale fan club scheme will ever defeat a system that's designed to garnish huge profits... ticket brokers have become an industry that's way ahead of its time. I think all parties involved have underestimated the demand and the power private brokers have become. Solutions?
 
cmaly said:
With high demand and small venues, tickets will be scare and set at a high price. It's simple economics. Moreover, this tour has become a ticket broker's dream fulfilled. It's capitalism at it's finest, wherein, the wealthy will flourish and the poor will toil. No pre-sale fan club scheme will ever defeat a system that's designed to garnish huge profits... ticket brokers have become an industry that's way ahead of its time. I think all parties involved have underestimated the demand and the power private brokers have become. Solutions?

I understand frustration with the ticket scheme as it exists, because I agree it is an ugly monopolgy, but I have 2 ask: U would prefer Socialism? :eyebrow:
 
Capitalism flourishes with competition. Problem is that there is no competition in the ticket sales industry. Ticketmaster pretty much controls it all with a few local ticket vendors to pick up the scraps. This lack of competition is what allows Ticketmaster to charge ridiculous convenience charges ($1.75 to PRINT OUT YOUR OWN TICKET?!?). Don't judge capitalism based on the ticket sales. The problem is that there isn't enough capitalism in the business. Competition would drive the prices down considerably.
 
nicholsfornixon said:
Capitalism flourishes with competition. Problem is that there is no competition in the ticket sales industry. Ticketmaster pretty much controls it all with a few local ticket vendors to pick up the scraps. This lack of competition is what allows Ticketmaster to charge ridiculous convenience charges ($1.75 to PRINT OUT YOUR OWN TICKET?!?). Don't judge capitalism based on the ticket sales. The problem is that there isn't enough capitalism in the business. Competition would drive the prices down considerably.

Great point!!!!
 
capitalism?????????????????? are you kidding me. Where did you go to school?? Since when are the ticket brokers investing in U2 shows??? When I start a company and buy coffee beans from Columbia, process them, and sell them at stores for a higher price...I am selling them at this price because I PUT CAPITAL into a commodity and provided a service. It happens everyday, this is a beautiful coutry. Otherwise, regular shoppers could not have coffee as they cannot just fly to Columbia and do the same thing.

Scalper is very different. It is simply elbowing your way in front of someone because you know they want something badly. There is a reason why price gouging is illegal, because it is not capitalism, it is profiteering. Scalping is generally illegal within states. It has long been a states' rights issue. Before the internetn, ticket access was generally limited to your own state. You live in California, you wait on line to buy california tickets. You couldn't live in New York and buy CA tickets like you can today. Thus the Federal Government has not caught up with legislation and outlawed scalping. You can take a NJ GA and sell it to someone in NY for 10 times the face value legally. But you cannot sell that same ticket to someone else in NJ for a profit because it is illegal. And I can't wait for the day that they make scalping illegal nationwide.

nicholsfornixon... you sound like a good Republican like myself! Absolutely capitalism flourishes with competition and yes there is no competition with ticketing. Not only is ticketmaster a monopoly but the brokers don't have competition either. They are not each scalping tickets to different shows that they created through investments. Brokers who scalp NY GA's don't put money into the production to make a better stage that way you buy their tickets. They all simply profit off the same production...a production that is not theirs.
 
nicholsfornixon said:
The problem is that there isn't enough capitalism in the business. Competition would drive the prices down considerably.

Well said. I agree, more free trade, not less, is what is required.

(Having said that I still think scalpers are scum)
 
reply

Hi!

I think it all depends where you're getting the tickets from....I've gotten concert tickets thru broker where it wasn't any more costly than Ticketmaster....plus I knew exactly the seats I was getting......an extra $20 or so to the price of a ticket isn't much in my estimation. I've also picked up good seats on eBay knowing exactly where I'd be sitting with little or no markup at all.

It all depends.....whatever serves your needs the best....the problem when you're dealing with say a seating capacity of an estimate of 20,000 it doesn't leave much room for competition.

The same goes for NASCAR, sports tickets, etc. ...sometimes those tickets are packaged with pit passes and tours......so it's all a matter of what you want and your budget.

I don't agree with scalpers but I do think venues try to control them as much as possible.

You have to remember too that U2 is a hot commodity......{ouch!!!}

carol
wizard2c
:|
 
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