Where do we post 'Excessive Scalping'?

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eddieg710

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Just went to ticketliquidator . com and the web site had 154 different set of U2 tickets JUST for the MSG show. Your help would be appreciated!
 
Yeah, the brokers have piles of tickets that's what really frosts my a$$! No wonder these shows sell out in seconds, when you've only got half the seats in a venue up on TicketBastard the math works out. For the life of me I can't understand how this sh*t is still legal?!?! Just goes to show how competent our government is! Yay!...
 
www.totaltickets.com

interference sponsor....
looking to get $625 per ticket for LLs that are right next to ones I just sold at face value....

gimme a break... if I can't get tickets for the third leg I'm going to be furious....
 
beatlesboy said:
Yeah, the brokers have piles of tickets that's what really frosts my a$$! No wonder these shows sell out in seconds, when you've only got half the seats in a venue up on TicketBastard the math works out. For the life of me I can't understand how this sh*t is still legal?!?! Just goes to show how competent our government is! Yay!...


Im sorry people didnt get tickets but this " I cant believe its legal" mentality is silly.

Why should tickets be the one thing in this country someone cant buy on speculation and sell for a profit. I mean, seriously, we are talking about concert tickets.

Someone could buy real estate and turn around the next day and make hundreds of thousands of dollars and nobody cares. You only care about yourself. Right now ticket scalping is a problem for you because you want to see u2. Were you so concerned about it the last four years when they werent on tour? Were you guys scouring Ebay everyday turning in brokers then? No, it didnt affect you so nobody cared.

What if U2 wasnt a huge band. What if there was no demand and you could get tickets on Ebay for less than face. Would you be complaining then? Would you not buy them for less than face? No, you have no problem paying less than face because then ticket scalping worked in your favor. Its ok for that broker to buy tickets on speculation and take a loss as long as the system works in your favor.

This whole thing is just ridiculous. Everyone has this sense of entitlement. Everyone thinks they should have the best seats. The fact of the matter is, scalpers or not, just about every city U2 plays there are more fans than there are tickets.

Im glad we live in a capitalist economy. Again, we are talking about concert tickets. So for all the people writing their congressmen and senators take a second and think about all the problems in the world and realize that concert tickets are your biggest issue and why you are, probably, for the first time getting involved with you local representatives.

Homeless?Hungry?Jobless? who cares I need tickets!
 
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beatlesboy said:
Yeah, the brokers have piles of tickets that's what really frosts my a$$! No wonder these shows sell out in seconds, when you've only got half the seats in a venue up on TicketBastard the math works out. For the life of me I can't understand how this sh*t is still legal?!?! Just goes to show how competent our government is! Yay!...
That's disappointing when it is not the fans that sell out the place but rather cheesy greasy brokers.
 
hcmiller said:
www.totaltickets.com

interference sponsor....
looking to get $625 per ticket for LLs that are right next to ones I just sold at face value....

gimme a break... if I can't get tickets for the third leg I'm going to be furious....

I know that this site runs on money but getting grease like total tickets to sponser this site is dirty.
 
The worst site of them all, even worse than EBAY is STUBHUB.COM, which is a legitimate sight.. The good thing about it is they have to post there tickets , so you can easily track who is scalping

once again, U2 go to STUBHUB.COM and shut these things down
 
editorinchief said:

So for all the people writing their congressmen and senators take a second and think about all the problems in the world and realize that concert tickets are your biggest issue and why you are, probably, for the first time getting involved with you local representatives.

Homeless?Hungry?Jobless? who cares I need tickets!


I know plenty of people on this site who are involved with local or other political causes like fighting hunger, debt relief, AIDS prevention etc. Careful before you assume.


What I think is silly is all the people who assume that because someone is bitching about tickets etc, they must not care about anything else, don't have anything else to worry about, and aren't involved with any good causes. :shrug:
 
neutral said:



I know plenty of people on this site who are involved with local or other political causes like fighting hunger, debt relief, AIDS prevention etc. Careful before you assume.


What I think is silly is all the people who assume that because someone is bitching about tickets etc, they must not care about anything else, don't have anything else to worry about, and aren't involved with any good causes. :shrug:

I assure they are they minority. Its not to say that people dont care but everyone is writing letters and protesting. I think it is sad that tickets is what will get people off of their asses.

Brokering has been going on as long as their have been ticketed events. However its only the last two weeks that anyone gave a shit about it. If everyone got their tickets handed to them through Prop nobody would still care.

U2 doesnt owe anyone anything. Nobody is entitled to a ticket. Nobody deserves one more than someone else. I just annoying to her people complain everytime something doesnt suit them.

I actually write for a major music magazine and will be attending the Rock Hall induction next month at the Waldorf. If I see the guys this is the first thing I will ask them and I bet they are of a similar opinion.
 
editorinchief said:


I assure they are they minority. Its not to say that people dont care but everyone is writing letters and protesting. I think it is sad that tickets is what will get people off of their asses.

Brokering has been going on as long as their have been ticketed events. However its only the last two weeks that anyone gave a shit about it. If everyone got their tickets handed to them through Prop nobody would still care.

U2 doesnt owe anyone anything. Nobody is entitled to a ticket. Nobody deserves one more than someone else. I just annoying to her people complain everytime something doesnt suit them.

I actually write for a major music magazine and will be attending the Rock Hall induction next month at the Waldorf. If I see the guys this is the first thing I will ask them and I bet they are of a similar opinion.

seriously, get bent... what people are hacked about is the band acting like they give a rip about their fans and then proving that they in fact don't... read the content of those series of emails that were sent out in solicitation for u2.com, the members most certainly are entitled to a buy a ticket...

and you are right if prop was around no one would have complained and the fans would have gotten seats, is that so bad?... now, u2.com is a $4 million cash cow and u2 effectively fed the ticket broker industry... which is all fine if they want to do that but cripes lose the pretense of giving a fark about the fans...

i could not care less about what the band's opinion of the fans or this ticket fiasco is... the short answer is that this time the fans got shafted and u2 made fat bank while in the past that never happened...

i will continue to enjoy future u2 releases... however, i feel that they've made their lot and i never intend to pay for any of their music again...

and finally, your contention that the people who complain about this are worthless is a perfect example of an ad hominem fallacy... it is completely irrelevant
 
you need to learn how to read-

I never said people were worthless. I just said its sad that if the first time you write to your congressman that it is about ticket scalping.

Second, I said I dont think scalping is so bad. I think tickets, like any other product, are a commodity. If you want to buy them or real estate or stock on speculation then go ahead.

Last summer when Madonna toured I know brokers took a bath on them. You could get $300+ face tickets for under $100. I dont think anyone would have a problem paying less than face. Its supply and demand. Its a simple rule of economics that makes our country function.

People think that if there werent brokers that they would automatically get tickets. This is not true. THE ARE MORE U2 FANS THAN THERE ARE TICKETS. Everyone cant go to a show.

Again, Im not calling anyone worthless. Im just saying at the end of the day its just concert tickets.
 
editorinchief said:


This whole thing is just ridiculous. Everyone has this sense of entitlement. Everyone thinks they should have the best seats. The fact of the matter is, scalpers or not, just about every city U2 plays there are more fans than there are tickets.

Im glad we live in a capitalist economy. Again, we are talking about concert tickets. So for all the people writing their congressmen and senators take a second and think about all the problems in the world and realize that concert tickets are your biggest issue and why you are, probably, for the first time getting involved with you local representatives.

Homeless?Hungry?Jobless? who cares I need tickets!

While I agree with most of your statement, I think most of the ppl who are angry, are loyal fans who fall back on their Propangada & U2.com membership & what has been posted about being guaranteed tix.

& then to see all these scalpers selling 100's of tixs...not a dozen but 100's of tixs that could have gone to club members is very frustrating.

I encourage ppl to report scalpers because IT IS AGAINST THE LAW currently in Some jurisdiction...maybe it will level the playing field...dunno.

But I'll use the scalpers as last resort if & after I've exhausted other avenues.

Yes, we live in a capitalist nation where everything has a price & apparently everything is fair game.

So scalpers beware & buyers beware. :)
 
I encourage ppl to report scalpers because IT IS AGAINST THE LAW currently in Some jurisdiction...maybe it will level the playing field...dunno.
i agree :up:

i just sent an email last nite to u2.com reporting some scalper who had a post on craiglist.org. i don't know who previously posted several warnings to scalpers over there but the scalper smugly replied "we've been doing this for years, dumb ass".

http://chicago.craigslist.org/tix/58180345.html

i also reported that post by flagging it on the craiglist site.

i don't know how much u2.com can do, but the more reports they see of scalpers the more they will see the need to change things and/or go after these people.

i'd say report the scalpers to u2.com, or if you see the tickets posted somewhere like on craiglist, also report them where they are posted, and/or their service or email providers if email addresses are listed.
 
editorinchief said:



Im sorry people didnt get tickets but this " I cant believe its legal" mentality is silly.

Why should tickets be the one thing in this country someone cant buy on speculation and sell for a profit. I mean, seriously, we are talking about concert tickets.

I don't think people are having such an issue with scalpers buying tix in the general sale. It's the insidious relationship they have with TM which ensures they get a huge slice of tix BEFORE they even go on sale.

I know of someone who was in the line for MSG tix. The cashier did a countdown to 10 am - 10, 9, 8 seconds - at 0 secs they hit the search for "Best Available" and got "Sold Out". No one in that line got ANY tickets.

It's not physically possible for a 20,000 seat venue to sell out in 0 seconds UNLESS large swathes of those seats have already been handed over to brokers. And we know this has happened because at exactly that same second dozens (hundreds?) of eBay auctions were launched for those tickets.

Why is it legal for TM to cream off tickets to brokers? Are you seriously going to defend this as an asset of the capitalist economy? Come on, get real. This is corruption. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
should the Super Bowl be full of coroprate sponsors with a few scattered season ticket holders in the nosebleeds? No, but that is how it is.

It is very possible for MSG to sell out that fast. One show-20,000 tickets. If you take away the presale (let's say 5,000 tickets) then that leaves 15,000 tickets.

Take away promoters tickets, band guest list, vips, corporate seats, radio giveaways, friends of people at msg (dont say if you worked there that you wouldnt hook your friends up) -that adds up to, say, 2-3 tickets. Now youre looking at 12-13,000 tickets to the general on sale

I would say, conservatively, there were at least 1 million people trying online for tickets the moment they went on sale. That breaks down to about a 1.5% chance of getting tickets.

Judging by the number of people that got tickets on here during the onsale I think they did pretty good. Its the hottest show of the tour for the hottest tour of the year (or even last couple).

It can sell out that fast.
 
MalahideChick said:
I don't think people are having such an issue with scalpers buying tix in the general sale. It's the insidious relationship they have with TM which ensures they get a huge slice of tix BEFORE they even go on sale.

This is exactly what REALLY gets me! If someone wants to go to battle with TM (and the actual fans) and try to buy tix when the shows actually go on sale and then scalp them for profit, more power to them and the best of luck. It's the "back door" activities that are probably the real issue here and it's total BS! IMO it's the equivalent of standing at the head of the GA line for 24hrs and then ten seconds before they open the doors having 500 people cut in front of you because they know the guy taking tickets at the door "and for $500 we can get you halfway up the line, but for $1000 we can get you at the head of the line!"... What's going on is just as crooked as this!...

BTW Is pretty amazing surfing around the brokers sites and seeing how many tickets each of them have for each venue. You start adding them up and it's no wonder these shows sell out in 0.5 seconds!...
 
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First Off yes its morally wrong to scalp tickets. But when the demand is high for U2. I see a need maybe for scalpers for people that can afford to pay an arm and a leg. I am poor and do very well getting tickets to concerts all the time. My last Metallica tour I got tickets the day of the show for Boston #1 and improved from 10th row to front row. Same for Anaheim for Metallica came to Anaheim with no GA ticket, got a GA ticket when going to the box office the day of the show. When you are competing for a big show, I do well with ticketmaster over the phone and internet since I know how ticketmaster works. I got GA's for 2 out of my 5 or 6 possible shows I can go to and since there is a big demand, scalpers got 200 tickets out of 10,000 seats for MSG. Its hard to get tickets but brokers use way of cheating ticketmaster by buying out a ticketmaster outlet or paying people to be the first one's in line. Also pay people to do fan club presales and use fast internet access labs to get tickets.
 
editorinchief, you've kind of missed my point there.

I shall reiterate: TM carves off considerable amounts of tickets and provides them to scalpers BEFORE any member of the general public gets a chance to buy.

We can see the evidence for this on eBay and on dozens of broker websites. There are also all the former TM employees who say this is the case. We KNOW they do this. For most venues I'd (conservatively) estimate 500-1500 tickets are just handed over to scalpers by TM.

Is this right? Do you honestly think, that in venues this small, this isn't worth complaining about? That it shouldn't, perhaps, be ILLEGAL for TM to do this?
 
No, I understand. I work in the music business. I work with ClearChannel on a daily basis. I know all the the ins and outs of how Ticketmaster operates.

This is nothing new. However, most of the tickets you are seeing on Ebay have nothing to do with that. Most of the stuff on Ebay is amateur scalpers.

The real skinny on ticketmaster and clearchannel is that the brokers they skim tickets to are themselves. Ticketmaster pulls the best seats for shows, sells them to themself at face value and then sells them under their own brokering agencies for inflated prices so that they end up making more than the artist.

I interviewed Chris Rock last year and he went into detail with me about it. I was pretty fascinating.

So, yes, I disagree with that aspect of it. However, if a joe average scalper can get ahold of tickets before you by simply using the same means as an average person then I have no problem with it at all.
 
editorinchief said:
The real skinny on ticketmaster and clearchannel is that the brokers they skim tickets to are themselves. Ticketmaster pulls the best seats for shows, sells them to themself at face value and then sells them under their own brokering agencies for inflated prices so that they end up making more than the artist.

This is absolutely unbelievable! So the artists then obviously know this is going on? As I said in a previous post, I too have no problem with people going through the normal channels to get tix and I think they should be able to sell them to whomever they like at whatever price they like, but when things like you described are happening that's just outright wrong! With all the trivial crap that is considered illegal in this country I can't believe something like this, as big as it is, continues...
 
editorinchief said:
However, if a joe average scalper can get ahold of tickets before you by simply using the same means as an average person then I have no problem with it at all.

I entirely agree. As fans it's annoying to us but I have no problem with a scalper going through the exact same crap as us to get tickets. More power to him.

However what you've said about TM selling the tix to themselves. Well it's just sickening and really really should be illegal (if it isn't already).
 
I also heard a RUMOR today from a very credible source that they put in a request for a permit to add a fourth show in Boston.
 
editorinchief said:
No, I understand. I work in the music business. I work with ClearChannel on a daily basis. I know all the the ins and outs of how Ticketmaster operates.

This is nothing new. However, most of the tickets you are seeing on Ebay have nothing to do with that. Most of the stuff on Ebay is amateur scalpers.

The real skinny on ticketmaster and clearchannel is that the brokers they skim tickets to are themselves. Ticketmaster pulls the best seats for shows, sells them to themself at face value and then sells them under their own brokering agencies for inflated prices so that they end up making more than the artist.

I interviewed Chris Rock last year and he went into detail with me about it. I was pretty fascinating.

So, yes, I disagree with that aspect of it. However, if a joe average scalper can get ahold of tickets before you by simply using the same means as an average person then I have no problem with it at all.

I worked for Ticketmaster in the Ticket Center's department which provided support for the Ticket Outlets in the Southest United States. Frankly what you are saying is complete bullshit. Ticketmaster employees cannot pull tickets (if they are allowed by the promoter to do so) until onsale. The way the software works, tickets cannot be pulled from the onsale pool until the onsale time. Yes, there may be redirection of tickets PRIOR to onsale by the promoter but that is his decsion. I think the misconception about profit margins by Ticketmaster is amazing. TM is a much much smaller company than you think. My department provided support for 800 ticket outlets and was staffed by 6 people. The vast majority of every venues tickets are not available to TM for the onsale. LA 3 on Elevation had 400 tickets made available to TM for the onsale. 400. That is a promoter decision.

Supply and demand, blah, blah blah...:blahblah:

Scalping is illegal. For example, MA state law prohibits selling a ticket for more than $2.00 over face value. This is not the only municipality with unenforced scalping laws.

As an writer for a large music magazine I am surprised at your spelling frankly.
 
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A) I post quickly while simultaneously doing numerous things because I am busy. The way my posts look is the very, very least of my problems.

B) What I am talking about goes much higher up than the customer service rep level at which you worked. Im not telling anyone what to believe. Im only sharing my personal experience. I believe Chris Rock over a customer service representative.

If the week's experiences for everyone here is an indicator then it is clear that ticketmaster customer service employees dont even know the ticket limit for a show much less the business model with which senior executives operate.
 
What I am talking about goes much higher up than the customer service rep level at which you worked. Im not telling anyone what to believe. Im only sharing my personal experience. I believe Chris Rock over a customer service representative.

The Ticket Center Department is not a customer service department and is organized under a different branch of Ticketmaster Inc. The manger of this department reports directly to the Executive Vice President of Ticketmaster and works in conjunction with the Events Department. A bit removed from the Customer Service department, which happens to be located several states away.

I can see how Chris Rock probably would be the source of all things related to Ticketmaster. It is completely understandable that because he is a popular comedian he has intimate knowledge of the inner workings and dealings of a publicly traded corporation and their proprietary software system and network. Why would you not believe everything coming out of this bastion of truth's mouth?

Let me ask you this, why would artists like Chris Rock contract with a company he claims is openly committing fruad and grand larceny.

Fact: Ticketmaster is not knowingly siphoning tickets to brokers, employees or to any other source. Granted there maybe some fraud committed at an indivudual level, but to claim that this is corporate policy (stated or otherwise) is just irresponsible. Lame as well.
 
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cmb737 said:
Fact: Ticketmaster is not knowingly siphoning tickets to brokers, employees or to any other source. Granted there maybe some fraud committed at an indivudual level, but to claim that this is corporate policy (stated or otherwise) is just irresponsible. Lame as well.
This actually supports the notion that the brokers/scalpers are indeed going through the same troubles as the rest of us, in order to obtain tickets. If that is in fact the case, then as editorinchief asserts--and others above have agreed--they should be able to treat them as any other commodity and do as they please with them.

Additionally, I believe there are certain factors that make the situation seem worse than it is. The appearance that brokers/scalpers have so many tickets causes some to make assumptions that there is an unseemly exploitation of the system occurring. However, the appearance may not be the actuality.

First, there are the auction sellers who list auctions early in order to be the first option seen. Many do not have tickets in hand and are merely gambling that they will be able to acquire them either in the official on-sale or from another re-seller who under-prices them.

Secondly, I've been told that there is actually a broker network wherein every site can list the other brokers' tickets, and make a commission off the sale, if it is made on their site. The actual holder of the tickets makes a greater profit, but the owner of the site still makes something, just for processing the sale. If this is the case, then seeing 100 pair of GA for MSG on several different sites may simply mean that all the brokers, together, got 100 pair--not that each has 100 of their own. That would certainly mean that the brokers/scalpers had significantly less of an impact on the overall availability of the tickets.
 
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