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Comment by duaneb | Hacker News Reader

This also makes the tickets less valuable to begin with: more risk involved. I'm not going to buy tickets on a whim if I can't resell them if my schedule changes.

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Just allow the buyers to return the tickets to the venue for a refund, minus a processing fee. Then the venue can sell any refunded tickets at the box office on the day of the show

Deep down, I think the big ticket sellers will make the return process as difficult as possible...

Not if the "handling charges" is big enough. They could end up making more money if they can sell the ticket multiple times.

The venue (more likely a legitimate third party) could also run its own marketplace for pre-bought tickets, so the venue wouldn't have to just repurchase tickets and risk leaving a seat empty.

The San Francisco Giants were doing this since 2000 for season ticket holders

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Giants-Web-site-facil...

Could there be something else stopping ticket sellers from doing the same?

edit: a word

Perhaps most venue owners have enough power to ignore performers' desire to prevent scalping.

Make it easy to get a refund. Or allow them to be resold directly or indirectly via an exchange you host.

Why not combine solutions; similar to airline seats - the cheap saver version, non-changeable, non-transferable, and non-refundable also must show original ID and credit card to enter and then the super-flexible scalper-special with two wildly different price-points. You can also have a wait-list on the night for those who bought the non-refundable and are no-shows.

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