people will never stop wanting these things, so scalpers will never stop making money. it's just a deeply gross thing to do
Edit: @margalabargala Great idea.
Imagine, after a show is sold out, the ticket seller creates a waiting list. As long as the waiting list is longer than 0, anyone who purchased a ticket and no longer wants it can get a full refund.
Now you have tickets which are not transferrable but without removing the ability for people to access the event.
Do we tie it to your ticketing account? Ok fine, the scalpers just sell whole accounts.
Do we tie it to your phone? If so, scalpers get a really cheap Android to send the e-tix to. That’ll cut out the flippers on the less hot tours, but probably just make Taylor Swiftc resales more expensive. And what about people who get a new phone between ticket purchase time and the show (a lag of often several months).
Also you now just helped the scalpers every time they misfire. No more eating 30% on stubhub and selling below market!
It’s not a bad idea but it’s not as trivial as it sounds.
I personally think a better idea is to just break up live nation. This is a problem that could easily be solved if the venue owner, promoter, and ticket agent aren’t all one company.
Some venues mandate facial recognition to get in [1]. I am not supportive of such corporate surveillance, but to rebut your comment, identity solutions exist to dissuade scalping, and some are in active use today. Even if you break up Live Nation, scalping will occur for events if profit is to be made.
[1] https://www.marketplace.org/2024/10/23/facial-recognition-th...
The corporate surveillance angle is also important, but IME 0% of these companies bother to explain that the thing they advertised when they took your money isn't the thing you actually have access to.
That’s the sort of thing that only happens after a settlement with the government. Which, in the case of LN, is 100% what needs to happen.
It’s not unfeasible by any means, it just would cost money, and promoters like the scalpers. Most of the failures mentioned in this article involve a scalper buying tickets that would otherwise have gone unsold, and even for a show that would sell out eventually, LN gets the cash earlier and then maybe even gets a cut of online resale.
This was the case in David Gilmour's concert in Rome a month ago. TicketOne.it has their own resalle site fansale.it. Good business for Ticketone as they also take a fee for resale, good for sellers because they have a safe way to sell if something comes up and they can't go. Good for buyers because they know these tickets are valid, and price is the original one.
It’s surprisingly hard to let many venues know you won’t attend and the tickets can be reallocated, even if you don’t expect / want and refund!
Price is one way to allocate scarce resources. History suggests it is the least worst.
But why, morally, should someone who had the free time to sit in a queue, or was lucky enough to win a lottery, be more entitled versus someone willing to pay 10x what someone else is? Scalpers facilitate this. I don't have time to try to get face value tickets. But I work hard in a good job and I have disposable income. So I can, effectively, pay a scalper to do this for me. Am I less deserving of a ticket?
The reality is that the vast majority of secondary market supply comes from artist/venue/promoter related parties. Taylor Swift cannot price tickets at $5,000 because it would be a PR nightmare. So she sells a small amount publicly, which are snapped up by scalpers who know the true price is much higher. And TS quietly sells a ton more at these true prices while saving face.
This is literally a question of morality.
I am, imho, not less deserving, and therefore it's not a moral issue.
No, but you're not more deserving either.
Buddy, what do you think Ticketmaster is doing?