Play.com Now Offering Ticket Touting Services!!!!

glitterkitty

genuine fans cant get tickets from the proper retailers because the touts are buying them all, then selling them to the genuine fans for 2 or 3 times the face value.

and touting is illegal.

gypsyroseloz

Had the email detailing there new venture last night too! Was not impressed. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to pay normal price for either Metallica or AC/DC tickets but there is no way I would pay sillly money to touts like these! Why should they be allowed to buy up the tickets & make lots of money!!!

SandC

Not a regular concert goer, but I too find this very distasteful.

Something that has always puzzled me - how do the touts get the tickets so quick?

Bamber19

glitterkitty wrote: »

and touting is illegal.

My understanding is that ticket touting is not (various types of touting are but that may lead to confusion) There's been a lot of pressure put on the government to do something about it but as it stands it's not illegal. It's definitely in most cases contrary to the terms of sale but that's a situation where it'd be the original seller you'd expect to do something to stop it, not the law.

What I think leads many to believe touting is illegal is that on street touting is as there's rarely a licence (wouldn't likely be granted even if they applied) to do so, but reselling for higher than face value through auction sites and websites is not illegal. Also touting of football tickets is illegal but that's because of anti hoolagin measures not because of the idea of selling tickets above face value.

DarkHorse

So don't buy the tickets if the price is inflated. If everyone thought...that's a rip off.....and didn't buy them, then there is no business model .

fedupconsumer

disgraceful indeed the rob brydon tickets you cannot sell over face value if you are going to resell them yet they are doing so.

Halloway

chuckley wrote: »

i must b the only 1 that cant see a problem...

No. I don't see a problem with it either.

Halloway

glitterkitty wrote: »

and touting is illegal.

Not for concerts it isn't.

Halloway

It's too near my bedtime for a long and well-argued treatise on the whole matter of touting or, as I prefer to call it, ticket reselling. Buying tickets and reselling them is not immoral in any way in my opinion. The only reason that tickets can be resold in this way is that there are buyers willing to pay the increased prices. Therefore the tickets achieve their true market value. I understand that it's irritating not to be able to get hold of affordable tickets but then I find it irritating that I can't afford a Bentley.

There are potential solutions such as lotteries or a kind of bidding process not dissimilar to that operated by biduptv and the like. But I have to say that whilst I am not a very frequent concert-goer (once a year if I'm lucky), so long as I am on the ball as to when the tickets are going on sale I have never failed to get tickets for something I want to see.

bluejake

People reselling their own property for a profit whether it is a concert ticket or anything else is not illegal (with the exception of football tickets) or immoral. And football ticket reselling is illegal to prevent hooliganism not because there is anything wrong with someone selling their ticket if they can't get to a game.

And the people who buy those tickets are certainly fans.

Some people have a temper tantrum if they can't get the ticket they want, thats all. They think they would be able to get a ticket (ahead of those non-fans who are prepared to pay more) if there was no reselling. Of course they're wrong, tickets in high demand would still sell out but there would be no grey market. And the lukewarm fan who might sell to a super keen fan who is prepared to pay more would just go to the concert instead.

I saw this in football. When I went you could always buy a spare ticket from a tout outside for the big games for a few quid more. When the touts were got rid of the tickets didn't become any easier to get hold of - in fact the opposite, the grey market disappeared that's all - tickets are still sold out.