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

PBA

bluejake wrote: »

And the people who buy those tickets are certainly fans.

Absolutely spot on. Why are the people who are willing to pay more than face value less genuine fans?

My personal opinion is that touting only exists because lazy bands can't be bothered to play enough gigs for all their genuine fans. If there were enough tickets available in the first place then people wouldn't have to rely on the grey market. Tickets would still be available on the day of the gig, therefore touts would be unnecessary. But bands prefer to make their money from album sales and can't really be bothered with playing live, which is why the current situation prevails.

Bamber19

bluejake wrote: »

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.

Echo...Echo...Echo...Echo...Echo

:beer:

chuckley

glitterkitty wrote: »

you mean you cant see a problem with genuine fans not being able to get tickets to see their favourite bands because they are all bought up by touts who then sell them on at 2 or 3 times the face value?? and whats worse is that Play.com, a respected and well known website are condoning and facilitating this illegal activity?

are you a tout???

1st come 1st served.

no im not a tout.

chuckley

glitterkitty wrote: »

every venue is now sold out of standing tickets. a lot of genuine fans got them (a lot of my friends), but i guess a lot of touts also, otherwise why stick the ticket up for sale straight away??
shame on some of our friends who couldnt get pre-sale tickets who now cant get any at all

if you cant get presale and then general release tickets...

you are truely not a fan. You lost.

LilMissEmmylou

i agree, i hate ticket touts! Ive been known to spend thousands a year going to gigs (face value only thank you!) and I always refuse to buy from touts or even sell to them for them to make a profit out of it! In fact, out of principle for a gig in manchester (tix £25ish) I gave my spare to a homeless guy who although gave me no money, i had the satisfaction of knowing he genuinely appreciated the ticket, the tout just wanted to make money out of it.

And for those saying it doesnt stop genuine fans missing out - of course it does. if i can afford face value of £30 a ticket i could go if tout X hadnt bought up 100 tickets to sell on ebay. yes i can buy his ticket on ebay... but perhaps he is selling for £100? ive been priced out of a gig i actually would have really loved to go to... (but then again i see the side that the die hard fans DO get tickets, im yet to miss out on tickets for an act i genuinely want to see)

loserface

Ever tried getting a ticket for a popular festival?

Glastonbury tickets sold much slower after it revised this problem and used the pre-registeration method. People had a 1 in 2 chance of getting a ticket which is a significant increase.

It's riduculous for people to think that touting does not have an impact. It is frustrating when the websites dies because of the sheer volume of people who want to make a quick buck. Then you lose out, look on ebay and see tickets for double the price from sellers who have 50 available!!!

For seating concerts touts buy up so many of the front rows that other fans who are not used to refresthing the same page every 5 seconds end up with balcony tickets. I have been second row for a popular concert and the people around me that I spoke to bought their tickets through touts and admitted to not being big fans but obviously had a wode of cash to spare so that they could tell their friends.


On the one occasion I had a ticket for an extremely popular concert and I couldn't go, I put it on ebay with a BIN for face value.

I don't even go to concerts anymore but how people can not see this as sad and wrong is frustrating.

glitterkitty

I bet none of these touts are registered as self employed and declaring their earnings to HMRC... they are all making lots and lots of money from buying and selling tickets (which they should be registered for)
its the marked up prices that touts sell for that is illegal.... people have been prosecuted for selling concert and theatre tickets at mark-up prices.
i dont know of any touts (online or otherwise) that sell tickets at face value...
ticket sellers need licenses. That is why so many touts you see outside of gigs (the same ones who are buying and selling online) get arrested.
A lot of genuine fans cant afford to buy tickets at inflated prices.... good on what Glastonbury did.
Ticketmaster are affiliated with GetMeIn.com which is a touting website, they are the ones who are mainly selling tickets on Play.com, at hugely inflated prices.
Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle are working to stop touts, there is a list of tickets on their webiste that have been touted, mainly ones on Ebay, and those tickets are now void, so if someone has bought them from a tout and tries to get into the gig with them, when the ticket is scanned the barcode is voided and they arent allowed in. There is a list of barcodes for the tickets too, so people can check their tickets are ok.
more places should do this.

chuckley

what grieves me more than are the postage and 'booking' fee used by see and ticket master.

see being the most ridiculous, hence why i dont use them. ticketmaster only for 02 events.

Jem8472

So if touting is made illegal are they going to make the bleeding booking fees illegal?
I hate when you find something you want to see and you have to pay a rather large fee just for booking. There are some concets and things you cant get away from the booking fees, its just so annoying.

I am sure if they wanted to stop touts it would not be that hard.

glitterkitty

chuckley wrote: »

what grieves me more than are the postage and 'booking' fee used by see and ticket master.

see being the most ridiculous, hence why i dont use them. ticketmaster only for 02 events.

i wont use ticketmaster because of their monumental mess-ups this year, not sending tickets out etc... for more than one event.
i only use See cause i get so many pre-sale links with them,
my favourite is ticketweb, but they seem to only supply tickets for the carling academy now. lucky we have one of those in newcastle...