Pure Extortion or Ebayer Stupidity?

exactly i mean no one says christies auction house is a racket because people will pay over the odds for something up for sale. if you want to pay £500,000 for a guitar eric clapton paid and can afford then what's wrong with that even though the thing is probably literally only worth a grand or 2 max? there'll be bigger clapton fans than the dude who buys it that couldn't afford it but is that the point?

it's the exact same with ebay and tickets. fair enough it may not be the "fans" who get the tickets 100% of the time but it's a simple case of supply, demand and price elasticity. if the band themselves were so worried about the real fans getting tickets the pre-sale would be cheaper, it would be well in advance of the general sale, the touts wouldn't get a look in with briefs before they went on sale and it wouldn't be open only to people with o2 contract phones....

paying £50 or whatever it is for the fanclub is a much bigger extortion in my opinion but you'll get people who think it's a fair enough price for what they get just as there's people who think x amount over the odds is a fair amount for a bon jovi ticket.

Theres a world of difference between a house going up in value to a concert ticket. Cant compare the enconomy with buying tickets. What I dont get is that the FA has banned the sale of all English football tickets on ebay, so why is it ok for music fans to get ripped off?? We end up paying for it in the end, this gig has proved that no end.

how is any different?

the rate of inflation is worked out on everything from mars bars and a loaf of bread to houses...

if someone has the money and is willing to pay over the odds for a house (as you pretty much have to these days) at the expense of someone else who really wants the house but can't afford it then it's not different at all except for the amount of money and actual commodities you're dealing in. there's not enough houses to go around so you pay a premium to buy one. if a band that can sell 60,000 tickets a night for stadiums all over the UK decide to do a gig in a 24,000 seat arena then there's not going to be any to go around.

with regards to ebay and the F.A. if the bands and promoters were so bothered about it, they'd do something about it. glastonbury tickets are nigh on impossible to sell on now even at face value, stopping touting can be done, the promoters just choose not too.

problem is if you ban selling tickets at a profit on ebay, what comes next? How is selling tickets for a profit on ebay different to selling anything else on ebay (playstation 3's anyone?) and making a profit?
Ever since people started using money and economies developed there has always been a huge element of supply and demand - if you have something that someone else wants you expect to be rewarded for it, well, in the western world anyway, I'm sure the soviets would have something to say about that!

I'll hold my hand up - I bought three tickets - 1 for me and 2 to sell - the bloody tickets were so expensive that this was the only way I could afford to see the gig. I spent £300 and sold my 2 on ebay for £300. Job done.

I see it as my reward for giving up my time on the internet and being aware that this gig was happening - spending hours trying to find the password and inconveniencing myself at work on the wednesday so I could get tickets when they went on sale.
Any Bon Jovi fans who missed the whole thing can't come on here moaning about ebay when they couldn't be arsed spending their time finding out about it - its not hard - as far as I am aware anyone who was online on the wednesday with the O2 password got a ticket - might not have been seated on Tico's drum riser but it was face value - anyone who wasnt - tough, thats a market economy.

You clearly aren't aware of much then, since that isn't the case. Presale tickets were sold out in less than 5 mins & the general less than ten. & the password thing wasn't particulary good since unless you are a complete loner you will know someone with an O2 phone who can give you the password.... which were all the same anyway.

If everyone took the same attitude, then that is half of the tickets that are going to people who aren't going to use them. If it was true supply & demand, then the ticket promoters would sell them for #300 each - the point being that it isn't. Auctions on Ebay are manipulated, not only by sellers putting the bids up to the reserve level, but by people who are too stupid to wait until the end of the auction to start bidding. One front row ticket went yesterday for #2050. The other for just #700. True supply & demand would see them a similar value. A large amount are brought up by people who don't have proper jobs, or are just selfish. & if these people are true business men / entreprenours, then why don't they pay tax or VAT?

pre-sale didn't sell out in mins cos a friend of mine got a ticket an hour after they went on sale - it isnt at the front, but its a ticket.

The drive for change has to come from the ticket agencies - not ebay. How come the agencies limit you (in BJ case at the O2) to 4 tickets each and then people/companies like soldoutevents on ebay have upwards of 30 to sell - thats where the real problem is.

But, like it or lump it - its a business, its speculation - it goes on on the stock market every day, people buy stuff, sit on it and then sell it for more money a bit later to someone who really wants it. People speculate to make money in many walks of life and to me the ticket industry is no different. Yes, its annoying if you aren't quick enough or your broadband is not up to it etc etc but thems the breaks.

What ebay could do is limit the sale of tickets to any single event to 2 or 4 per person, that way you might be able to target people like soldoutevents who bulk buy, god knows how. However, that requires work, software and time from ebay - and looking at it from their point of view, why should they, just to alienate huge customers of theirs?

PS - Mike - you need to be careful boyo, i took this quote from you :

"A large amount are brought up by people who don't have proper jobs"

That is some sort of '......ist' - Are you saying only people with proper jobs should be allowed to buy tickets? 'Elitist' might be the word I am looking for.

You also mention 'lazy' and 'selfish' - I sell a lot of stuff on ebay, hold down a job, run a house and look after two kids under 5 - i am in no way lazy or selfish, just trying to get by and ebay has become a good avenue for me to boost my income.

Tout-ist? There are people who make a living just on doing things like this, and it isn't fair on the majority of fans who can't get tickets at face value in general sale because these touts get hold of lots of them and sell them for prices that many cannot afford.

that's the nature of capitalism neil. in retrospect i would've just decided to get more tickets to sell on but i didn't think the prices would go so nuts.

and again, this is a one of Bon Jovi gighence why it's being ripped. some of my mates have got tickets outside normal BJ gigs for less than face value.

Your friend is either lying or was lucky, because there were no tickets available after the first few minutes.


Clearly this statement is aimed at people that buy things (i.e. tickets) for the sole purpose of selling them on & making a profit. This is a service that brings nothing to society aside from the fact it might allow some people with large amounts of money to get a front row ticket..... That is Elitist.

'Lazy' in respect to what I explained above.

Selfish you cannot deny however. Just because you hold down a job doesn't take away from the fact that you denied 2 people getting tickets at face value & charged a premium for them in effect making those two people pay extra. You might not see it a bad thing, but it does nicely fulfil the definition of selfish.