Would you go to this concert?

[Blanketfull]

A friend is going, she's been excited for months.

I've just seen it on a seat filling site for £15.

I quite like the band and would go for £15, but I wasn't interested at the £80 she's paid.

One of the conditions for having these tickets is you're not to tell anyone at the venue about what you paid, but friend isn’t stupid.

As a company, they ask you not to tell others where your tickets came from or how much you paid. This is mostly to protect the venues who would rather you actually paid for your ticket. It’s a courtesy thing.

Of course they would, how odd

Literally everyone that buys these tickets tells people what they paid. They ask you not to, but what exactly do you think they're going to do about it??
Just go. If she asks what you paid then tell her. Not a big deal at all

What?? You've just convinced me this is fake.

You wouldn't buy an item in the sale if your friends already owned it? Haha why not?

Also why is your 'friend' so fragile?

I think you're overthinking it. She was obviously keener than you and what she's paid extra for is knowing she has a seat well in advance. If I was her I wouldn't be bothered at all. I wouldn't have wanted to wait and take a chance on a cheap seat.

I don't think most people would be shoes, a piece of furniture, an identical anything really, knowing a close friend already had it.

It isn’t a courtesy thing, they want people to use their site and business. If they can make it seem more hush hush, great marketing.

They definitely don’t want you to be courteous and not tell anyone where you got some amazing tickets. What would the business interest be in this model?

I’d go for it , I use a couple of seat filler sites and let’s face it , we have no problem knowing we paid a fraction of the price when it’s strangers we are sitting next to . It’s also not like the seat fillers are invitation only , anyone can join them .

We have seen quite a few shows and films recently, both in our home town and nearby ones . The only reason we don’t go to the London ones normally is the train ticket makes a cheap night out expensive.

I think they just ask you not to discuss it so there isn’t a mass of people trying to get reduced prices once they have already paid .

The thing is I still pay full price for shows I really want to see , as you never know what will come up , your friend could have ended up missing out completely if she had taken a gamble on seat filler tickets.

But buying a dress the same as your friend and possibly both wearing it to the same event is not the same as going to a concert and paying less than someone else has. Have you never gone to a gig or concert before when someone you know is also going?!

Well they also need a relationship with the venues/promoters to have a business model at all.

Sure, but the venue doesn’t lose out on anyway. They will always have the venue, host the concert and have a monopoly of the ticket price.

Of course they will offload their tickets last minute to recoup possible losses. This is how ticket sales work. Buyers who pay full price know this exists. It makes total financial and economical sense to run a business this way. they don’t care buyers know this, they still have the cost of an event to run at a profit.

They don’t expect consumers to keep this a secret in reality. It is just marketing.

You’ve not found the right site then 😊

Surely you’d just say “hey, I’m going too now” and not mention how much you paid? And surely her reaction wouldn’t be “oh really, how much did you pay?”

Probably not. There are websites which offer very cheap tickets to events which have not sold well. I've been on the mailing list for ShowFilmFirst for a few years and have been to loads of gigs and theatre events for very little money (often just a £5 admin fee).

The only downside is it's usually very short notice, sometimes the same or next day.

I don't know why she would be upset. She bought the tickets she wanted and has been looking forward to the event . You will be going last minute in random seats.

Yeah, sounds like stand-by air line tickets

Of course you can tell your friend how much you paid; you just aren't supposed to go and announce to everyone sitting around you what a great bargain you got and how stupid they were to pay full price.

Your friend was going to go anyway, and she obviously likes the band enough to pay £80 to do so. I would have thought she'd be pleased to have the company.

There is of course the risk that she will demand that you you split the cost of both tickets between you, so you end up subsiding her outing - but you know her and we don't, so only you can decide that.

I would have no problem going to a gig with a friend who paid less than half of what I paid. I would be delighted for them but if it’s something that I really wanted to see I would be paying full price.

I don’t think that I’ve ever asked people what they paid at a gig.

You’re overthinking! ‘Dynamic pricing’ and so on is widely known about.

The site’s ‘don’t spoil things for other attendees’ and ‘not in the spirit’ really means ‘consumers having more information about supply exceeding demand means we’d have to lower prices and profit’

Your thoughts about your friend and the site’s bullshit suggest you could have an issue with ‘people pleasing’.

Why on earth wouldn't they, if they wanted the item? I mean, if I need a new dishwasher or a sofa, I need it. If I can buy it on sale, why wouldn't I? The fact that my friend had a blue Sofology corner sofa or a Miele dishwasher wouldn't mean I would avoid those particular products.