To fricken hate people who sell tickets at ridiculous prices!

[Adviceinscotland]

Dd is obsessed with one direction, only thing she wants for Xmas is a ticket to see them next year. Of course by the time I realised they were on tour all the tickets had gone.

The prices on eBay are unreal!

How can they get away with it, 3x tickets worth £33 each have just went for £450!!!

Dd is being great about it but i wonder if she really is expecting a surprise ticket in her stocking and it breaks my heart I can't get her it.

Its leeching, pure and simple. Random talentless dodgy-dealers making a living off the back of people with talent. Bit like being a pimp, I suppose. Don't know how they can sleep at night.

Haven't read whole thread but if you search on Ticketmaster they may say they have some on Get Me In, they are more expensive but have been 1D tickets for £80 today.

Try Get Me In. It's part of ticket master and people re-sell tickets with a fixed price attached (none of that auction nonsense). I've used them before- got KOL tickets for £60 each, face value was £45.

Ha! X-post with hokeycokey

Great minds ipswich, great minds

We wanted to see pink but she didn't seem to be touring so booked one direction as second choice then bloody pink announced tour same month and they are also extortionate so can't go.
It's ridiculous. The artists should put a stop to it cos they are nothing without their fan base

I would laugh at the suggestion that ticket touting is like pimping - except for the total ignorance shown by that statement.

Maybe it will be paying for someone else's Xmas but I can't think of any thing less Christmas spirited than deliberately ripping people off.

I can't think of any other situation where you could make such a huge profit from no work at all.

This is all new to me though, I had no idea that people done this. Have only ever been to a couple of concerts.

Dd knows that she won't be getting the tickets at that price and seems fine with it, have said that we will try some of the things mentioned on this thread and if not hopefully we will get lucky next time.

In the grand scheme of things it's not a major issue, just a annoying one

There is some work involved for people who are deliberately doing it to make money. Sitting for hours with the phone on redial and constantly refreshing the page on the Internet on the off chance you might get tickets isn't fun.

For those who don't do it deliberately, there is usually a good (often not very nice) reason why their tickets they managed to get can't be used by them, so why shouldn't they sell them?

Like anything, concert tickets are only worth what someone else is willing to pay for them. If someone is willing to pay four times the original sale price, then to them, that's what the tickets are worth. Why shouldn't the seller sell them for their full value?

Aw thanks hokey, however I'm more simple minds today

I can't think of any other situation where you could make such a huge profit from no work at all.

But it's not no work - and also it can backfire - I have had tickets from touts at half face value as well including v festival and Red hot Chilli Peppers and I know (because I already bought ours) that the Reading Festival Tickets went for less than face value on eBay as well - add in fees and paypal and that's a significant loss for the seller - it's not all easy money.

Nor do I get why one persons "want" to go to a concert outweighs someone elses need to make a bit of cash - say my DC really wanted something I wouldn't afford and I had some tickets I knew I could resell for a profit - why shouldn't I be able to sell them to get something for DC if I wanted to?

For me it was easy money - but I would have preferred to have gone to the festival - I never bought with the intention of selling.

And where does "corporate hospitality" fit in? £100 ticket becomes £1000 if you throw in a hot dog.

Wow i've got 5 tickets for 1D in February. Now i know how much they are worth I might sell them behind DDs back considering her behaviour is questionable at the moment. We paid 40.00 per ticket just to watch 5 teeny weeny dots jumping around the O2

If it makes you feel any better advice we had loads of family members on the net the morning the tickets went on sale and it took us hours to get seats as other companies were buying in bulk and advertising straight away on different sites at extremely inflated prices.

It really is infuriating.

Have you tried seetickets there are quite a few venues that recommend calling in for details of remaining tickets for 1D. It might not work but worth a try.

www.seetickets.com/Tour/ONE-DIRECTION

I've had a quick google around for you and it does seem that all tickets are well over 100.00 each.

Goodluck.

It makes me laugh when they say "100,000 tickets sold out in 4 mins"* and in reality the ticket tout websites have got them, not fans.

It is a scandal.

*Michael Buble the other week.

I simply wish it was law that you couldn't sell tickets at above face value.

I've been going to gigs for more years than I care to admit, and this has always been a problem. HOWEVER the rise of 'legitimate' sites like Viagogo has made the problem totally against fans and it IS being encouraged by promoters. In the past tickets straying onto ebay WERE removed from sale upon request from artists involved. It did stop a lot of the problem. People are a lot more unwilling to stump up stupid money for stupid prices if they have to pay in cash/have no guarantee the tickets are real.

The system works for football tickets. The Olympics for all their ticket failings didn't have issues with widespread touting. But there is this complete inconsistency when it comes to gig tickets.

The thing I've found over the years, is that generally you CAN get tickets at face value for sold out events. How? Be a genuine fan who gets actively involved in band forums and makes genuine friends with other fans. Big fans frequently buy extra tickets precisely because of ticketing issues and wanting to ensure their mates also get tickets. If they do end up with too many they are willing to sell to other like minded individuals because it might help them in future if they struggle to get tickets for another event.

If you don't fail into the 'obsessive' category then putting a begging post on a fan forum, might pay off if you are lucky. Fans tend to be most sympathetic to those putting in 'effort', but you are further down the pecking order.

I do feel very sorry for teenagers today now though. You either get a Glastonbury ticketing policy which is totally over the top or you get this lunacy where everyone cashes in. Both of which ultimately disadvantage certain groups. The days when you queued all night at the box office have gone. And having taken days off work queued in dodgy areas overnight on my own in sub zero temperature, I'm quite sad about it. It was a great leveller and it did help a sense of community in doing so.

I've been fortunate to have had tickets for events where tickets have sold for hundreds. I wouldn't dream of doing it, and I have a lot of contempt for those who do because I understand the magic that is going to see a band that you long to see. Its selling other people's dreams and its just wrong when you have the power to make someone's dream an affordable reality instead. The justification of it being about just making money doesn't cut it for me. Not when you make music so elitest and beyond the means of some when it used to be an accessible luxury to most people. Music was always about the many rather than the few. The passion has been squeezed out of the market.

red if it's all about dreams and magic how do you explain away people who just can be bothered to get around to buying?

Download tickets last year didn't sell out til just before the festival - yet 2 days later they were going for double face value?

I don't get this begruding of people making money - and I too Amman avid concert goer or was pre DCs - at the end of the day - it's my look out how much I am prepare to get involved with a band I. Order to get tickets or how much I am prepare to pay.

As for the Olympics - ticketing was a Debacle and the prices for some of the ceremonies were absolutely horrendous - I don't see how that can be held up as shining example unless you mean to resolve the issue by pricing out Joe Bloggs.

Do you ban corporate hospitality too? And look at the prices for the rolling Stones tickets.

Football is controlled because of hooliganism - and you can get a ticket to any match if you are prepared to pay hospitality prices.

and genuinely this " Its selling other people's dreams and its just wrong when you have the power to make someone's " - so if you have the power to make the money to fulfill your own childrens dreams - why should you put someone elses over that - especially if it means sacrificing your own (which is what I did when I sold mine) - the money I got this summer for selling 2 festival tickets paid for my children to go to Disneyland - which I couldn't have afforded in a million years - and we have been to hell and and haven't quite got back yet - (which is why I didnt go) - I didn't set put to make money - but why should I feel guilty that I did.

OP try Scarlet Mist. It's an ethical ticket exchange - tickets can only be sold for face value (including any reasonable booking fees).

Scarlet Mist

I bought tickets for Robbie Williams at the O2 last week.

You could buy a maxiumum of 4 tickets and it was paperless ticketing and in order to gain entry to the event the credit card holder that paid for the tickets had to present the credit card on entry and that was your ticket. This meant you couldn't buy tickets and sell them on.

I thought this was a really good idea as it meant touts couldn't resell tickets. There are drawbacks if you say wanted to buy tickets as a gift or couldn't attend for a real reason but it worked well.

I agree with every word of RedToothbrush's post.

So O2 have stopped small fry making money but this is Ok? £375 ticket only - they haven't done it to help fans - they have done it to increase their own profiteering.

Ticket touts are scum. They serve no one except themselves.

They have also driven the price up for everyone. Once bands have seen how much their tickets go for on eBay it only made sense for them to charge that in the first place. I'd rather the band had the money than some lazy tosspot sat at a computer.

Didn't have any trouble buying tickets for Justin Bieber for DD for her birthday in March.

Don't know if I just caught the right day/time or something, but had no problem whatsoever.

She's going on her actual birthday, and won't be told until we get there why we are there...

She's going to shit kittens!

I honestly and truly cannot understand your defence of this practice Izzy. Really, it is beyond the capacity of my brain to comprehend it.

If you have tickets for a gig and cannot go and sell them on and they go for above ticket value ... of course that's great and good for you.

But to use other people's creative talents as a regular way to make money for yourself when you are not remotely connected to them or employed by them.

Well - its pimping, isn't it?

"I'd rather the band had the money than some lazy tosspot sat at the computer" ... couldn't put it better myself.