US FTC Sues Ticket Reseller For Evading Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Ticket Limits (reuters.com) 153
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued ticket reseller Key Investment Group for evading purchasing limits to buy up thousands of tickets to live events including Taylor Swift's Eras tour and resell them at a markup, according to a complaint filed in Maryland federal court on Monday. From a report: The Baltimore, Maryland-based company, which operates ticket resale sites including TotalTickets.com, used thousands of Ticketmaster accounts, including fake or purchased accounts, the FTC said.
Ticketmaster faced intense criticism after its botched 2022 sale of tickets to Swift's much-hyped Eras tour, when billions of requests from Swift fans, bots and ticket resellers overwhelmed its website and the company canceled a planned ticket sale to the general public.
For one Swift concert in Las Vegas in March 2023, Key Investment Group and its affiliates used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets and evade a 6-ticket purchase limit, netting more than $119,000 in revenue on resales, the FTC said on Monday. The company made more than $1.2 million reselling 2,280 Swift concert tickets it purchased in 2023, the agency said.
Ticketmaster faced intense criticism after its botched 2022 sale of tickets to Swift's much-hyped Eras tour, when billions of requests from Swift fans, bots and ticket resellers overwhelmed its website and the company canceled a planned ticket sale to the general public.
For one Swift concert in Las Vegas in March 2023, Key Investment Group and its affiliates used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets and evade a 6-ticket purchase limit, netting more than $119,000 in revenue on resales, the FTC said on Monday. The company made more than $1.2 million reselling 2,280 Swift concert tickets it purchased in 2023, the agency said.
Tickets (Score:5, Insightful)
Tired of hearing about ticket problems.
Sell them only from the official website.
Tie them to an official ID.
Make them non-transferable.
If you turn up at the gate with a ticket that's not got your photo/name/other details on it, and you can't prove that you're the person on the ticket, then you don't get in.
If you're a kid, then you need to be previously named, photographed and be accompanied by a verified ticket holder with a valid ticket for you. People aren't gonna send their kids alone to a concert, with a tout letting them in with a stranger.
Advertise it WAY ahead of time on all the websites, tickets and in the media, so you have both time to weed out any fraud, and fair warning to consumers that all touted tickets are basically worthless or fraudulent.
"Didn't buy it on - Taylorswift.com or whatever - ? Then you won't get in". Massive signs all over the website, posters, venue, etc.
It's 2025, places like Ticketmaster are no longer able to dictate their terms to force a monopoly, and we have the technology to make this just work, and people like Taylor Swift certainly have enough clout and interest to make it happen overnight.
Ticket-touting should have died decades ago, but the industry just can't be arsed to fix the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
"Tie them to an official ID."
Taylor Swift fans are too young to have an ID. :-)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
My state won't issue an ID to someone under 10 years old.
Not reasonable for the state to require an ID for people under 10 years old, even if they can get an ID from the feds.
Re: (Score:2)
How about... no? I don't want to wind up pickpocketed, then wind up in jail because I didn't have an ID. Passports are one thing, but as a citizen in my own country, if I'm out for a jog, I don't need to carry an ID. By law, all I have to do is give my name if asked by law enforcement. It isn't like with facial recognition and other items, that authentication can't be done via other means anyway.
Sorry, but "Ihren papieren, Bitte", doesn't sit well.
Re: (Score:2)
So, tie up to, say, 5, children's tickets to an adult ticket. The adult needs to be present to allow the under-age people named on the ticket into the venue.
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
My child got his first passport (and passport card) when he was six weeks old.
We applied pretty much immediately after we came home from the hospital with him, so I think about six weeks of age is the lower limit on getting one.
Somewhat ironically on topic and coincidentally, we went to an Adele concert in Toronto when he was about 7 months old. That was the first time he used that passport. We did not take him to the concert though, we hired a babysitting service in Toronto.
Re: (Score:2)
I was in the Russian consulate.
There was a family there and they were trying to get Russian citizenship for one of their children.
They refused to accept the father's driver's license as ID. Insisted on a passport. They explained he didn't have a passport and that nobody in the U.S. is required to have one and most people don't, etc.
Consulate didn't care. Told him to come back with a passport.
Those poor bastards drove all the way up (to D.C.) from Florida too! Why? Because it's Russia. They have tons of co
Re: (Score:2)
Well, in Russia you need a passport to travel domestically, and to go to Moscow you need a visa equivalent.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, in Russia you need a passport to travel domestically, and to go to Moscow you need a visa equivalent.
FWIW, you can't fly within the US with a normal drivers license anymore either. You need an enhanced ID or passport (or a number of other such docs: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/sec... [tsa.gov]).
And if you're in the capital city, you'd better have a place to stay or you'll be shipped out to some random place, ID or not. (Slight hyperbole here, but not much)
... or what that the point you were implying already? :-)
Re: (Score:2)
That's not entirely true.
Russia does have an "internal passport", but you don't need it to travel internally. It's used to provide proof of identity and record your official registered residence and for a few other purposes. A Russian citizen can freely travel from, say, Kazan, to Moscow or Saint Petersburg, without carrying or displaying the propiska. I've made such trips with my wife many times.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a single voting district in America requires you to have a license plate (or even a driver's license) to vote.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Even better, allow tickets to be sold and resold at market prices just like anything else.
Why should the FTC be using my tax dollars to support Taylor Swift's broken business model?
The obvious solution is to action the tickets.
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
Ahhh yes, trust good ol' Shanghai Bill to shill for the rich. Because that's what you're doing, free market economies is another way of saying only the rich should be able to afford popular art. Why should the FTC use your taxes to enforce fair access!
What has the gubbermint ever done for us amirite?
*yes I'm mocking you.
Re: (Score:2)
The business model isn't broken, you just didn't know about all the variables. The artist is likely to make more off of merch sales than the ticket. Thus, the artist will want the consumer to have extra cash to buy it with. The venue makes more off of concession sales than tickets and thus need consumers to have money left to buy a drink with. A scalper comes in, artificially reduces the supply of tickets to inflate prices, and thus cheats the customers, the venue and the
Re: (Score:2)
Where do the scalpers sell this volume of tickets? And who owns that business?
Find the answers and you will understand why they don't stop it.
Re: (Score:2)
decreasing price auction, preferably. That'll minimize speculative buying (because most folks likely to be willing to pay more than you did probably already did).
Of course, you still get the "rich people get tickets before anyone else" part, but that's hard to avoid in general.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You should have every right to sell that ticket for as much as anyone else is willing to pay for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
Easy. If you use a ticket, it's not tied to anything other than say, a credit card. If you sell the ticket, that ticket needs to be presented with the original credit card used to make the purchase.
If you sell your friend the ticket because you can't go, chances are you trust them enough not to abuse your credit card that you can lend it to them. And if they do go wild, well,they're not your friends now.
This has been used before and was the basis of some of the more creative DRM systems out there - where the key to unlock it was based on the item ID and credit card number used to purchase it. You could easily generate the key knowing the credit card number, but that also means if you want to spread it around you have to give the credit card number to everyone.
And another solution is simple - all tickets are refundable - if you find you can't go, you can return them and get your money back. If you can't get the tickets, you can check back often to get tickets which might have been returned and buy them.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Even easier:
Just let someone sell their ticket to anyone they want.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope. If I pay big bucks for a ticket, and something comes up where I can't attend, I should have every right to sell that ticket (at cost) or give it away.
Does not work that way for plane or cruise tickets.
I have a trip coming up. We got 3 plane tickets for just over $1000 each. If we can't go, we're just shit out of luck unless we can get it covered by travel insurance.
I believe places like Ticketmaster sell insurance too.
Re: (Score:2)
Does not work that way for plane or cruise tickets.
It used to be this way....
Sure. But irrelevant, since it isn't that way anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh.....all I did was point out that a previous poster's rationale for non-transferable swift tickets does not apply to plane tickets, and imply that it does t make sense it would apply to swift tickets either.
As for your assertion of what I will exchange for swift tickets you're just plain wrong. I wouldn't even exchange a bag of shit for tickets to one of her shows.
But I think you may be confused about my stance on concert tickets. If you are, my stance is this: if the original seller wants to sell them o
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Make them non-transferable.
So break first sale doctrine? Why should a future obligation be non-transferable?
Re: (Score:2)
Why not break it? Software and game companies have no problems with this.
[ADA DISCLAIMER FOR THE SARCASM IMPAIRED -- I do not approve of breaking the First Sale doctrine]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"For every complex problem, there is a simple solution, and it is wrong." H.L. Mencken
I can immediately think of a serious problem with your solution: it's very common for people to buy tickets in advance but end up not being able to attend the event. Therefore, they have to pass the tickets on to others.
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
Does not work that way for plane tickets.
Re: (Score:3)
Does not work that way for plane tickets.
Doesn't work that way for colonoscopy appointments either. What's your point? :-P
A single plane doesn't attract a sold out audience for select nights when it'll be in your area. Instead, you look for a route on a date, and that route is generally available at various times of day and days of the week throughout the year. Swift is only coming to your town once or twice, if at all, and there is limited capacity - you've gotta buy ahead of time, and shit happens and there needs to be some solution for that (no
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Tickets (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Tired of hearing about ticket problems.
Sell them only from the official website.
Tie them to an official ID.
Make them non-transferable.
This is easy to say and extremely hard to do. Not only for tickets, but for verification for websites, employment, nightclub admission, GPU sales, etc. Whoever can truly solve the ID challenge will be rich from solving a host of problems that extend far beyond ticket sales.
Re: (Score:2)
If you turn up at the gate with a ticket that's not got your photo/name/other details on it, and you can't prove that you're the person on the ticket, then you don't get in.
No ID to vote, but need an ID to see Taylor Swift! Lol.
Re: (Score:2)
No ID to vote, but need an ID to see Taylor Swift! Lol.
False equivalence - these two things are not the same. You don't have to to buy one of a limited limited number of tickets in order to vote. Lol, indeed.
Re: (Score:2)
False equivalence - these two things are not the same. You don't have to to buy one of a limited limited number of tickets in order to vote.
I get six mail in ballots in my mailbox every election. Those are all people who lived in the house before I was there and never cancelled their registrations. I could walk right up to the poll and vote as those people.
Re: (Score:2)
False equivalence - these two things are not the same. You don't have to to buy one of a limited limited number of tickets in order to vote.
I get six mail in ballots in my mailbox every election. Those are all people who lived in the house before I was there and never cancelled their registrations. I could walk right up to the poll and vote as those people.
Well, maybe you could if you're willing to commit State and Federal felonies, and the signature on the sealed mail-in ballot envelope (required in order to trade it for a regular ballot at your polling place) matches the registered voter's signature on file; maybe that's an argument for requiring an ID to vote because due diligence on the part of poll workers is required. Of course, you could just drop off the mail-in ballot at your polling place or put it in a drop box, but then the signature verification
Re: (Score:2)
No ID to vote, but need an ID to see Taylor Swift! Lol.
False equivalence - these two things are not the same. You don't have to to buy one of a limited limited number of tickets in order to vote. Lol, indeed.
If I vote without ID and am not registered, I might alter the outcome of the election, and possibly deny the registered voter whose identity I briefly stole the opportunity to vote. If I am registered, there's a risk that someone else used my name (without ID), preventing me from voting.
If I get into a Taylor Swift concert without valid ID, I deprive the legitimate owner of the ticket of entry to the concert (if I copied the ticket code), or I might just be taking their place (if I bought their ticket)
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Tickets (Score:4, Insightful)
Tired of hearing about ticket problems.
Sell them only from the official website. Tie them to an official ID. Make them non-transferable.
Instead of non-transferable, allow resale only via the official website. That would allow the artist to control resale prices and make it harder for scalpers.
Part of the challenge is as much as artists and venues complain about scalpers, the help ensure sellouts and thus revenue. I suspect some of the complaining is simply driven by feeling they should be getting a cut of the resale tickets as well, Ticketmaster already has resale sites for ticket so they get a cut both ways.
Re: (Score:2)
The solution to ticket scalping and the problems it creates seems simple to me. Make it illegal to resell a ticket for more than some defined "face value" and make ticket resale websites liable for tickets being sold above that price.
It wont make scalping go away completely but it will go a long way to stopping it.
Re: (Score:2)
Your ideas violates freedom of contract. Are you sure that is a good idea?
Re: (Score:3)
No the "EU" does not do that. Maybe some companies in some EU countries do that, but there's no unified legislation that forces this. Also as someone who goes to concerts both big and small I can say that while living in the EU the only ID have ever been asked for is the digital COVID pass. I didn't get asked for ID at small local bands, I didn't get asked for ID at large festivals like PinkPop, and I didn't get asked for ID at Taylor Swift - I even on-sold one of our Taylor Swift tickets when one of the gr
Re: (Score:3)
The FTC will enforce EULA now? (Score:2, Troll)
The FTC should have nothing to do with the sale of concert tickets. Stop expanding the government.
Re:The FTC will enforce EULA now? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
So the FTC is in charge of enforcing all contracts? Why isn't ticket master suing them for a contract violation? Can the FTC prosecute 12 year olds for using tumblr (you must be 13 per the contract).
This is such a waste of government resources. If ticket master had a problem with it, let ticket master sue. If we really feel this is a problem let congress pass a law regulating the price of music.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That's just capitalism. If you can't afford it then you shouldn't buy it. If people are willing to pay it then the price is reasonable. What is silly is ticket master knows this yet leaves money on the table by not setting the prices to secondary values. The share holders should be pissed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The seller should seek a legal remedy. Are they suing?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How are people getting ripped off on ticket prices?
Someone has a ticket. You can either buy it at the price they want, or not. There is no rip off.
Re:The FTC will enforce EULA now? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't like expanding the government either, but an agency carrying out its assigned tasks is not expansion.
Scalpers (Score:5, Insightful)
Scalpers can only make money and scalping is only viable if original ticket sellers insist on selling tickets below market value.
If original ticket sellers would price tickets at what people are actually willing to pay, this whole "problem" would go away.
Solution: sell all tickets via auction.
Re:Scalpers (Score:5, Insightful)
Great solution. Art that is popular should only be for the rich and wealthy rather than the dedicated fans. Fuck the poor.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Why should it be different from any other luxury product or service?
Why shouldn't Ferrari be required to sell me a car for $20K?
Besides which, if you have money to blow on Taylor Swift tickets, and everything that goes with it, you ain't that poor.
Re:Scalpers (Score:4, Insightful)
That's effectively what happened in this case. The only difference is that the scalpers made the extra money, not Taylor Swift.
Re: (Score:2)
All the more reason to fix the one part where the system broke rather than deregulate it all. For the record we got Taylor Swift tickets no problem in the EU, we actually got tickets to multiple concerts quite easily and we didn't pay a single cent premium for them. The fact that it went wrong in America is all the more reason to support the FTC cracking down on it.
Re: (Score:3)
Art that is popular should only be for the rich and wealthy rather than the dedicated fans. Fuck the poor
And how many Rembrandt's do you have hanging in your home...?
We've found ways, such as museums, funded by institutions and donors, to make art accessible to those of us who cannot afford to have art like that in our homes. Similarly, many local orchestras, and community arts organizations offer free or inexpensive access to live music. And local community theaters offer free or discounted or low cost performances of musicals, shows, Shakespeare in the park, etc. If you want to support arts for the low inco
Re: (Score:2)
And how many Rembrandt's do you have hanging in your home...?
None, they are at a local gallery where people of all incomes can enjoy them. By the way pointing out another bad example that is a cancer on society to promote a case to make more isn't the flex you think it is. No one thinks highly of private art collectors.
But reading through the rest of your post I think you may have missed the fuckton of sarcasm from my post. I think the OP's post is fucking stupid, concerts should be regulated, scalpers should be punished, and the free market should go fuck itself. Th
Re: (Score:2)
I grew up in a communist country where "everyone was equal", government set pric
Re:Scalpers (Score:4, Insightful)
In my culture, pricing out poor is considered a dick move.
Re: (Score:2)
Poor people can't get a luxury product or service. Boo hoo!
Re: (Score:3)
Talk about an entitlement mentality.
"I'm poor! I can't afford it! But I should get it anyway!"
I should use that argument to get cheap trans-Atlantic private flights...and perhaps sue if I can't get the price I want.
Re: (Score:2)
"I'm poor! I can't afford it! But I should get it anyway!"
Back in the real world, it's more like "I'm poor, but I can scrape together enough money to by a ticket to see an artist I really like if I can get it for face value."
Talk about an entitlement mentality.
"I'm well off, so fuck the poor person who can't afford scalper prices!" is the real entitled attitude.
I should use that argument to get cheap trans-Atlantic private flights...and perhaps sue if I can't get the price I want.
That's hilarious. In case it's slipped your mine, the topic of discussion is the scalping of tickets. Scalping airline tickets is, practically speaking, impossible. You have to have ID matching the name on the ticket to board a flight.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, when it comes to luxuries such a sports car, designer handbags, fabulous vacations and rock/pop concerts, fuck the poor.
I can't afford $1000/ticket Taylor Swift tickets either, you don't see me crying about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, when it comes to luxuries such a sports car, designer handbags, fabulous vacations and rock/pop concerts, fuck the poor.
What is it with people who are fond of asserting false equivalences? The poor person's alternative for a sports car is a cheap used car; for a designer handbag, an inexpensive purse from the thrift store; for a fabulous vacation, an inexpensive trip to visit relatives. The only alternative to attending a concert is to not attend. Do you see how these things are not the same? I might be wrong, but I get the sense that you're the kind of person who thinks a single mother shouldn't be able to use her EBT card
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, when it comes to luxuries such a sports car, designer handbags, fabulous vacations and rock/pop concerts, fuck the poor.
What is it with people who are fond of asserting false equivalences? The poor person's alternative for a sports car is a cheap used car; for a designer handbag, an inexpensive purse from the thrift store; for a fabulous vacation, an inexpensive trip to visit relatives. The only alternative to attending a concert is to not attend. Do you see how these things are not the same?
The alternative is to not go. Big deal. Or, if you want to make the decision to not be so picky about your live music entertainment, you can go to a local bar and see a local band play live.
I might be wrong, but I get the sense that you're the kind of person who thinks a single mother shouldn't be able to use her EBT card to buy a candy bar for her kid once in a while. Update: I took a look at some of your other comments. I no longer think I might be wrong.
No, you are absolutely correct. She can use her own money for that. But it doesn't have anything to do with her being a single mother. Hell, my wife will be a single mother soon too!
Well, one of your other comments claimed that you paid $1000 for a pair of tickets to see an artist you apparently wanted to see
Well, not quite. My wife wanted to go. I bought her tickets as a birthday present. There is NO WAY ON EARTH I would pay anywhere remotely cl
Re: (Score:2)
In my culture, pricing out poor is considered a dick move.
Yes. Sure. The poor should be able to purchase any luxury item or service they want. All pricing luxuries should be on a "what you can afford" basis, rather than market price. Makes sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This has been recognized as bein
Re: (Score:2)
Market price is what people are willing to pay.
Many people are clearly willing to pay well above face value.
Face value is NOT market price.
Re: (Score:2)
If you need to sell 65,000 widgets, you need to find a price that 65,000 consumers will pay, not the higher price that 1,000 people will pay. A scalper buying 1,000 tickets and resel
Re: (Score:2)
Market Price
The term market price refers to the amount of money for what an asset can be sold in a market. The market price of a given good is a point of convergence of the demand and supply for that good. It is an important aspect of calculating consumer surpluses, economic surpluses, etc. The market price of a good or service is subject to reevaluations due to fluctuations or shocks in the demand and supply factors.
https://corporatefinanceinstit... [corporatef...titute.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Pie, being a luxury good, yes, you are right.
Re: (Score:2)
Scalpers are illegitimate and unwanted middlemen who prevent you from getting a ticket at the advertised price by buying a ticket they have no intention of using. It's s-tty behavior and I'm glad it's illegal.
People can't handle that there's no easy answer (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason scalpers were able to make so much money on these tickets was the fact that demand vastly outstripped supply. And the real answer is that there's no good answer. If 1 million die-hard fans wanted to see Taylor Swift at Metlife stadium but there were only 100,000 tickets, there is no solution that would make the other 900,000 feel satisfied. First-come-first-serve, certified fanclub accounts, dynamic pricing, scalpers: Those are different ways of allocating tickets but it doesn't make up for the fact that the concert would have sold out instantly and left 900k people with 0 tickets (and thus unsatisified).
You can blame Ticketmaster or scalpers or Taylor Swift, but there's no real answer (except to have it at ever larger venues, add LOTS more dates, etc). And even then, it would still leave people feeling burned because she's so insanely popular and demand will always exceed supply and drive prices higher.
Re: (Score:3)
In cases like this, you're right. Supply can never meet demand. People who want to go won't be able to go.
But what you can do is increase ticket prices, so that those who want to go bad enough have a better chance of going.
Just have an auction.
Let people submit their best and highest bid and the number of tickets they want at that price. Collect bids for a period of time. Let's say 1 month, just to pick a number. Publish all bids in real time, so people can see where they stand and give them a chance to inc
Re: (Score:2)
In case it isn't obvious to someone.....yes, you collect payment at the time of bid, to secure the bid. You refund any losers after the bidding closes.
This avoids people bidding on tickets they don't even up buying. ....and for those who want to keep hating.....then change the law as required.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My point still remains: For a concert of 100k tickets, 900k would have no ticket and still be disappointed. All you're arguing about is a fairer way to allocate the limited number of tickets.
So much has been written about how Ticketmaster collapsed, or long virtual queues or the high scalper prices and bots: None of it really matters. In my example, 90% of die hard Taylor Swift fans end up with no tickets and crushing disappointment. And there's no real answer to that problem.
Prosecuting scalpers make
Re: (Score:2)
Excellent post.
On that note, and I'm not saying that you're claiming this, why do ticket sales need to be "fair ?
Life isn't fair. There are things way more unfair and way more important than the distribution of a luxury item such as concert tickets.
Resources to address the many unfair things in life are limited, so why not spend them addressing those more important things?
Bigger problem (Score:2)
The bigger problem is that ticket sales sites completely suck.
I recently got tickets for the Steelers vs Viking game in Dublin, Ireland. The ticket site was probably the absolute worst, most miserable buying experience I've ever had.
I joined the queue when it first opened and was greeted with a message that said there were 318,000 people ahead of me. I think the stadium only holds something like 60,000. Nevertheless, waited all day. Finally got a chance to buy tickets! I couldn't believe it. The seat pic
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What you are describing is called "capitalism".
People buy stuff at a certain price, and hope to resell it at a higher price, making something called "profit". There is nothing wrong with it.
Many times in my life, I have looked at the price of something and decided that the price was more than I was willing to pay, and so I declined to make a purchase. This happens more than you might realize, but it is a perfectly normal thing.
Some people are willing to pay more for some things than others. A person who
Bots owned by Ticketmaster (Score:2)
How is this an FTC problem? (Score:2)
Ticketbastard, a private company, set up certain guardrails and EULAs (i.e. private contracts) limiting purchases.
A company circumvents said guardrails and violates said private contracts and purchases tickets for scalping.
Ticketbastard should be suing to enforce. It is not the job of the FTC to enforce private contracts.
Two types of tickets: transferable and not (Score:2)
Sell non-transferable tickets to fans on a lottery or first-come-first-served basis.
Auction transferable tickets to the highest bidder.
To prevent fraudulent tickets, run all ticket-transfers through an authorized ticket-transfer agent.
Re: (Score:2)
Change that to "auction all tickets" and your idea becomes correct.
break up ticketmaster (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember when.... (Score:2)
I remember waiting in a huge line, camping out overnight, to get student tickets to a Va Tech vs Miami football game (back when Miami was actually good, and VT could only dream of having a winning season). That's what you had to do to get a ticket.
Of course, these days, you'd just pay someone to stand in line for you....and then people would bitch about that because not everyone can afford to pay someone to stand in line for them.
Three facts:
1). Money buys shit you can't get without money. Always has. Alwa
Re: (Score:2)
One big difference, though: when you had to wait in line it was because there were so many people wanting tickets. In this case there's 5 people at the head of the line and each one bought thousands of tickets so there's none left for anyone else. Then they turned around and started selling to everyone else at 100x the price. If not for them, everyone else WOULD HAVE been able to get tickets at the regular price. Completely different situations.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I wasn't comparing the two situations.
But since you did.....I don't think it matters. The bottom line is, if you want a ticket, either pay the price at which one is available and get a ticket, or don't and not get a ticket.