I think there are a few events–not many–that are now making tickets non-transferrable to avoid scalping. Basically, you show up with an ID matching the name used to buy the tickets, or you don’t get in.
The way it was done in the late 80s, at least for the concerts I bought tickets for, was wristbands. You’d go on a particular day and get a wrist band with a random number, which was your spot in line for the actual sales. There was no point in camping out too long to get a wrist band, because you’d get a random number. So you could be first in line to get a wrist band, and end up with a number too high to score any tickets. Then on ticket sales day you’d show up and wait until your wrist band was called, and hope all of the tickets hadn’t been sold by then. Or something like that.
This was done at multiple locations. I’m not sure if the different locations each had an allocation of tickets, or if they had an actual computer network that would allow all locations to sell any seat. At the time, my friends and my strategy, which worked very well, was to go to a primarily Hispanic HEB in East Austin, where, for example, REM had a non-existant fan base. That way there was no wristband queue, and nobody else was in line ahead of us to buy tickets. We never got great seats, but we always got seats, with a minimal amount of effort.
Yeah. I hate TM as much, if not more, than the next guy. I came into this thread ready to pile on. But I can’t see how this particular problem is their fault.
How?
How?
If the traffic is greater than the available tickets, I don’t see how they can make things better. TM sucks, but in cases like this, I give them a pass.
I’ve tried to buy tickets many times in the past few years through Ticketmaster, and EVERY SINGLE TIME, I’d get the “Sold Out” or “Only crappy seats available” right when tickets “went on sale”.
Y’know what I did? I said “Screw them. They think they’re a monopoly, but they aren’t. Because I don’t HAVE to go see Crosby, Sills, Kate Nash and Jung. I’ll just stay home.”
Now, I’m happier. I’m going to see little local bands at small venues, where I can buy tickets directly from the club. Either online, or I bike downtown and pick up real physical tickets.
It’s hard to believe, but at one time you went to the box office of the venue and paid the price of the ticket. Yes, you heard right, the price printed on the ticket. I know that sounds quaint.
This is why I haven’t been to a major concert since 1986.
Tickets to the Great British Beer Festival next week are still available.
Watch Craigslist. Better yet, use an app to watch Craigslist.
I feel ya. They were out by 10:05, really. “Beer fans” are selling large blocks of tickets on StubHub, so obviously they got around the 4 per person rule. It really is shitty. I wouldn’t be surprised if GABF isn’t behind part of it.
People on CL have them going for $150+ ea. Bastards. I used to think GABF was a Colorado tradition but…I can stay home!
Back in the dawn of time or BC (before computers )
There was what was called mutual agencies. Physical tickets would be printed and sent to each mutual agency. You got out the phone book and started dialing away.
“Do you have any tickets for ______?”
“No”
Dial the next number
In looking for tickets for Simon and Garfunkel I found the world’s best mutual agency. It was located in a very exclusive men’s club in downtown LA.
Got 4th row center for S&G when everybody else was sold out. Got 10th row for Jimi Hendrix.
I loved that place.
I remember when I was a teenager and I thought it was freakin’ *amazing *that I could just run over to the Carson Pirie Scott store at Stratford Square Mall and buy tickets for a concert at the Rosemont Horizon, many miles away. Imagine! It’s like, this computer, see, and all the computers have access to the same tickets, and they can print them right there! What times we live in!
Even then, though, you could be there the minute tickets went on sale and get a crap seat, yet somehow all the scalpers had lots of primo tickets available at multiples of face value. I don’t know if TickeTron (as it was called then) was to blame for this, or if venues put aside the best seats in advance, but clearly there was a lot of under-the-table shit going on.
And, yeah, I agree TicketBastard sucks worse than ever today. My favorite bit of bullshit is that it costs me more to print my own tickets, even though it saves them money on printing and postage. And there’s still a “handling charge” even though nobody is doing any handling but me.
How was that Air Supply show?
One of my favorite ticket buying experiences was when I saw in the paper that Rolling Stones tickets were on sale that day. I had slept late, so I was prepared to find they were already sold out, but I headed down to the mall where there was a Ticketron outlet in the Bill Gamble’s Menswear store. There was no line, so I figured I was too late. But I went up to the counter and asked “Do you have Rolling Stones tickets?” “Yep!” “Gimme two!” Easy as pie.
Then I saw the news report on TV that evening showing the line for tickets snaking all through the other mall, right next door to the one I went to. Go figure.
Heh. I saw Air Supply when they opened for Rod Stewart during the Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? tour.
Everyone was there to hear the headliner; nobody had ever heard of Air Supply. They were booed after their second song, and the jeers got worse from there.
Crap. It was actually the Hot Legs tour.
Reminds me of the time I saw a then-unknown Tom Waits opening for Frank Zappa in 1974. He was mercilessly booed and catcalled. My most enduring memory of the audience reaction was someone near me yelling “Somebody shoot that fucker!”
Nowadays, of course, Tom Waits gigs are instant sellouts.
Oh no, speculation is best for consumers. It regulates supply, see.
I would give my left testicle to see Waits in concert.
Before it was Ticketmaster Online it was Ticketmaster by phone.
The day/minute the tickets went on sale you dialed and redialed till you got through to a live operator.
I used to have this fantasy that artists could make the scalping business model disappear by letting everyone into the concert for free, then charging them to leave after the show.
Totally unworkable, I know.
But how about this? Your artist prepares two different shows, an awesome one and a sucky one. In the days leading up to the concert, the artist monitors the secondary seller pricing. If it gets too high, he goes on with the suck show. When secondary sellers keep the price to face value plus, say 10% (including “handling” fees), the audience gets the awesome show.
Probably still unworkable, but eventually someone will come up with a scheme that destroys the parasites.