On Friday I bought tickets to see The Cribs for me and some mates,
now there are other people want to go but the tickets have sold out. They only went on sale on Friday, I noticed when I bought them (directly from the venue's website) that there were sites already selling them at six times face value, even though they were still available to buy from the venue.

What do you think about ticket touts? Exploitative cunts, worse than Hitler I think. Ruiners.
( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:23, archived)

Ticket touts are shit.
People who have genuine reason to sell their tickets get tarred with the same brush.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:25, archived)

shirly touts could be avoided if peoples names were printed on the tickets?

( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

Then what about people with genuine reason to sell?

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

don't buy the ticket in the first place
unless you know you can make it? Allow refunds from the vendors?
( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:29, archived)

How can you plan for a death in the family?

( jenpots, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:29, archived)

If you've had a death in the family
trying to claim back fifteen quid on a gig ticket might seem a little insensitive, don't you think?
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

I don't know why I posted to be honest
I really couldn't give a shit.
( jenpots, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:32, archived)

I tend to plan all my family killings.

( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

How can you plan for your only method of transport to somewhere 200 miles away (unless you want to pay £100+ for a last minute train)
to go and get 3 more points on his license and be banned from driving?
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:30, archived)

Then you buy your train ticket
and call your mate with a car a silly cunt and suggest he take you out for a big apology cake later on.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

Yeah,
because a student can afford a £100 train.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:32, archived)

Then you all get together and call your mate a massive cunt then.

(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:34, archived)

jesus christ, £100 for the train
where the hell were you traveling to? Its like £39 from manchester to london return with a student railcard (I do this once a week usually).
( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:43, archived)

Newcastle.

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:44, archived)

from?

( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:44, archived)

Gateshead

(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:45, archived)

Loughborough (£75 off peak today, although peak was needed),
per person, I'm the only one with a student railcard.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:47, archived)

heh I just found off peak tickets for £49 today through the trainline
but then I cant be arsed booking trains for you.

anyway who were you going to see? I'm just interested.
( MrA, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:51, archived)

It was Dream Theater 2 years ago.
I don't like them that much any more, so I guess in the long run it doesn't matter.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:52, archived)

surely you'd know where the gig was going to be in advance.

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:32, archived)

Yes.
He got banned from driving 2 days before the gig.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

you need to read it again

( jenpots, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

And morning soup can be avoided if you take a route straight through what is known as...

( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:28, archived)

I think they're fantastic and I would buy them a drink if I met one

( glued eel /questions/questionsyoudliketoask/post1648081, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

Online touts really annoy me
But once I was waiting outside Hammersmith Apollo because the mrs was really late and a tout gave me a ticket as he'd had enough and was going home. Which was nice.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

They're shit if they buy out a lot of tickets then sell them at extortionate prices, IMO
Not so bad if the price is similar.
( spangolin - the odds are good but the goods are odd, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

Well this is it. It's not fair. It's like those petrol stations which hiked the
prices up during the fuel crisis to take advantage, mind you they all went under as people remembered when it was all over and never went there again :)
( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

I've bought tickets to resell before and made nearly £1500 on them.
I've also bought two lots of tickets on two different cards and two different billing addresses because of a 4 tickets per person rule.
( LimeyTreat Bitch. Lover. Child. Mother. Sinner. Saint., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:26, archived)

You wheeler dealer!

( spangolin - the odds are good but the goods are odd, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:29, archived)

wheeler dealer massive shit
( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

Robbie Williams does strange things to women.

( LimeyTreat Bitch. Lover. Child. Mother. Sinner. Saint., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

People like you voted Hitler into power.

(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:30, archived)

I refer you to my sig

( jenpots, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:27, archived)

they are poo
but i went to reading festival and ended up with a spare ticket and i sold it to a shitty tout for twice the price i'd paid. then i went up to an officer and complained about him and he got told off. (:
( TopUpTheTea you ain't seen me, right?, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:27, archived)

They're cunts, and I always tell them that when I see them outside Reading or Download fests.

( Harold Bishop's Love Child some sort of terrifying sex magician., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:28, archived)

I don't like them.
But then again there's the people with a genuine reason. The venue/ticket sellers should operate a scheme where they buy the ticket back off of you at 75 - 80% of face value, and then put them back up for sale.
( WHARRGARBL, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:28, archived)

I think the venue should be obliged to offer a refund on the face value of the ticket
especially if you tell them well in advance when they haven't even sent you the ticket yet.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:29, archived)

Why should the venue be at the mercy of your day-to-day activities?
They have to run at a profit, you know.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

The venue gets paid regardless
it's the artist or, more likely, the promoter that takes the risk. If the show is good then reselling tickets should be easy, if it's shit, they would lose out anyway.

Personally I think if you went to the ticket agents, say, 3 weeks before the show they should give you a refund, i'd be prepared to agree that they could keep any booking fees you had paid. Then actual fans would be able to purchase the tickets.

I've not worked out all possible problems with my plan, but in principle, allowing refunds would cut down on a lot of touting.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:36, archived)

70-80%?
No.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:29, archived)

65-78%

( glued eel /questions/questionsyoudliketoask/post1648081, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:32, archived)

Much better.
Karl is an economics retard.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

67%-69%
and that's my final offer.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

We live in a free market, and if people want to pay six times their face value, let them. It's their money.
It's not the supply that's the problem, it's the demand. If you don't like it, you can piss off back to Russia, commie.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:30, archived)

But what about the false demand caused by ticket touts buying a large percentage of the tickets?

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:31, archived)

I meant the demand from the touts.
If a tout has tickets and people are willing to pay six times the face value, then there is no false demand.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:35, archived)

So you expect people to not go and see something they really really want to see?
It's not a case of them being "willing" to pay 6 times the face value, it's a case of that's the only way to get the tickets that can often be to a once in a lifetime experience.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Sun 17 May 2009, 14:38, archived)

Well they obviously are willing,
they have obviously made the value judgment that seeing the show is actually worth more than 6 times the face value. Nobody forces them to go. This is the only sensible definition of market value, unfortunate though it may be.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:40, archived)

It may be a true definition of market value
but most people would consider it "unfair", as arbitrary a definition as that is, and some regulation would make lots of people happier.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:42, archived)

Right you are, I'm not justifying it.
Although fairness is a pretty messy concept, all things considered.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:43, archived)

The good thing, though,
is that it keeps our concerts free of poor people and their poverty stench.
(MooCow_Byter, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:47, archived)

This is true
I particularly enjoy walking over the proles clamouring outside the venues whenever I go to a concert. I frequently leave part way through or sometimes even before the main act just to see their desolate faces.
(Bazongaloid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:49, archived)

Exactly.
When you go to see a group of extremely wealthy men and women perform on stage using fantastically expensive equipment, you want to surround yourself with other, similarly rich people. Knowing that the masses outside can't afford such extravagances is half the joy of it.
(MooCow_Byter, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:54, archived)

The free market makes it ideologically acceptable to ruin things for other people,
just because you can.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:34, archived)

It's not right though, because there's no such thing as a free market in this country under normal circumstances, there are regulations
and commmissions which look after consumers. That's why we don't all pay more for water and electricity and so on, but touts aren't regulated. It's an example of how shit a truly free market is.
( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:35, archived)

I'm not saying I agree with the concept of the free market
I'm just saying as long as there are people willing to pay more for something, there will always be touts.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:36, archived)

This is correct.
There will always be someone who finds a way to exploit the system for their own ends, no matter how cunty it might be to do so.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:39, archived)

Not if it's properly monitored there won't be.
Unique tickets and ID required on the door would make me happy. If you can't make it, they should issue a refund on the door for unused tickets (minus booking fee), and flog those on the day, first come first served.
( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:39, archived)

this seems like it could be a contentious issue, and that is why i'm forming no opinion, sorry, no offence
ok
( mongychops, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:33, archived)

They are rubbish.
I want to go and see Daniel merriweather at Bloomsbury ballroom, as I quite like him, but I also think the venue looks lovely.

www.bloomsburyballroom.co.uk/main.html
( rosie posie tingly bongly, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:39, archived)

The seating looks lovely. Do they play on top of one of the coffee tables?

( Druid, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:54, archived)

Pssssst
wanna buy a ticket to see Hitler mate? Top price, front row seat.
( wotofco pissing in your swimming pool, Sun 17 May 2009, 14:50, archived)

Click Here
( WormuIus, Sun 17 May 2009, 20:08, archived)