Solving the tout problem

[The Curmudgeon]

Quick scenario; Prince announced he's playing Scotland for the first time in 19 years. In typical Prince fashion, he announces it last night, the tickets go on sale today and the gig is in three weeks.

Anyway, the tickets sell out in FOUR MINUTES. Luckily, Mrs C managed to get two tickets so I'm OK. The hundreds, nay thousands, of genuine fans, who weren't so lucky? They can take the comfort in the fact those tickets they've waited 20 years for? In less than 30 minutes they were on eBay at three times the price. How is that fair?

So, can anything be done? SHOULD anything be done? Is it just one of those things that we now have to live with in a internet led world? Or should genuine fans be able to buy tickets, like, ten fucking minutes after they go on sale without being turned away because parasitic eBay sellers have hoovered them all up?

How would you tackle this?

[Ben]

You snooze, you lose.

Hasn't this stuff sort of been combated by presales, though? I don't know if you guys have those in the UK, but in the US they'll have a presale 24 hours before tickets go on sale to the public. I don't know if it works the same everywhere, but the ones I've enjoyed are awesome. As a frequent buyer of local tickets, I'll get an email from Eventful or some other "upcoming stuff" site with a presale code which I enter on the ticket-purchasing site, and I can snag my tickets a day early for standard price. It's not a perfect system (I don't know if the presale is only for frequent buyers or if others are privy to it as well), but it beats the hell out of the eBayers.

[trashcanman]

There are usually fan club deals that give hardcore fans the first shot, although given Prince's hatred of all things digital he might not go that route. I had the same problem when Prince announced a Fresno show like a week in advance. I was there near the front of the line when they went on sale, but the servers locked up and the tickets were gone when I got to the front because each sale took several minutes. I waited a few days and right before the show, more tickets became available and I ended up getting some cheap ones like two days prior. Fuck the eBayers.

[The Curmudgeon]

Ben - Yeah, we get the pre-sale deals on certain gigs, that was the only reason we managed to get Prince tickets in the first place. What happens there though, and it happened with the Arctic Monkeys as well, is that the touts target these pre-sale dates and by the time the other tickets go on sale, the standing tickets are gone and seating is only available. It's not so much "snooze you lose", it's not being given a chance in the first place.

[Ben]

Well shit. I guess I'm just not in the know because most of the shows I go to never even come close to selling out. Now that Trashcanman says it though, I do remember the big venues always releasing a certain amount of reserved tickets 48-24 hours before the show. I don't know if those are reserved tickets that didn't sell, or what, but it's another way around the eBay scum.