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"Scalping" Is Just Another Word For "Business"
Boston Herald ^ | October 23, 2007 | Michael Graham

Posted on 10/23/2007 5:33:39 AM PDT by suspects

There are people paying $250 this week for Hannah Montana concert tickets with a face value of 25 bucks. For those of you not blessed with 13-year-old daughters who watch the Disney Channel, Hannah Montana is a fictional pop star played by the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus - also known as the Achy-Breaky Heart guy.

Anyone who’d pay 10 times face value for tickets to watch a cable TV actress sing bad pop music for pre-teens is a dope who shouldn’t have access to a checkbook without adult supervision.

On the other hand, there are people prepared to pay $500 to sit in the worst seats at Fenway Park [map] tomorrow night to watch a game they could see on HDTV for free. That person can be reached in care of this column. ASAP.

No questions asked.

How much is a ticket worth? Like everything else in life, it’s worth what a willing buyer will pay for it. Regardless of whether the state of Massachusetts likes it.

This is why so-called ticket scalping is illegal. The Legislature sees happy buyers doing business with contented sellers and concludes that something terrible must be happening:

“All these people, happily doing business and making money without government supervision? Where the hell do they think they are - New Hampshire?”

This is why the term “scalping” is so ludicrous. When I pay you $200 for Springsteen tickets, I’m getting something I want more than I want the 200 bucks. You’re getting something you want more than the tickets - my money. Who’s getting “scalped” here?

Scalping only makes sense if I’m being forced to pay for something I don’t want - say, like Deval Patrick’s drapes. But nobody’s putting the governor behind bars. Yet.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: redsox; scalping; tickets
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1 posted on 10/23/2007 5:33:40 AM PDT by suspects
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To: suspects
Anyone who’d pay 10 times face value for tickets to watch a cable TV actress sing bad pop music for pre-teens is a dope who shouldn’t have access to a checkbook without adult supervision.

Don't go. My kids love Hannah Montana.

2 posted on 10/23/2007 5:37:18 AM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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To: suspects

Until you get organizations that buy up hundreds, or thousands, of tickets to an event with the sole intention of jacking up the prices far beyond their original sale price. Trust me, it happens - and it is the regular Joe who is left out in the cold.


3 posted on 10/23/2007 5:39:28 AM PDT by frankiep (Democrats base their ideology on the premise that you are too stupid to do anything for yourself.)
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To: neodad

So does my youngest daughter and frankly, I’d much rather have her wanting to listen to Hannah Montana than three quarters of the other skanks out on the radio now.


4 posted on 10/23/2007 5:41:11 AM PDT by ShadowDancer ("To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.")
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To: frankiep

“Until you get organizations that buy up hundreds, or thousands, of tickets...”

Yeah that sucks. So don’t allow it. Only sales of 10 (or whatever) to each individual. Stores with limited-stock items do it all the time.


5 posted on 10/23/2007 5:42:05 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: frankiep

-—then the original promoter of the event was too stupid to know the value of the merchandise—


6 posted on 10/23/2007 5:43:24 AM PDT by rellimpank (-don't believe anything the MSM states about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: neodad

“My kids love Hannah Montana.”

I’ve caught that show while switching channels a few times. Looks like good clean family entertainment.


7 posted on 10/23/2007 5:43:49 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: frankiep
Until you get organizations that buy up hundreds, or thousands, of tickets to an event with the sole intention of jacking up the prices far beyond their original sale price.

That is only possible if the tickets are priced at far less than what the market will bear. The surest way to put the predatory scalpers out of business is to (1) increase ticket prices, (2) book larger venues and (3) add more shows.

8 posted on 10/23/2007 5:44:27 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Is human activity causing the warming trend on Mars?)
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To: L98Fiero
Only sales of 10 (or whatever) to each individual. Stores with limited-stock items do it all the time.

Doesn't work. Here in Toronto the ticket agents limit sales to 4 per buyer, so the scalpers pay people to line up and buy the limit. I did that a couple of times in my younger days- spent the night waiting for the agency to open, bought four Paul Simon tickets and made $100. There were about two hundred people in line and only one person was actually planning to attend the show.

9 posted on 10/23/2007 5:48:03 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Is human activity causing the warming trend on Mars?)
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To: Squawk 8888

Wow. That’s not cool. I had no idea they went to such lengths.


10 posted on 10/23/2007 5:50:36 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: suspects

You should have seen the high pitched whine here in MPLS over scalped Hannah Montana tickets. It’s legal here (newly) and this was their chance to bitch.

I still think it’s more women buyers who have never bought tickets regularly in their life for sports, concerts, you name it, that are now being exposed to how ticket markets work.

Plus Chicks read newspapers, and Dudes rule the web :) (except here of course)


11 posted on 10/23/2007 5:52:37 AM PDT by SShultz460
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To: suspects

The only reason State’s do not like “scalpers” is because they cant track the sale and tax it.


12 posted on 10/23/2007 5:55:57 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: taxcontrol
The only reason State’s do not like “scalpers” is because they cant track the sale and tax it.

Bingo!

13 posted on 10/23/2007 6:04:00 AM PDT by meowmeow (In Loving Memory of Our Dear Viking Kitty (1987-2006))
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To: Squawk 8888; L98Fiero; rellimpank

In 1996 I tried to get tickets to see the NY Rangers in the Eastern Confrence Finals. The tickets, for four potential games, were to go on sale at 9 AM and unless you had season tickets the only way to purchase them would be to buy them directly at the box office as Madison Square Garden. Well, I got to MSG the night before at around 6 PM and waited. When I got there there were only about 50-60 people ahead of me so I was in good shape. By 9 PM that night there had to be at least 500-600 people in line.

Well, 9 AM comes and the ticket office opens. A grand total of three people went up to the ticket window before MSG officials informed those of us waiting that the entire series was sold out. Yeah, I have a very big problem with scalpers since 99% of the time they are NOT just some guys who happen to have a couple of extra tickets they aren’t using and want to get rid of.


14 posted on 10/23/2007 6:04:03 AM PDT by frankiep (Democrats base their ideology on the premise that you are too stupid to do anything for yourself.)
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To: rellimpank

Actually, the promoter is often a party to some of the scalping. Having worked in the concert biz for almost 25 years, I’ve seen almost every trick, even played some of them myself.

The way performance contracts work, the Artist, not only gets a set fee, but often gets a certain % on the back side of the final door, net net profit. A promoter can get more out of the backside if they sell a block, at retail, to an outside “entity(ies),” then that entity can in turn wait until tickets dry up and bam. The promoter can either be a direct shareholder in the “entity,” or they can just get a commission/kickback on the deal. The beauty is that they can pocket a large % without having to cut in the artist.

I used to occasionally game the system at some shows that I provided production at. If I saw that the show was likely to sell out, some of us would pool our money and buy up twenty or so tickets and hire one of the loaders to scalp them in the parking lot for two to four times our cost, depending on the demand. Many promoters do exactly the same thing—I’ve personally witnessed very well and nationally known promoters doing it.


15 posted on 10/23/2007 6:04:47 AM PDT by SirFishalot
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To: frankiep

—see post #8—


16 posted on 10/23/2007 6:05:45 AM PDT by rellimpank (-don't believe anything the MSM states about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: Squawk 8888
I think scalping is an interesting little business/economics lab. Mind you I rarely go to concerts or games so it's all academic to me. But I chatted up a UVA football scalper the other day. It was right after UVA lost their away opener and he was anticipating a lousy day. Now that they're 7-1, I bet business is really good.

I think ("guess" would be a better word) the key to scalping is to understand that the asset becomes virtually worthless at a set time. The scalper may be sitting in the catbird seat for a while, but if he doesn't move product he ends up with expensive cardboard in his hands.

I am not good at all at poker. But lots of life is a poker game, I think.

I also wondered is there was a workable analogy between scalpers and traders on the NYSE floor. Traders are said to make an orderly market. I guess that means they help sort out the people who really really want to won XYZ or a ticket to the Dylan concert from those who don't. I don't know.

17 posted on 10/23/2007 6:06:51 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: SirFishalot

I thought the economy was in shambles? How are parents paying for these tickets? I keep reading stories in the MSM about kids with no insurance, not being able to educate the kids, schools falling apart, but this story is about parents paying $250 for their children to be entertained?

Is this in the same country of the MSM claiming the economy is ready to collapse?

I would seriously laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic.


18 posted on 10/23/2007 6:07:11 AM PDT by wpa_mikeb
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To: Squawk 8888

It’s done that way on the internet as well. People are paid by these scalpers to keep on clicking till they buy tickets. Some of these “brokers” have special software that allows them to hack into the website and buy up tickets ahead of the ordinary chump. Even if the tickets are limited to 4 per person — if you have a hundred people going in and buying up 4 tickets each or whatever, you have 400 tickets you can sell for some really inflated prices.

And believe me, people will pay big bucks particularly for major artists, shows and games. Once I got the bright idea of seeing the Rolling Stones and Dave Matthews Band in concert - the ticket sales were already over, so I wanted to see what was available via these “brokers.” The CHEAPEST seat was $400. The best seats cost thousands.

As long as these “brokers” have a market, that is, chumps wililng to pay big bucks, they will always be around.


19 posted on 10/23/2007 6:07:18 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: ShadowDancer

All that money to watch a some chick with a famous daddy lip-sync a song using a digitized voice

If she even shows up. It’s a fictionalized character. Anyone can play that part.


20 posted on 10/23/2007 6:10:15 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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