Oh btw, looks like the software isnt *quite* as expensive as we thought -
"...According to the lawsuit, the site sells scalper subscriptions for up to 21 different ticket-buying programs for less than $2,000 a month. Among them is Purchasemaster, which, RMG boasts in an ad, "lets you do the work of a dozen people at once. Just enter the event information from the Ticketmaster.com Web site, and the moment the event goes on sale, Purchasemaster goes into action."
But of course the software is no longer available from RMG due to the TM injuction.
Oh btw, looks like the software isnt *quite* as expensive as we thought -
"...According to the lawsuit, the site sells scalper subscriptions for up to 21 different ticket-buying programs for less than $2,000 a month. Among them is Purchasemaster, which, RMG boasts in an ad, "lets you do the work of a dozen people at once. Just enter the event information from the Ticketmaster.com Web site, and the moment the event goes on sale, Purchasemaster goes into action."
But of course the software is no longer available from RMG due to the TM injuction.
Which begs the question even more why is there no free, or pirated version available online that the average user can download? How do they keep such a tight lid on their software, when it seems that no other type of software in the world is able to do the same thing?
Which begs the question even more why is there no free, or pirated version available online that the average user can download? How do they keep such a tight lid on their software, when it seems that no other type of software in the world is able to do the same thing?
An excellent question indeed. I mean the software was probably created by 2 or 3 geeks at this company, and there are thousands more geeks out there that could probably have come up with a copycat version.
Geeks of the world are letting us down - they're spending too much time on match.com in hopes of one day getting laid (with a girl) and not enough time on useful shit like this!
There is absolutely NO software that gives a major advantage to scalpers the first second tickets go onsale.
THERE ARE a few programs that can search sold out events constantly and buy any tickets that are slowly released. This also works if you set it to search a sold out section at a show that isn't completely sold out.
Obviously, I am sure there are a few scalpers that run the automated programs on unattended browsers during initial onsales... but they would need more computers than they have "pullers" and they would just have to be running around deciding if they want to purchase the pulled tickets. So, like I said there are not too many scalpers using automated programs on event day.
Scalpers are just better at pulling tickets, they all have very hispeed connections and they are very good at getting through quicker than the average joe can. Their T3 connection on a stripped down $3000 computer is much quicker than your $300 Dell with instant messanger and God knows what else running, hooked up to a dsl connection. They pull tickets all day, everyday. You get very good at the process over time. They use different, stripped down versions of opera and firefox. They have employees that also pull tickets. The artist direct fanclub presales now slowly leak the tickets over a half hour time period which IMHO made it even easier on the scalpers. A polished ticket puller can easily search 10 times for tickets for every one search an actual fanclub member can manage.
Prepaid credit cards and ticketfast have made it pretty simple to avoid household ticket limits. I won't explain it but if you have a brain I am pretty sure you can figure it out.
Around 50% of tickets on stubhub and ticketsnow scalpers don't even have... they presell tickets at higher rates and then worry about getting like or better tickets to fill their orders closer to the event date.
The above is all true, the below is some rumors and other crap I have heard:
I knew one guy that claimed that he bought a house within one mile of TM's servers in Philadelphia.
A scalper I knew claimed for awhile he was able to cut down on a great deal of TM's HTML making forcing the pages to load much quicker.
Some have connections at ticketmaster that will easily cancel any orders they decide will not be profitable. So, when in doubt on the onsale date they just buy, buy, and worry about the tickets later.
Ah my friends, then that geek writes the software, scores PJ tix, gets power, and $$$ and the next thing you know you get Bill Gates.
But where is some other geek to write a similar program for free just to get some fame (just like every other piece of shareware/freeware/open source software out there). I mean yes your guy could be the next Bill Gates, but there are free alternatives that a person can use if they don't want to use windows, word, excel or internet explorer.
Alternatively, where is the geek with questionable morals who is willing to steal the program and throw it up on a torrent site?
did we just give hackers intel to do this shit on their own now?
...
You'd have to be a pretty damn good programmer to develop something like this. Most hackers are thieves and parasites who copy someone else's programs and rarely the ones who develop things on their own.
Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
Hail, Hail!!!
There are some interesting details of the RMG operation in this NY Times article. For once I think we can all say we are on the side of Ticketmaster in their battle agains these broker assholes:
An interesting case study if you enjoy conspiracy theories:
Last year, The Police played a couple shows at Fenway Park. Predictably, the shows sold out instantly and there were piles of tickets to be had on the usual scalper sites. As the weeks went on, the ticket inventories stayed pretty steady. People weren't buying at the inflated prices (maybe because face was so high to begin with). It was about a week before the shows and there were still massive amounts of tickets floating around...prices had dropped on eBay, but the big time scalpers were holding strong.
Then a strange thing happened. A few days before the shows, there was a mass announcement that additional tickets were being released through TM (including some of the best seats in the house). They were advertising it everywhere...if you watched a Red Sox game, you couldn't get away from it. Oddly enough, if you went back to the scalper sites, the inventories had all but dried up...
Comments
Yeah you know the state of affairs is pretty out of whack when Ticketmaster is the good guy.
"...According to the lawsuit, the site sells scalper subscriptions for up to 21 different ticket-buying programs for less than $2,000 a month. Among them is Purchasemaster, which, RMG boasts in an ad, "lets you do the work of a dozen people at once. Just enter the event information from the Ticketmaster.com Web site, and the moment the event goes on sale, Purchasemaster goes into action."
But of course the software is no longer available from RMG due to the TM injuction.
Which begs the question even more why is there no free, or pirated version available online that the average user can download? How do they keep such a tight lid on their software, when it seems that no other type of software in the world is able to do the same thing?
An excellent question indeed. I mean the software was probably created by 2 or 3 geeks at this company, and there are thousands more geeks out there that could probably have come up with a copycat version.
Geeks of the world are letting us down - they're spending too much time on match.com in hopes of one day getting laid (with a girl) and not enough time on useful shit like this!
http://www.buxtonspice.com/node/45
THERE ARE a few programs that can search sold out events constantly and buy any tickets that are slowly released. This also works if you set it to search a sold out section at a show that isn't completely sold out.
Obviously, I am sure there are a few scalpers that run the automated programs on unattended browsers during initial onsales... but they would need more computers than they have "pullers" and they would just have to be running around deciding if they want to purchase the pulled tickets. So, like I said there are not too many scalpers using automated programs on event day.
Scalpers are just better at pulling tickets, they all have very hispeed connections and they are very good at getting through quicker than the average joe can. Their T3 connection on a stripped down $3000 computer is much quicker than your $300 Dell with instant messanger and God knows what else running, hooked up to a dsl connection. They pull tickets all day, everyday. You get very good at the process over time. They use different, stripped down versions of opera and firefox. They have employees that also pull tickets. The artist direct fanclub presales now slowly leak the tickets over a half hour time period which IMHO made it even easier on the scalpers. A polished ticket puller can easily search 10 times for tickets for every one search an actual fanclub member can manage.
Prepaid credit cards and ticketfast have made it pretty simple to avoid household ticket limits. I won't explain it but if you have a brain I am pretty sure you can figure it out.
Around 50% of tickets on stubhub and ticketsnow scalpers don't even have... they presell tickets at higher rates and then worry about getting like or better tickets to fill their orders closer to the event date.
The above is all true, the below is some rumors and other crap I have heard:
I knew one guy that claimed that he bought a house within one mile of TM's servers in Philadelphia.
A scalper I knew claimed for awhile he was able to cut down on a great deal of TM's HTML making forcing the pages to load much quicker.
Some have connections at ticketmaster that will easily cancel any orders they decide will not be profitable. So, when in doubt on the onsale date they just buy, buy, and worry about the tickets later.
But where is some other geek to write a similar program for free just to get some fame (just like every other piece of shareware/freeware/open source software out there). I mean yes your guy could be the next Bill Gates, but there are free alternatives that a person can use if they don't want to use windows, word, excel or internet explorer.
Alternatively, where is the geek with questionable morals who is willing to steal the program and throw it up on a torrent site?
it's been proven that being able to write computer software gets you laid
You'd have to be a pretty damn good programmer to develop something like this. Most hackers are thieves and parasites who copy someone else's programs and rarely the ones who develop things on their own.
Hail, Hail!!!
that was a very intersting read, thanks!
a six pack and a verb have worked pretty good for me...
(the six pack is for me, actually...)
That... and letting it be known that you collect comic books.
Hail, Hail!!!
Last year, The Police played a couple shows at Fenway Park. Predictably, the shows sold out instantly and there were piles of tickets to be had on the usual scalper sites. As the weeks went on, the ticket inventories stayed pretty steady. People weren't buying at the inflated prices (maybe because face was so high to begin with). It was about a week before the shows and there were still massive amounts of tickets floating around...prices had dropped on eBay, but the big time scalpers were holding strong.
Then a strange thing happened. A few days before the shows, there was a mass announcement that additional tickets were being released through TM (including some of the best seats in the house). They were advertising it everywhere...if you watched a Red Sox game, you couldn't get away from it. Oddly enough, if you went back to the scalper sites, the inventories had all but dried up...