What was the "postcard system?"

Brony

joined in '03

can someone explain how it worked

Jamminonthe1

They announce tour dates. Then 10C members got to mail in a postcard with their top 3 show choices with a check for one pair of tickets and were pretty much guaranteed their first choice (though one year at MSG they tried to push people over to Jersey). It required lots of advance planning on 10C/PJ's part, but it worked.

NewJPage

Jamminonthe1 wrote:

They announce tour dates. Then 10C members got to mail in a postcard with their top 3 show choices with a check for one pair of tickets and were pretty much guaranteed their first choice (though one year at MSG they tried to push people over to Jersey). It required lots of advance planning on 10C/PJ's part, but it worked.

in 2003 pretty sure there was no mail in your choice thing. you got whatever shows you wanted. the thing with the holmdel show was that they sold too many to msg, so they gave people the option to switch if they wanted.

pjsteelerfan

Also, I don't think there was as strict a limit on the amount of fan club seats as there is now. Plus they played more than 10-12 shows in the US.

AmherstJammer

In 2003 they played 55 shows in the US and Canada... If they announce a 15 show tour and do the postcard thing and there are 2 MSG shows.. well how many requests will they get for MSG tickets?? They may have to play 4 or 5 nights to meet the demand.. so I am all for the postcard thing!! :thumbup:

Jamminonthe1

Those MSG shows they said they had like 8 and 9,000 fan club seats for each night. Amazing. Eddie actually thanked everyone on the second night.

Brony

wow. so the way they announce and play shows/tours these days this method seems almost impossible, no?

onemorshow

Brony wrote:

joined in '03

can someone explain how it worked

This is how it worked. Plus the tickets were much cooler back then.


http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics067.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics068.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics066.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics064.jpg

Empty Glass

snail mail > Internet

Zod

There's been some major changes over the past 10 years:

1) Mainly, ticketmaster invoked a 10 percent rule on fan club tickets in their venues. 10c has been able to move around this, but I think over the last 10 years or so, its become harder and harder. I think this means 10c probably gets less and less tickets to the shows for 10c members.

2) 10c now allows fan tix to more than one show (it used to be two tickets per tour). If you mix together less seats with more people able to buy them........ I understand why 10c allows us to buy multiple shows now. It makes it easier to sellout shows, if you have a contigent that travels around to all of them.

There were also two major drawbacks of the order form system:

1) It was first come first serve. So everyone ended up paying couriers to deliver the forms.

2) They mailed out the tickets with no confirmation. Which means you didn't know if you got tickets to the show you chose as your #1 choice until after the public onsale date. I panicked in '98, ended up with an extra pair of floors for the Missoula show. Which was a lame idea, because ticket demand for a show in Montana wasn't that bad


I don't know if going back to the old system is the right move? There were some drawbacks just as there were some advantages.

Better Dan

In one of the radio shows Tim said going back to this method would be difficult because the fan club doesn't get as big of an allocation as they used to. Additionally, Pearl Jam played MANY more shows than they currently do during their tours and I don't think you had as many people traveling as a result. The end result is still the same as it is now -- they don't have as many fan club tickets as fans that want to attend the shows. If they did the postcard system now, how would they notify fans who didn't get tix? Then 10C would have to return and/or destroy people's checks/money orders. And would it be a first come first serve situation? What if everyone overnights it and they pass their allocation of tickets with the Day 1 arrivals? How would they decide to cut it off?

I think the best solutions are to either make the ticket sales run smoother OR to go to some kind of online lottery like what was done for the EV shows. With Pearl Jam playing less shows and more people (seemingly) traveling to see them than in years past, it seems that people are going to miss out on fan club tickets for some of these shows no matter what. The best PJ can do is make people's buying experience more pleasant.

Better Dan

Zod wrote:

2) 10c now allows fan tix to more than one show (it used to be two tickets per tour). If you mix together less seats with more people able to buy them........ I

I could be remembering wrong, but I don't think this was the case with the 03 postcard system (although it was for prior years).

JMo

Better Dan wrote:

Zod wrote:

2) 10c now allows fan tix to more than one show (it used to be two tickets per tour). If you mix together less seats with more people able to buy them........ I

I could be remembering wrong, but I don't think this was the case with the 03 postcard system (although it was for prior years).

You are correct. In 2003, you could buy as many as you wanted. The draw back was waiting in line at the venue for the best available seats in your block. The blocks were determined by the amount of 10c tickets sold for that show.

2003 was nice too because they released the ENTIRE tour at once. They added an Irvine show on the west coast, but other than that, it was much easier to plan. They killed me in 2006 with annoucing a couple shows at a time, and the spread out dates between shows.

Zod

If they could plan far enough in advance, maybe there would be advantages to the postcard system?

If they insist on continuing to allow people tickets to multiple shows (even if they don't have the inventory). They could take the order forms and fill tickets based on 1st choice? So allocate any left overs to people after, but make sure at least all people that want them get tickets to one show first?

The major drawback, is because it's all done manually, its a giant make work project.

They could pretty much do the same thing online. Limit to one show per tour. Put them all on sale (but stagger the sale times to avoid server crash as much as possible). If they have any leftovers, put them up in a 10c free for all afterwards?

Zod

Better Dan wrote:

I could be remembering wrong, but I don't think this was the case with the 03 postcard system (although it was for prior years).

03 was already done online (I think the Binaural tour was the last to use snail mail, and the last to restrict to one pair of tickets per show):

ORDER DETAIL
ID *****
Date Mar 18, 2003
Shipping
Address
Billing
Address
Total $79.00

Items
Product Name Qty Ret
Qty Exch
Qty Unit
Price Total
Price
VANCOUVER 5/30/2003 - 2 tickets 1 0 0 $79.00 $79.00
Sub-Total $79.00
Shipping $0.00
Tax $0.00
Grand Total $79.00

Better Dan

Zod wrote:

Better Dan wrote:

I could be remembering wrong, but I don't think this was the case with the 03 postcard system (although it was for prior years).

03 was already done online (I think the Binaural tour was the last to use snail mail, and the last to restrict to one pair of tickets per show):

03 was still the snail mail postcard system, but the first year the the orders appeared in the online order history.

ral

Zod wrote:

If they could plan far enough in advance, maybe there would be advantages to the postcard system?

Like what? I can't think of a single advantage to having fans mail in requests with money orders. In fact, I'd say there are only disadvantages vs ordering online and on top of that it would also create a ton of extra work for the TC with sorting/processing orders by hand.

dimitrispearljam

this can never work for Europe

All Those Yesterdays

The good old days...

drinkbigredinstead

onemorshow wrote:

Brony wrote:

joined in '03

can someone explain how it worked

This is how it worked. Plus the tickets were much cooler back then.


http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics067.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics068.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics066.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics064.jpg

Agreed, I loved the tickets...wish they would do it again.

peacefrompaul

onemorshow wrote:

Brony wrote:

joined in '03

can someone explain how it worked

This is how it worked. Plus the tickets were much cooler back then.


http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics067.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics068.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics066.jpg

http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53 ... ics064.jpg

That actually looks like fun to fill out