the demise of hard tickets….

Wobbie

I recently saw the Rival Sons. The only way I could get a hard ticket was from a nice usher on my way out….she gave me a comp ticket. That night, I bought Big Head Todd tickets at the box office….they sent a link to my phone I recently ordered War on Drugs tix online….no option for a hard ticket. The only recent exception was Brian Fallon….he had the option of a hard tickets  for a $2.50 mailing fee. I hate that hard tickets are going away. It’s the same bummer if you want to collect “significant” sports tickets….the hard tickets basically don’t exist.

petted101

Dinosaur Jr, next year, allowed me to purchase a souvenir ticket that will be posted after the show.

Wobbie

glad to hear.

don’t forget your earplugs! J plays LOUD!

eddiec

Yeah, I have pretty much every ticket stub for the concerts I've been to. 
I went to a Black Pumas show that was digital tickets, so I made a ticket on the computer and used my work printer. Came out really good, you wouldn't notice the difference. 

brianlux

I'm all for cutting back on paper waste but this is ridiculous!  Is this a way for them to save paper or just another way for promoters and venues to add a few more cents to their profits?  Or another way to make a buck selling "souvenir tickets"?  Not the biggest reason, but this is another reason I'm glad I don't go to shows anymore.

jerparker20

Ive been saving the wristbands from shows. Writing the perform name, venue name, and date. Not as cool as a ticket stub, but better than nothing.

eddiec

brianlux said:

I'm all for cutting back on paper waste but this is ridiculous!  Is this a way for them to save paper or just another way for promoters and venues to add a few more cents to their profits?  Or another way to make a buck selling "souvenir tickets"?  Not the biggest reason, but this is another reason I'm glad I don't go to shows anymore.

I think it cuts down on scalping as well.

GlowGirl

eddiec said:

Yeah, I have pretty much every ticket stub for the concerts I've been to. 
I went to a Black Pumas show that was digital tickets, so I made a ticket on the computer and used my work printer. Came out really good, you wouldn't notice the difference. 

I have been doing the same thing. I have hundreds of tickets stubs dating back to high school. I keep them all in a ticket album. The last few shows I bought tickets for didn’t even give me the option to have them mailed to me. So, I have been creating my own and printing them out. It is not the same though. I would pay extra for a commemorative ticket, but they are not offered at every show. 

F Me In The Brain

Same same, have a bag full of tickets 

BR2428

I scanned all my ticket stubs into my computer for safe keeping. If these new tickets were digital facsimiles of old school tickets, I’d be good with having that for my “collection” if I can’t get the real thing anymore. 

Zod

I have photo albums of all my stubs going back to about '92.  There's some missing because I didn't get OCD about it until later the 90s.   I'm really going to miss them.

Even before Covid it was getting super hard to get hard copies.    Most of the time there was a way, but there were a few I couldn't and just printed a screenshot of what I had or the digital ticket to put in the album.

We just bought ZZ Top/Cheap Trick tickets and usually the local venue has a will option, but not this time.   Could of gotten a digital ticket or print at home ticket.  Opted for print at home so I could put a copy in the album.

I appreciate the ease of digital tickets.  I use them to see movies all the time now.  It works pretty good, but for collecting and reliving your memories, it's a shame they're fading away.

tempo_n_groove

Flaming Lips actually had paper tix.  I was shocked.

static111

I miss hard tix for sure.  I also don't have a smart phone so that means printing out my barcodes on a full 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper..kind of wasteful

brianlux

Thankfully, I kept many of mine:

Wobbie

brianlux said:

Thankfully, I kept many of mine:

is that a book you wrote?

CarryTheZero

Smaller ticket vendors, like AXS, still allow for will call tickets. Just got a real ticket at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta for Drive-by Truckers.

ST66483

Highly recommend Brian’s book above - a good read.

helplessdancer

i'm ancient and have over 45 years of concert stubs. stored in collectible hockey card sheets, in 3 ring binders. 3 binders worth.

i am not happy with this new paperless ticket trend.

having my show ticket, on my phone, is a new low for me at live shows.

and i've also seen people pay for cigarettes with their f'n wrist watch !!    i hate what we've become     

static111

helplessdancer said:

i'm ancient and have over 45 years of concert stubs. stored in collectible hockey card sheets, in 3 ring binders. 3 binders worth.

i am not happy with this new paperless ticket trend.

having my show ticket, on my phone, is a new low for me at live shows.

and i've also seen people pay for cigarettes with their f'n wrist watch !!    i hate what we've become     

Yeah we are becoming mindless consumers with fewer tangible connections to reality or even our consumption in reality.  It is crazy.

josevolution

I loved the paper tickets collected about 400 of them 

HughFreakingDillon

i've started printing the ones from my apple wallet. they all look the same except for the band name, but it's something. 

brianlux

Wobbie said:

brianlux said:

Thankfully, I kept many of mine:

is that a book you wrote?

It is, copyright 2018, 258 pages.  Took a couple years to write it, six revisions, two major edits (thanks to my oh so patient wife!).  It's a bit frustrating though because there's so much more I want to add just from the last 3 years (but I did basically say at the end that the story never end until I do).

I still have a few copies on Biblio.com as per below.  The not-so-good news:  I ain't no Robert Christgau or Greil Marcus or Mick Wall, etc.
The good news:  the price is reasonable- each one cost me a little more to have published than the selling cost plus shipping, and each copy comes with a $1 million bill.   Neither Robert, Greil, nor Mick can make that claim.   

https://www.biblio.com/book/one-crowd-my-life-music-fan/d/1122978070

brianlux

ST66483 said:

Highly recommend Brian’s book above - a good read.

Thank you, ST.

Gibson

Wobbie said:

I recently saw the Rival Sons. The only way I could get a hard ticket was from a nice usher on my way out….she gave me a comp ticket. That night, I bought Big Head Todd tickets at the box office….they sent a link to my phone I recently ordered War on Drugs tix online….no option for a hard ticket. The only recent exception was Brian Fallon….he had the option of a hard tickets  for a $2.50 mailing fee. I hate that hard tickets are going away. It’s the same bummer if you want to collect “significant” sports tickets….the hard tickets basically don’t exist.

Keep your eyes peeled on the mail. I had this option for a show late last year (not Fallon) and the tickets never arrived. I had to call Ticketmaster and get them to switch over to e-tickets. 

I finally got a half assed explanation that even though the option for hard tickets was selectable, the venue and TM weren't doing hard tickets anymore.

I know its an easy adjustment to make, but anything involving ticketmaster support has been like pulling teeth lately.

CopperTom

I went to the World Series and have no stubs.  No commerative ticket option either.  I'm very disappointed. 

jjflash

I hear ya, @Wobbie! The hard tickets serve a similar purpose as a t-shirt, poster, button, etc....they're relics from the show, paper fingerprints that bookmark the moment. 

A few weeks ago I road tripped to Asheville to visit a college buddy and see Billy Strings play. Soon as I got to his house he pulled out a ziplock baggie stuffed with ticket stubs. We thumbed thru them, kinda like old baseball cards, at least half of them were from shows we'd seen together twenty+ years ago. The stubs brought back some great memories. 

Although it sometimes feels like frittering away money, I'll often pay the extra five bucks to get a hard ticket. It's a rare occasion that I go thru my old stubs...it's probably been ten years since the the last time...but it's a great walk down memory lane when it does happen. Plus I've been to so many shows thru the years that without the stubs there are some I'd probably forget, haha.

Malroth

CopperTom said:

I went to the World Series and have no stubs.  No commerative ticket option either.  I'm very disappointed. 

Yeah that hurts, no cubs world series stub.

I have a couple cork boards that I stick concert stubs on, but the print out tickets just aren't as cool.

kramer73

Check out Etsy.  There are some people who will make a ticket for you.  I’m going to do that for a concert in January for my ticket stub book.  

I will be honest, the first show I bought a ticket for earlier this year did not have a paper ticket, and I really almost didn’t get a ticket because there wasn’t a hard ticket.  

GlowGirl

kramer73 said:

Check out Etsy.  There are some people who will make a ticket for you.  I’m going to do that for a concert in January for my ticket stub book.  

I will be honest, the first show I bought a ticket for earlier this year did not have a paper ticket, and I really almost didn’t get a ticket because there wasn’t a hard ticket.  

Thanks. I may do that. This past year I wasn’t able to even have the option of a hard ticket for several shows I went to. There was no mail option. I found a template online that mimics a ticket. I just put in all of the information from the downloaded ticket. Then I print it out and put it in my ticket album. But it is not the same. The good thing is I have all the information on the fake ticket if I ever decide to get them made more properly. I will check out Etsy. Thanks. 

eeriepadave

eddiec said:

Yeah, I have pretty much every ticket stub for the concerts I've been to. 
I went to a Black Pumas show that was digital tickets, so I made a ticket on the computer and used my work printer. Came out really good, you wouldn't notice the difference. 

same here. have all of my hard tix except one which i lost at a concert (Static-x/PM5K). Sucks that it's going this way but I get it

kramer73

GlowGirl said:

kramer73 said:

Check out Etsy.  There are some people who will make a ticket for you.  I’m going to do that for a concert in January for my ticket stub book.  

I will be honest, the first show I bought a ticket for earlier this year did not have a paper ticket, and I really almost didn’t get a ticket because there wasn’t a hard ticket.  

Thanks. I may do that. This past year I wasn’t able to even have the option of a hard ticket for several shows I went to. There was no mail option. I found a template online that mimics a ticket. I just put in all of the information from the downloaded ticket. Then I print it out and put it in my ticket album. But it is not the same. The good thing is I have all the information on the fake ticket if I ever decide to get them made more properly. I will check out Etsy. Thanks. 

This is the one I plan on using.  They have their own name thing in it, but I’m ok with that.  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/877909753/custom-concert-ticket-fully-customizable?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=ticket+stub&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&frs=1&bes=1