Ticketmaster Fan Manipulation

JZ280705
JZ280705 Posts: 87
in The Porch
Anyone notice how better “sold out” seats (no resale) pop up cheaper than tickets that were on sale days before?  Except this “fan exchange” doesn’t even let you sell for less than what you paid to mitigate your loss.  How is that even legal?

Pearl Jam has done no service for its fans with this system.  They prevent people from buying and reselling at a profit, but the rest of Ticketmaster’s price manipulation and games on showing seats as sold only to release them later penalizing the fans that bought early in place.
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Comments

  • mr bungle
    mr bungle Posts: 1,426
    yeah its fucked up!  I just pulled the trigger on Mccartney tix for this Monday in Seattle for 299 "standard admission".  I had been scouting for weeks.  Tix in this section had been "platinum" and going for 800-900  until now.  Saved about a thousand bucks by just being patient.  Platinum and primium is a total scam.  This strategy has worked for me for other big shows like U2, Stones, Tool.
  • PJammer4life
    PJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,673
    I’ve noticed 4 days before the show is the sweet spot for pricing. This is the new F5 game.
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  • Zod
    Zod Posts: 10,982
    Yah, this happened on the EV tour.   They held so many back for platinum, that by the time you got within a few weeks of the show the platinums were uncutting regular priced tickets.   If you bought platinum tickets and can't go, there's almost no way to get rid of them (not even at a loss).

    It feels like the fan2fan and platinum don't gel well at all together.   Not sure if that's intentional as PJ is really the only band I've seen try to lockdown resells to face, but it's a nasty combo for fans.
  • SHZA
    SHZA St. Louis, MO USA Posts: 4,315
    Prohibiting scalping is one thing, but I can't see how preventing resale for lower than face is good for the fans. 
  • opsopcopolis
    opsopcopolis Posts: 1,214
    Zod said:
    If you bought platinum tickets and can't go, there's almost no way to get rid of them (not even at a loss).
    Yep, but it's really just a lesson that you should never buy artificially inflated tickets. It's just sanctioned scalping
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  • burnsy6
    burnsy6 Posts: 40
    SHZA said:
    Prohibiting scalping is one thing, but I can't see how preventing resale for lower than face is good for the fans. 
    It's not. It removes seller competition by allowing the promoter/artist to adjust according to market rate but forces the fan to keep a high price for their ticket which almost assures that the promoter/artist tickets will sell first.
  • JimmyV
    JimmyV Boston's MetroWest Posts: 19,615
    Feels like something that was negotiated in good faith by band management only to have Ticketmaster identity and take advantage of its flaw. 
    ___________________________________________

    "...I changed by not changing at all..."
  • patkelly12
    patkelly12 CT Posts: 361
    Ticket limit prices are set by the artist according to TM.
  • ClownofThorns
    ClownofThorns Posts: 165
    I'm not defending the system in place, but if the goal is "don't buy tickets for shows you can't attend," they're making progress. 
  • on2legs
    on2legs Posts: 16,113
    ClownofThorns said:
    I'm not defending the system in place, but if the goal is "don't buy tickets for shows you can't attend," they're making progress. 
    Agreed on this. 
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  • Zod
    Zod Posts: 10,982
    opsopcopolis said:
    Zod said:
    If you bought platinum tickets and can't go, there's almost no way to get rid of them (not even at a loss).
    Yep, but it's really just a lesson that you should never buy artificially inflated tickets. It's just sanctioned scalping

    It's not scalping.  Scalping is buying a thing, then reselling the thing for a lot more money.   Selling your own thing you created for a higher price, is just charging more for your thing.

    I also wouldn't say don't buy inflated tickets.  I would say don't buy inflated tickets to shows with lower demand, and don't buy them right away.   The goal of the system isn't to sell all the plat. tickets right away, it's to spread it out so they're always available.    From what we're seeing on both the EV and PJ tours is patience pays off (which sucks if you need to plan things like days off work, flights, hotels etc..).

    Hopefully PJ learns from the unintended consequences of running fan2fan at the same time as platinum.   Not sure if they will, or how much they pay attention to the details.
  • Lerxst1992
    Lerxst1992 Posts: 8,573
    Cmon, how is live nation supposed to recover their investment for some of these lesser selling shows?
  • JZ280705
    JZ280705 Posts: 87
    I normally don’t buy Platinum but I assumed since PJ was changing the rules to prevent guaging, the game of playing with prices and releasing better seats at lower prices was off the table.  Ticketmaster is the shiftiest company there is.  They need to be broken up.  Check out John Oliver’s bit on them.

    https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY
  • JZ280705
    JZ280705 Posts: 87
    mr bungle said:
    yeah its fucked up!  I just pulled the trigger on Mccartney tix for this Monday in Seattle for 299 "standard admission".  I had been scouting for weeks.  Tix in this section had been "platinum" and going for 800-900  until now.  Saved about a thousand bucks by just being patient.  Platinum and primium is a total scam.  This strategy has worked for me for other big shows like U2, Stones, Tool.
    Yep - I’m sure it helps them curtail resellers but it also alienates those who paid what was available believing that was the only choice, only to see not only better but cheaper tickets materialize the next day.  
  • candleofthought
    candleofthought Posts: 903
    Eddie Trunk has said for years that Concert Tickets through Ticketmaster are like "airline pricing". If the demand is high, tickets go up. On the flip side, you can save a ton of money playing the system and waiting till the day of the show and scoop up great seats at a discounted price. Last summer I saw The Black Crows. I paid $40 bucks a ticket and sat in the 12th row.
    There's alot to be said for Nowhere
  • halv
    halv Posts: 716
    SHZA said:
    Prohibiting scalping is one thing, but I can't see how preventing resale for lower than face is good for the fans. 
    This happened to me with Ohana last year. Show was sold out (before encore weekend announced) and they wouldn't allow me to list for less than the face value price I paid. 
  • Gravey1975
    Gravey1975 Posts: 342
    I can understand that they prevent you from selling for more than face value, but not letting you sell at a discount is fucked up. Is that just a US rule? I've not heard of that over in the UK/Europe.
  • Zod
    Zod Posts: 10,982
    Gravey1975 said:
    I can understand that they prevent you from selling for more than face value, but not letting you sell at a discount is fucked up. Is that just a US rule? I've not heard of that over in the UK/Europe.

    I think it's form lack of imagination.   As far as I know PJ was the only band that ever request to have a face value exchange.   So TM made it, which is just they're regular resale platform locked to the original ticket prices, and it doesn't charge extra fees.   PJ probably never thought there would be a reason their fans would need to take a hit on tickets, and ergo no one thought to make it so tickets could be sold for less.
  • JE224127
    JE224127 Fairhope, AL Posts: 556
    This happened to me with my tickets to TPC Sawgrass. I just wanted to resell for what I put into them. I got an error message that I had to list them for more than face. I did the bare minimum and when I acted like I was purchasing tix again, of course the standard TM tix were less than mine-frustrating. Luckily I could transfer these particular ones so I sold them on Craigslist. Definitely not cool on TM’s part. 
  • Sarava
    Sarava Naperville, IL Posts: 2,071
    I'm really not a fan of all these changes compared to what it was a few tours ago. Before they locked down the lower bowl from resale because they were mostly 10 club seats, and that was great. Now they've locked down the entire arena.

    As a result, if you miss out in the initial sale, and you're at a show somewhat in demand like Nashville - you're screwed. Unless you're willing to drop $1800 for a pair of mediocre seats, which just about none of us can do.

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