The Fan Exchange scam

JZ280705 · August 2023

Notice how for Minnesota, a whole crop of tickets suddenly becomes available priced significant below the Premium tickets. Not only are people scammed into buying these tickets thinking the show is sold out, the Face Value Exchange meant to prevent scalping, prohibits you from selling your ticket any cheaper.

I’ve been a fan club member for several years, never once got a seat that was good. Unless you got your membership in the 90’s, it’s a waste. Ticketmaster’s price manipulation and monopoly on the ticket industry has to end. Pearl Jam’s efforts to get fans tickets at reasonable prices is admirable, but only works if you have been a fan club member for decades or don’t mind crappy seats.

P-Town-P-Jam-Fan · August 2023

If you're paying attention, they release tickets to every show day of and or a day or two before. Just wait to buy your tickets until they either A - release more tickets for face value, B - drop the price on the PJ Premium tickets to face value or C - buy the best available tickets listed for face value exchange at actual face value. If you buy PJ Premium tickets and you find out you cannot go a handful of days before the show, you are cooked because as you said, you can only list tickets for the price you paid. If you pay for premium and you have to try and re-sell at the premium price while ticketmaster is dropping face value seats at the same time, good luck.

JZ280705 · August 2023

P-Town-P-Jam-Fan said:

If you're paying attention, they release tickets to every show day of and or a day or two before. Just wait to buy your tickets until they either A - release more tickets for face value, B - drop the price on the PJ Premium tickets to face value or C - buy the best available tickets listed for face value exchange at actual face value. If you buy PJ Premium tickets and you find out you cannot go a handful of days before the show, you are cooked because as you said, you can only list tickets for the price you paid. If you pay for premium and you have to try and re-sell at the premium price while ticketmaster is dropping face value seats at the same time, good luck.

At the day, their PJ Premium tickets are priced so high, they wouldn’t be bought by scalpers, and legit buyers get screwed. They should just drop this system. Or just do it for fan club tickets.

gotthebottle · August 2023

This was worse than usual for St Paul 1.

Zod · August 2023

This is how platinum tickets work. When we were all younger the goal was for bands/promoters to blow out all their tickets immediately. No one wanted to be left holding the bag if a concert didn't sell out. As tickets were sold for less than market value, it crate the ripe environment for scalpers to exist and make money flipping the tickets.

It's different now as the goal switched from selling all the tickets right away, to maximizing the revenue. Platinum tickets work by withholding a bunch of tickets, and try to use demand based pricing. Trickle them out leading up to the show to get the maximum you can for the tickets.

The thing is if they don't sell enough of them, they're left holding a bunch of unsold tickets as the show approaches, so they blow them all out at face value or less.

There's some shows that are in such demand there isn't much left as the show approaches, but some shows the demand is less and there's a bunch.

I find this new system challenging because I have to travel to shows. So waiting until the last few days to buy tickets is really a hard thing to do

but yah.. I guess the moral of the story is don't buy platinum tickets, and only buy 10c tickets you intend to use?

Weston1283 · August 2023

Even if you could lower the price…. Tickets for tonight would be going for 20-30 bucks in the 300 levels, and they MIGHT sell at that

This is 2023. Tickets are down, merch is down, posters are down.

This isn’t the PJ we had 5-7 years ago. Everything is different now. This was seen many times during the 2022 tour and already in 2023.

It sucks if you can’t make it last minute, but even if you could adjust the price, you would likely be eating 50-80% of the ticket cost anyway

josevolution · August 2023

For me if I score tickets through 10C I go! Otherwise I don’t I’m done trying every way to get into a show.

OceansJenny · August 2023

Yes - love it when your can’t price your OWN tickets lower, but TM can drop their prices. And you can’t sell them outside of F2F.

More restrictions is not better.

Gern Blansten · August 2023

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021252/uploads/editor/4t/7et0xetlfsmm.png

This is Chicago Night 1, sec 121...the four tickets together in row 9 pricing is as follows

the two aisles tix are F2F at $638.42/each, the two next to them are PJ Premium at $406.40.

That's bullshit...I know they are aisle seats but for TM to sell those two and then dump the $406.40 is fucked up

The top rows are also PJ Premium...at $349 except for the very top row which are $292

Gern Blansten · August 2023

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021252/uploads/editor/h9/scskf9r58pd9.png

And the poor people that paid $925.15 for tix in Sec F Row G....with Sec C Premium tix going for the same price

JZ280705 · August 2023

At the end of the day, the only fans that win, are those that good good seats through the fan club. Been paying dues for 8 years and it’s been a waste. I was a member 20 years ago for a few years and quit for the same reason.

JZ280705 · August 2023

Weston1283 said:

It sucks if you can’t make it last minute, but even if you could adjust the price, you would likely be eating 50-80% of the ticket cost anyway

With the way these tickets are structured, it’s binary. Either get your money back or lose 100%. Last tour I bought two great seats for Fresno thinking I’d have no problem reselling if couldn’t go and lost $500. By showtime there was tons of tickets.

HailHailVitalogy · August 2023

For those saying the fan club is a waste. Our dues were $20-30 a year and now $35. I’d gladly continue to pay that to have the opportunity to get into MSG, or TD Garden or even just GA if they make that an only option again. Everything else is totally understandable. And I’d rather have people sell for a 70-80% loss so that the place is full. A casual fan isn’t dropping $162 to sit in the upper deck for their first PJ experience.

But yes, what TM is doing is utterly scamming people.

JZ280705 · August 2023

Zod said:

This is how platinum tickets work. When we were all younger the goal was for bands/promoters to blow out all their tickets immediately. No one wanted to be left holding the bag if a concert didn't sell out. As tickets were sold for less than market value, it crate the ripe environment for scalpers to exist and make money flipping the tickets.

It's different now as the goal switched from selling all the tickets right away, to maximizing the revenue. Platinum tickets work by withholding a bunch of tickets, and try to use demand based pricing. Trickle them out leading up to the show to get the maximum you can for the tickets.

The thing is if they don't sell enough of them, they're left holding a bunch of unsold tickets as the show approaches, so they blow them all out at face value or less.

There's some shows that are in such demand there isn't much left as the show approaches, but some shows the demand is less and there's a bunch.

I find this new system challenging because I have to travel to shows. So waiting until the last few days to buy tickets is really a hard thing to do

but yah.. I guess the moral of the story is don't buy platinum tickets, and only buy 10c tickets you intend to use?

I too travel for shows. Because the US is such a tough ticket, I went to Amsterdam last year and London 5 years ago, and Eddie’s voice caused last minute cancellations. I got to venue only to be told the show was cancelled for both cities. I live in NC and they cancelled a show here 7 years ago because the state wouldn’t allow guys to use girls bathrooms.

pjl44 · August 2023

As someone who has lost the lottery.more than once for a show I 100% would go to, I'm fully behind any policies that disincentivize "buy now, figure it out later"

JZ280705 · August 2023

HailHailVitalogy said:

For those saying the fan club is a waste. Our dues were $20-30 a year and now $35. I’d gladly continue to pay that to have the opportunity to get into MSG, or TD Garden or even just GA if they make that an only option again. Everything else is totally understandable. And I’d rather have people sell for a 70-80% loss so that the place is full. A casual fan isn’t dropping $162 to sit in the upper deck for their first PJ experience.

But yes, what TM is doing is utterly scamming people.

If you’re okay with sitting in bad seats then you are correct. But I’d rather not go than sit in terrible seats. The face value exchange is a joke. It’s not stopping price gauging. It’s giving Ticketmaster the monopoly to manipulate the prices. I’d rather PJ do market pricing without the platinum bullshit, and give 10cc more options on the presale. MSG is the only venue where seats behind the stage sell for $1000 on resale. I lived in NYC and would fly to other cities to see shows because prices are just ridiculous.

HailHailVitalogy · August 2023

JZ280705 said:

HailHailVitalogy said:

For those saying the fan club is a waste. Our dues were $20-30 a year and now $35. I’d gladly continue to pay that to have the opportunity to get into MSG, or TD Garden or even just GA if they make that an only option again. Everything else is totally understandable. And I’d rather have people sell for a 70-80% loss so that the place is full. A casual fan isn’t dropping $162 to sit in the upper deck for their first PJ experience.

But yes, what TM is doing is utterly scamming people.

If you’re okay with sitting in bad seats then you are correct. But I’d rather not go than sit in terrible seats. The face value exchange is a joke. It’s not stopping price gauging. It’s giving Ticketmaster the monopoly to manipulate the prices. I’d rather PJ do market pricing without the platinum bullshit, and give 10cc more options on the presale. MSG is the only venue where seats behind the stage sell for $1000 on resale. I lived in NYC and would fly to other cities to see shows because prices are just ridiculous.

Personally I would have been happy in any seat at MSG last year that wasn’t the bridge seats or 400s behind the stage. I ended up winning GA. I’m just saying the membership fee is worth it just for the chance to get into that particular building.

Bentleyspop · August 2023

Keep in mind that none of the ticket selling or pricing happens in a vacuum.
Band and band management are well aware from the beginning and have signed off on it.
Not a scam if you know it's happening and you play along.

JimmyV · August 2023

Bentleyspop said:

Keep in mind that none of the ticket selling or pricing happens in a vacuum.
Band and band management are well aware from the beginning and have signed off on it.
Not a scam if you know it's happening and you play along.

Yep.

BF25394 · August 2023

JZ280705 said:

I live in NC and they cancelled a show here 7 years ago because the state wouldn’t allow transgender women to use girls bathrooms.

Fixed this for you.

Zod · August 2023

I do wonder. How much extra revenue do they get from the platinum tickets. It's pretty clear they aren't selling all of them at above face. How much could it could possibly add to the regular ticket prices, if they took that amount of money, divided it by 16,000, and added it to all the other tickets?

I think I'd rather pay $20 more per ticket, then deal with platinum thing.

I suppose at a minimum we should start a "Petition to allow fan2fan to sell tickets below face value" thread. Not sure if TM/Pearl Jam would do it, as it could result in them holding the bag on unsold tickets.

In regards to fan2fan, I really don't like how it's made fan club tickets disposable. It's made it so easy for fans to buy tickets, see they aren't good, then try to dump them again, but it pushes everyones tickets further back that actually do use their tickets. It also allows non 10c'ers access to 10c tickets. Like your almost better off not using 10c, and sniping fan2fan tickets or unsold platinum tickets (if you can gamble with the travel aspect of it).

The Fan Exchange scam

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