INSANE Ticket Prices

[the masked drummer]

It bothers me the innocent people like Tick may be unable to go to this show. The skyrocketing ticket prices just don't coincide with current economic conditions. If there was something I could do about it I would, but my standard of living has dropped significantly like many others and it's getting harder and harder to justify being able to go to a show these days. Maybe I'm old and should shut up, but I thought we were here to discuss things. I try to be positive when I can, but at least I tell what I feel is the truth...

 

[the masked drummer]

Interesting point, Countfloyd.

[CountFloyd]

Scalpers have always been a pia. I remember having to campout on sidewalks (this dates me lol) to get the good seats before the scalpers did.

 

The scalpers found a way around that. They hired homeless people to stand in the lines and get there before fans.

 

Now the scalpers are having a ball again.

 

There are obscure anti scalper laws that were set up in the 80s I believe in Texas that had some impact.

 

But now, those laws are obsolete.

 

I doubt that even if the government enacted law to make it illegal to sell tickets above face value it would not stop scalping.

 

 

[the masked drummer]

QUOTE (CountFloyd @ Apr 14 2010, 11:38 AM)

Scalpers have always been a pia. I remember having to campout on sidewalks (this dates me lol) to get the good seats before the scalpers did. The scalpers found a way around that. They hired homeless people to stand in the lines and get there before fans. Now the scalpers are having a ball again. There are obscure anti scalper laws that were set up in the 80s I believe in Texas that had some impact. But now, those laws are obsolete. I doubt that even if the government enacted law to make it illegal to sell tickets above face value it would not stop scalping.

Funny... I used to meet a guy in a hidden office at the back of a service station where I would pay top dollar to get great tickets. That was back before the internet. The racket sure has changed a bit since then...

[tangy]

QUOTE (the masked drummer @ Apr 14 2010, 11:48 AM)

QUOTE (CountFloyd @ Apr 14 2010, 11:38 AM) Scalpers have always been a pia. I remember having to campout on sidewalks (this dates me lol) to get the good seats before the scalpers did. The scalpers found a way around that. They hired homeless people to stand in the lines and get there before fans. Now the scalpers are having a ball again. There are obscure anti scalper laws that were set up in the 80s I believe in Texas that had some impact. But now, those laws are obsolete. I doubt that even if the government enacted law to make it illegal to sell tickets above face value it would not stop scalping. Funny... I used to meet a guy in a hidden office at the back of a service station where I would pay top dollar to get great tickets. That was back before the internet. The racket sure has changed a bit since then... there was recently a huge scalper bust. google up wiseguy scalpers.   heres an article about them.   $25m scalp 'scam'   By CHUCK BENNETT   Last Updated: 9:04 AM, March 2, 2010   Posted: 3:49 AM, March 2, 2010   A gang of scalpers pulled off one of the world's biggest ticket scams by hacking into Ticketmaster and other Web sites to corner the market on sellout events from Yankee playoffs to Bruce Springsteen concerts, federal authorities said yesterday.   Wiseguys Tickets made more than $25 million by hiring freelance Bulgarian hackers to cut in front of other buyers on Ticketmaster and other sites to purchase thousands of tickets for prime seats, authorities said.   The California-based company then resold them to legitimate brokers at markups exceeding $1,000, or more than 25 percent over face value, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday in Newark federal court.   A total of 1.5 million tickets were bought unlawfully by Wiseguys and resold, authorities said.   "[We] pigged out, there were tons of seats listed," one of the hackers boasted in an internal e-mail quoted in the indictment.   To prevent widespread scalping, Ticketmaster and other sites limit the number of tickets that can be bought at once.   But the Bulgarians created programs called "bots" that duped the Web services into selling thousands of tickets at once for events, including the 2007 Yankee playoffs, the 2008 US Open, the Broadway show "Wicked," and concerts by Billy Joel, Bon Jovi and Hannah Montana.   "These defendants gamed the system," said New Jersey US Attorney Paul Fishman. "The public thought it had a fair shot at getting tickets to these events, but what the public didn't know was that the defendants had cheated them out of that opportunity."   Kenneth "Money" Lowson, 40, Kristopher Kirsch, 37, Joel Stevenson, 37, and Faisal Nahdi, 36, all of California, were slapped with multiple wire-fraud charges for unauthorized entry to the computer systems of Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, MLB.com, MusicToday and others.   They face up to 25 years in prison.   To hack into Ticketmaster, the Bulgarians first duped Facebook into revealing its security system, authorities said. Ticketmaster and Facebook use the same security system, CAPTCHA, to keep bots out of their sites.   CAPTCHA requires a Web-site user to decipher distorted text, normally unreadable by bots, and type it in.   But the Wiseguys' bots were able to read the text and bypass the security mechanism.   Fishman said Wiseguys bought a total of 1.5 million tickets.   The bots purchased 11,728 tickets to Springsteen's 2008 summer tour worth $1,284,000, including 1,497 for the three-day Giants Stadium run.   The year before, it grabbed 290 tickets to Game 2 of the Yankee playoff against the Cleveland Indians. It scored 368 to Game 3.   That same year, Wiseguys snagged 11,984 Hannah Montana tickets, including $24,000 worth of seats for Dec. 29 and 30 concerts at the Prudential Center in Newark.   Lowson, the alleged ringleader, was held on a $1 million bond. Nahdi is currently in Indonesia and was expected to surrender, the US Attorney's Office said.   In 2008 alone, Wiseguys made a $5.4 million profit off 160,000 illegally bought tickets. The year before, its bots purchased 700,000 tickets for $50 million, and Wiseguys cleared a $9.2 million profit.   The scam had been in operation since 2002, authorities said.   "People have been trying to hack into the system since when I first was CEO in the mid-'80s," said former Ticketmaster boss Frederic Rosen. "It shows how valuable the tickets are, how they are not priced properly."     http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/scal...ztIouyWqF9kjLLM   not a fan of the post but the article had more info than others i saw.

[the masked drummer]

Whoa!! If only they hadn't been caught. Great scam.... A+++ lol

[Tick]

QUOTE (CountFloyd @ Apr 14 2010, 12:01 PM)

Hypothetical Quote: "WTF, fans are buying tickets from StubHub and other scalpers for INSANE prices" "As they are willing to pay, lets try to cut the scalpers out and have the money go to the band and promoter instead of the scalpers". Times have changed . . . . people sit at home and purchase tickets from venues all over the US for the sole purpose of consigning them to scalpers to make money. I believe . . . . . the purpose of the pre sales and semi surprise pre-pre sales is to give the fans a way to pay about 1/2 of what these tickets would sell for on Stub Hub etc. Unless we go back to standing in lines and do away with internet sales this is not going to change.

Newsflash. There has always been an abundance of scalpers! The internet just makes things more convenient for them.

[FlyByNight]

 

Hey There Fellow Rush Heads ,

EVERYWHERE I have been to see The Boys In the past 10 years I've seen these ticket prices of $150 + a seat AND MORE! Nothing really new and I know that YOU ALL know ...Its' going to be worth EVERY penny of the cash any of us put out.

I also think the venues costs (and our recession) are a huge part of the basic increase of the ticket prices. PLUS , remember the Boys (Rush) are involved with their human rights museum and other "social' philanthropy goings on, so you can look at it as all you're spending on a night (or 3 as I am) for your entertainment and pure pleasure as a way of helping out the world at large too!!!

See , I always find the silver lining in everything!!!!

I tend to look at the the cars go by ....... I CAN NOT WAIT.!! OMG!

YEAH!

and as always .....

FOREVER !!! RUSH !! 2112 and beyond !

[CountFloyd]

QUOTE (FlyByNight @ Apr 14 2010, 01:25 PM)

Hey There Fellow Rush Heads ,                                   EVERYWHERE I  have been to see The Boys In the past 10 years I've seen these ticket prices of $150 + a seat AND MORE! Nothing really new and I know that YOU ALL  know ...Its' going to be worth EVERY penny of the  cash any of us put out.                               I also think the venues costs (and our recession) are a huge part of the basic increase of the ticket prices.  PLUS , remember the Boys (Rush) are involved with their human rights museum and other "social' philanthropy goings on, so you can look at it as all you're spending on a night (or 3 as I am) for your entertainment and pure pleasure as a way of helping out the world at large too!!!                           See , I always find the silver lining in everything!!!! I tend to look at the  the cars go by ....... I CAN NOT WAIT.!! OMG!                             YEAH! and as always .....     FOREVER !!!  RUSH !!  2112 and beyond !

QUOTE

Hey There Fellow Rush Heads , EVERYWHERE I have been to see The Boys In the past 10 years I've seen these ticket prices of $150 + a seat AND MORE! Nothing really new and I know that YOU ALL know ...Its' going to be worth EVERY penny of the cash any of us put out. I also think the venues costs (and our recession) are a huge part of the basic increase of the ticket prices. PLUS , remember the Boys (Rush) are involved with their human rights museum and other "social' philanthropy goings on, so you can look at it as all you're spending on a night (or 3 as I am) for your entertainment and pure pleasure as a way of helping out the world at large too!!! See , I always find the silver lining in everything!!!! I tend to look at the the cars go by ....... I CAN NOT WAIT.!! OMG! YEAH! and as always ..... FOREVER !!! RUSH !! 2112 and beyond !

 

Agreed.

 

There are a few bands that I am willing to pay a lot of money to see, and RUSH is #1

 

I am not a big U2 fan, and bought cheap tics. As I dissapointedly watched the show I was glad that I was not in one of the $1k seats.

 

IMHO, 325 or so for a vip seat vs 1K for U2 is a better price for a better band.

Edited April 14, 2010 by CountFloyd