Perhaps, a stern look and a motherly "You've been a very naughty boy/girl. Don't do it again" should suffice

Ebay should definatly ban selling tickets...either that or ban the selling of them at a higher price

So if there's no money to be made, that would mean there's no incentive to re-sell tickets, which would put an end to the sale of tickets for profit, while still allowing those who suddenly realise they can't go to the gig to sell their tickets. I like it...

I would seem like the obvious solution, I wonder why this doesn't already happen?? Could it be because ebay would lose out on so much money from final value fees?? Surely not!

Plus, it would be hell to police. Who provides proof of the face value of the ticket? Can they be trusted?

That info's in the public domain though. And ticket agencies already make money out of selling tickets, maybe £4 "service charge" plus a couple of quid for "postage", that's not a problem and if people wanted to sell genuinely unwanted tickets for face value plus a fiver for their trouble that wouldn't be a problem either. But face value plus a hundred quid for their trouble is not on.
Last edited by Inkblot : 09-06-2006 at 18:21

That's right - and it's those people who deliberately set out to add a few hundred pounds on top that need to be stopped. I don't think anybody has a problem with genuine fans reselling their tickets at face value and reasonable postage costs, it's just the money-hungry touts who make their living by conning people. They're the ones that need to be stopped - and sooner rather than later!

There's a simple way of stopping touting dead in it's tracks. I have even spoken to Harvey Goldsmith's office with these idea's after getting pissed off with this happening.

1 - Tickets must be purchased at the venue using a credit card only. What happens is touts pay schoolkids or local scally's to stand in line all night, and they all buy the maximum allocation allowed with cash. If it was credit cards only, you wouldn't have bus loads of kids standing in line. This happens with all major gigs, I have even seen these scumbags handing out packed lunches before.

2 - When the card is purchased, the card holders name must be printed on all tickets.

3 - When entering the gig, you must have proof of I.D. - this must match the name of the person who is on the ticket. Obviously If there is a group of you, the original named buyer on the ticket must be present. If, for example a mother buys her daughter and friend a ticket, the ticket agency must put the daughters name on the ticket.

4 - The best seats available, when sold, can only be picked up with the card holder present on the day of the gig. This way people wouldn't be able to buy tickets with the sole intention of selling them. If you have a front row seat, you will not be bothered about having to pick it up on the day.

There are holes in these ideas, but there are ways to make touting very difficult, if the will is there....

I like those ideas - and they're a great start if nothing else! We just need the relevant people to listen, make the necessary changes and take these lowlife touts on!

There is much hype about ticket touts. In some ways I think the organizers like it as 'bigs up their events. Otherwise they would take it more seriously. Why are so many tickets allowed to be sent to the same address?

To start with all tickets should be 'named'

It would be interesting to know what would happen if all tickets had to be purchased on a visa card. Then when you enter the gig you show the card the ticket has been brought with. And if they where brought as gifts the name of the card holder and who is using it should be on the ticket then, in that case another form of ID would have to be taken.

If you wanted to pay by cash you could 'buy' a visa type card which could work like an oyster card.

This of course will not happen as all the promoters want themselves is a quick buck

They did a similar operation to the above for the Springsteen gigs at the Albert Hall last year. There were no sales to personal callers,they were only available by phone and internet. You were only allowed two tickets per person and had to show the card used to book. If the ticket/s were for someone else they had to have a signed letter of authority from the cardholder with a photocopy of both sides of the card.

I think that's another great idea. I'm surprised that with the amount of touting that happens these days and the coverage this subject gets, someone hasn't done something to stop it! I feel naming the tickets would be a very good way to start, as would providing proof of the card used to pay for them.

I think tickets should only be sold via the telephone or internet as this would limit, if not completely eradicate the touts being able to get hold of any tickets and then resell them. Why the people who can do this don't is beyond me. Sadly, it does all seem about making money quickly.

NME are doing a 'ban touts' campaign. It's getting quite a following.

This is even more annoying to hear! Surely this proves that some simple, yet effective methods can be introduced to stop touts buying tickets in bulk for a profit! If they did this at the Springsteen concert, why can't they do this again with the other events in this country?!

Do you have a link to this as it sounds very good - and just the sort of thing somebody needs to start! I wonder how they're running it - is there some kind of petition you can sign or something?

There is one easy way to stop touts selling tickets on Ebay...DON'T BUY THEM!!!!
If nobody showed an interest in them then these cretins wouldn't bother....

Cretins, hang them, scum etc etc. All these people are doing is selling tickets. You dont want them, DONT BUY THEM!! What is so hard to fathom here? If you dont buy them the sellers will vanish and then you have won!!

They buy tickets for the sole purpose of selling them and making a profit, that is life. Any business works in the exact same way. This is called making money, its pretty logical if you think about it.

We have this conversation on a regular basis, dont type the tickets into the Ebay site and search for them then you wont even have to think about it.

I don't agree and I'm sure many others won't either. We should not be turning a blind eye to this practice in the hope that it goes away, we should be campaigning for it to be outlawed. It's very simple: as things stand, a small number of people make money by exploiting a larger number of people. If you're one of the larger number, it's in your interest to stop the smaller number ripping you off. And let's not pretend that it's "logical" for the market to operate in this way - it operates in this way because the rip-off merchants have set it up to make them the most money at other people's expense.

The point of having this conversation is to raise awareness of the problem. Slowly, promoters and authorised ticket sellers are implementing ways to prevent touts making money at fans' expense. The new barcodes by mobile phone system may have a significant effect on the problem. But just ignoring it won't change anything.

This would be sensible - except tickets are normally sold as non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
The first step here would be to make tickets refundable so that people who cannot go for a genuine reason can get a refund (so long as the original vendor is able to resell it ).
When there is a reliable route set up for genuine need, then ban all tickets sales elsewhere to stop the touts.

What about if there was an alternative site to ebay set up, purely for gig tickets to be resold at face value only, plus say £5 to cover postage, expenses etc? Then true fanc sould ensure other true fans got the unwanted tickets, & could eventually force these touts out of business, as it seems the associated parties are not going to do anything bout this!

Only problem being who would run it & who would enforce the prices??

That's a great idea! You could call it Scarlet Mist!

jack
Last edited by Sven945 : 11-06-2006 at 12:24

Well I can honestly say I have never heard of that site!!! Its a good idea though, shame its not well known!

I bought tickets for Ben Folds in Glasgow last year....paid over £90 for pair as it was a sell out gig,but when we went to the concert tickets were on sale at about £18 each at the door,and there was a few empty rows in the hall!It seems that the concert was a rescheduled date, and a few people got their money back.....so there was a few tickets at the door!......thats what happens when you get caught up in a bidding frenzy.

I know I shouldn't give them the oxygen of publicity but the creeps are at it again. Bought some tickets for a gig in November last week, it's all but sold out already and sure enough, before the tickets have even been printed there are scamsters at work selling them on eBay. They obviously had no intention of going to the gig, did they?

Why do you insist on typing in these sort of tickets on Ebay? Are you always looking for something to moan about or have you really nothing better to do? You say you already have tickets for this gig so why bother? Get a hobby or something.

If there was no market for these tickets then they would not be sold on Ebay. There is and therefore there is a supply and demand issue. The argument is getting tedious now.