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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
he'd give us hundreds of dollars -- sometimes a thousand -- in cash, and we'd fan out to remote ticket outlets and sleep on the pavement to be first in line when they opened. he had specific sections he wanted -- main floor if it was a concert, courtside if it was a game, and so on. i'll never forget how strangely disappointed with me this one guy was, a genuine fan who was also sleeping outside to get rolling stone tickets, to sort of discover the next morning (when i started peeling off hundreds and asking about blocks of seats) that i probably wasn't a fan like he was.
the scalper i worked for was sleazy, sure, but he paid us several hundred dollars per gig and there was a kind of honor about the thing -- i mean, we had to physically be out there in the cold, waiting -- if not honesty. any fan who wanted to could and did sleep out there, too, waiting. it's not something i'm terribly proud of, and i didn't do it for long, although it makes a good story. but -- this whole thing with computers hacking into systems and tricking ticketmaster takes the weaseliness of scalping to a whole new level.
the computer thing ought to and probably can be fixed somehow, but scalpers will always find a way to eat up any number of tickets to giant events like this. it's probably been happening since ancient rome, when some senator sold seats in his private section to rich merchants who wanted to see the christians get eaten.
You in effect answered your own question:
Still, it would trip them up, especially if Ticketmaster imposes the plan across all acts. Are the scalpers going to hire Bruce Springsteen expert, a Justin Timberlake expert, and a Genesis expert, too?
The answer is "Yes." If I recall correctly, tickets to a Stones concert are in the triple digits. The scalper can pay some burn out rocker teen who is obsessed with the band just enough to supply him with a couple of weeks worth of weed, and make a killing. There's just too much money to be made in scalping tickets for big acts. The upside is that with your idea in place scalper's would abandon low-price acts like "Hannah-Montana."
I'm sorry? Who is this person? They are a musician? Their work is that transcendent that it creates this enormous demand? Geeez.... I must not be paying attention. Why, a new Mozart may be in our midst, and I don't even know about it.
While scalpers suck, I don't agree with the idea that Ticketmaster should just raise their prices to scalper level, because the scalpers will always charge more, until demand meets supply anyway. Plus scalpers never get all of the tickets, so there are plenty of people who are able to pay face value for an event who wouldn't be able to afford 200 dollar concert tickets.
It's just one of those greedy unfair practices that will always be around because lots of people like making money doing nearly nothing and there is really no way to stop them, plus why should I a fan have to be a gossip freak or research everything about the band or singer to be able to buy tickets, I should be able to see any show I want if I can afford tickets, not because I know what the lead singers name is or when it's their birthday.
One problem with the proposed solution is that it would keep me from surprising my nieces with tickets to a Montana show. If I know next to nothing about an artist but I want to buy tickets for someone, what recourse do I have? And if there is some way for me to overcome the so-called security feature, why wouldn't it be available to scalpers?
Hi there!
I think the idea is unique, but it's seriously a great idea. Take it from someone who was super excited when I found out Miley Cyrus tickets were 60$ or so. Only to get up that morning, sign on, at 3 after ten...and realize they were sold out. It was supposed to be a HUGE suprise for my 6 year old daughter. Miley's first concert tour & with the Jonas Brothers!!! How excited she would be. So, I go online to search for tickets. And yes, I ended up paying $190 per ticket. It's crazy, but I paid it. But, if they went with your idea...I or my daughter could answer just about any question about Miley Cyrus, her history, her show, or her music. So, we definetly would've been able to make it though to buy tickets at regular price.
Love your idea!!!
I overpaid in Indiana
Dear Farhad Manjoo,
I understand you are supposed to be some sort of "technology" writer. If I may, please let me introduce you to the ginormous flaw in your little scheme. It is a tiny upstart company, so it isn't surprising that you may not have heard of it. It is called Google.
Weird name, no? It is called a "search engine" and people can use it to search for all kinds of information on the web, getting results quickly. Letting them do things like oh, I don't know, answer quiz questions about things they know nothing about. There's another site that might help answer these too, it is called Wikipedia.
I know! Where are they coming up with these names? Strange as it may seem, this site thinks it is an encyclopedia and contains tons of information about things that'd never be in "real" encyclopedias. I'm sure this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Montana couldn't possibly contain the kind of information you're thinking of for your quiz though.
Of course, if neither of those work, you've got your old-fashioned "spiders". These are tools people write that go out and scan web pages looking for keywords, kind of like search engines, but more specialized.
I guess they could hire "experts" too, but that seems like a wast of $ when these other tools are available, no?
There's one more flaw in your wacky scheme. Do you really only want to get to go to concerts where you've obsessively memorized strange facts about the act in question? What if a friend plays you a song by a band like The Epoxies and you decide you really like them and hey, look! They're coming to town. Aw, since you don't know who Roxy's 5th grade teacher dated in 1984 you don't get to go.
Also, now you can't get concert tickets for a friend or relative as a present. How much study does a parent need to do to get tickets so their little girl can go see the Cheetah Girls? Assuming, of course that you manage to pick questions that can't be answered using web resources.
And you're overlooking the biggest problem in the pack: Ticketmaster. Friends of mine and I want to go to see a local band here in Boston. I know almost nothing about them, except I've heard a couple songs. Tickets are $13 a piece. How much total if I get 3 through Ticketmaster? $55. That's right, there's a 41% surcharge per ticket and that's without involving scalpers. Sure, that's a far cry from a 400% increase, but it is hardly reasonable. Ticketmaster's only upset 'cause they can't charge those prices themselves.
We're going to just buy tickets at the door.
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