I'd say don't trust anything that transfers digital tickets without any sort of guarantee, like via credit card or PayPal. I seem to recall reading that a lot of these online scammers get cagey about those kinds of payment methods and steer you toward methods like Venmo, where they can do some sort of reverse charge. I think?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 14:39 (one year ago) link
yeah they want me to use CashApp or Zelle, which I don't even have. PayPal they are pointing me towards "family and friends" which I think is the one you can't charge back. also I believe this is a 300 person venue so it seems very unlikely these are legit. think I'll just take my chances outside the venue. or maybe just sneak in somehow. there's like 10 tickets on Stubhub which after fees will be $160-200 apiece and I'll bet anything not a single one of those is gonna sell.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 14:52 (one year ago) link
Don't do any CashApp. You will never see that money again if you get scammed.
Venmo or PayPal under goods and services only
― the manwich horror (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 24 May 2023 16:46 (one year ago) link
well guess what. I called the box office and they had a few tickets left. even though online they said they were sold out. $44 for the 2, as opposed to $350 after fees on Stubhub. I guess the old fashioned method of "just call them and see if they can help" actually works sometimes.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:27 (one year ago) link
Unfortunately the Junk Fee Prevention Act lacks input from musicians, and it shows. It contains provisions around “holdback transparency” that have nothing to do with fees but would be a giveaway to predatory bulk resellers; not a single musician organization supports it. https://t.co/ZXMHu4Qoiq— Future of Music Coalition (@future_of_music) June 15, 2023
― curmudgeon, Friday, 16 June 2023 13:29 (eleven months ago) link
Ticketmaster's "concession" (announced 5 months ago but reiterated yesterday) to disclose their junk fees up front is an effort to stave off antitrust enforcement, writes @lukewgoldstein in today's BASED.https://t.co/LFIGGgix6U— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 16, 2023
― curmudgeon, Friday, 16 June 2023 13:31 (eleven months ago) link
lol what a toothless resolution.
what a joke
― the manwich horror (Neanderthal), Friday, 16 June 2023 13:46 (eleven months ago) link
It's total bullshit and not at all transparent. As far as I can tell, only Tickpick and Stubhub on secondary show all-in prices, which at least gives you an idea of what you are in for before you start jumping through hoops, but Ticketmaster's model and operation is so fucked up I can only assume it's on purpose. To what end, I don't know. I tried to buy last minute Cure tickets last week, and the entire time I felt like I was pointlessly battling bots designed to beat me to the prize. Like, why should someone else be able to snag tickets that I literally have in my shopping cart, as I attempt to check out? Because that's what kept happening, in the rare instances when I even made it through the tech morass and was able to even try. And then a few minutes later those same tickets would be live on the site again. Very Lucy with the football.
Pricing is one thing, but the entire process has become such a stressful, joyless headache. Sure, I'm getting older, and I've been lucky enough to see so many shows over the years for free. But the excitement of even favorite acts hitting the road immediately fades knowing what it will take to even get a shot at tickets, let alone how much they will cost. I just count my blessings that I've seen everyone before and try not to think that I'll likely never see some of them again.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 16 June 2023 14:12 (eleven months ago) link
Informative deep-dive on how scalpers exploit the "Verified Fan" ticketing system: https://www.404media.co/why-scalpers-can-get-olivia-rodrigo-tickets-and-fans-cannot/
― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp), Thursday, 21 September 2023 21:25 (eight months ago) link
Wow, informative article about how scalpers do it.
Multiple accounts and browsers and more
The problem with this is that normal people have one Ticketmaster account tied to one email address and can therefore enter this lottery one time for one specific show. Serious ticket scalpers have many accounts (hundreds or thousands) tied to many different email addresses, with credit cards all over the country and can enter the lottery as many times as they want
― curmudgeon, Friday, 22 September 2023 14:51 (eight months ago) link
that scalpers have multiple accounts is something those geniuses at Ticketmaster never saw coming!
(most likely they did see it coming and don't give a fuck because it's beneficial to them)
― Murgatroid, Friday, 22 September 2023 18:04 (eight months ago) link
Yeah, they love it.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 22 September 2023 18:07 (eight months ago) link
Someone at work said they got Beyoncé tix by using 3 accounts with 3 different phone nos./credit cards, and registering for presales in 3 different cities ("I had 27 opportunities and 3 of them succeeded").
― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp), Friday, 22 September 2023 19:15 (eight months ago) link
Does this help? I’m not sure this helps: https://variety.com/2023/music/news/ticketmaster-block-olivia-rodrigo-scalpers-72-hour-1235732837/
― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp), Saturday, 23 September 2023 04:26 (eight months ago) link
I'm sure nothing will really help, because for decades Ticketmaster has been the constant and Ticketmaster is not operating in good faith. They're in mild CYA mode, but they've admitted in the past their role is mostly just to take the abuse while they rake in money. They're like that Eric Andre meme, of Eric Andre shooting fair ticket prices or whatever and then asking who did such a thing.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 23 September 2023 13:12 (eight months ago) link
https://i.imgflip.com/805ge3.jpg
Never saw that one; I guess this recent meme sensation would also fit:https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/037/873/We
― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp), Saturday, 23 September 2023 15:08 (eight months ago) link
ain't gonna work. third-party reseller websites already make accommodations for stuff like this - Stubhub asks you if you have tickets in hand, or if not, when you will. People will frequently sell tickets they don't actually have in hand.
sometimes people sell tickets they haven't even PURCHASED yet on the open market - they'll give an estimated seating location, charge a fee upfront, and then get the ticket later, or refund the money if they can't get it.
― Make the chats AI (Neanderthal), Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:12 (eight months ago) link
yeah, they're called speculative tickets and you might as well pay a stranger on the street for a guarantee that you won't get cancer
― Murgatroid, Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:16 (eight months ago) link
that's kinda what Billy McFarlane was doing in his pre-Fyre venture, right?
― Make the chats AI (Neanderthal), Saturday, 23 September 2023 16:17 (eight months ago) link
*McFarland
Never saw that one
I just made it with a generator!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 23 September 2023 18:25 (eight months ago) link
There's something uniquely shitty about the law in Illinois that makes it hard to thwart scalpers. For example, this was from the press release for the most recent Pearl Jam tour:
Tickets on this tour will continue to be non-transferable in all states except Illinois where it is prohibited by law. We apologize in advance to Illinois fans who may be subject to increased ticket prices on the secondary market.
And from Robert Smith's statement in his fight against scalpers:
Unfortunately, despite our desire to protect our low ticket prices for fans, the states of NY, IL and CO make this very difficult – they actually have laws in place that protect scalpers!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 23 September 2023 18:30 (eight months ago) link
Tickets being non-transferable is pretty anti-consumer too tbh.
Fights scalpers but also inhibits people who can't go at the 11th hour
― Make the chats AI (Neanderthal), Saturday, 23 September 2023 18:53 (eight months ago) link
Which I assume is why it's pretty protected places.
Was it the Black Keys back when that tried to link tickets to the person that purchased them only to have it backfire?
Meanwhile:
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/irs-taylor-swift-eras-tickets-beyonce-lionel-messi-tax-480d346c
If you cashed in this summer by reselling tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” or Lionel Messi’s first games in a bubblegum-pink jersey, brace yourself to pay taxes. A new law requires ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster and StubHub to give the Internal Revenue Service information on users who sold more than $600 worth of tickets this year. The new requirements are taking hold amid a banner year for live events in which Swifties, soccer buffs and members of Beyoncé’s BeyHive paid sky-high prices for a chance to see their favorite stars in the flesh. That drove huge markups in the secondary ticket market—and delivered hefty profits to anyone hawking hot tickets.The average price for Taylor Swift tickets sold in the U.S. on StubHub was $1,095, with the best seats going for thousands of dollars, according to the company, which operates an online market for people to resell and buy tickets. Averages for Beyoncé and Harry Styles clocked in at $380 and $400, respectively. After Lionel Messi joined Major League Soccer, the price of tickets to Inter Miami CF matches shot up to $255 apiece, from $30.
A new law requires ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster and StubHub to give the Internal Revenue Service information on users who sold more than $600 worth of tickets this year.
The new requirements are taking hold amid a banner year for live events in which Swifties, soccer buffs and members of Beyoncé’s BeyHive paid sky-high prices for a chance to see their favorite stars in the flesh. That drove huge markups in the secondary ticket market—and delivered hefty profits to anyone hawking hot tickets.
The average price for Taylor Swift tickets sold in the U.S. on StubHub was $1,095, with the best seats going for thousands of dollars, according to the company, which operates an online market for people to resell and buy tickets. Averages for Beyoncé and Harry Styles clocked in at $380 and $400, respectively. After Lionel Messi joined Major League Soccer, the price of tickets to Inter Miami CF matches shot up to $255 apiece, from $30.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 24 September 2023 23:14 (eight months ago) link
Anyone else trying to get $25 tickets today? Looks like demand crashed the site within seconds.
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 14:23 (two weeks ago) link
Missed that this morning but am seeing this news trending
Typical
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:29 (two weeks ago) link
got Mastodon and Coheed tickets that way
― RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:29 (two weeks ago) link
site is mega buggy though, first took a ticket out of my cart, then kept saying they were unavailable despite being listed
― RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:30 (two weeks ago) link
I'm not sure how this works, but I guess you could get $25 Missy Elliott tickets if you connected with a Verizon account (like a deal was made with Verizon and subscribers got like a code or instructions). I don't have a Verizon and didn't see any pop up. We did get tix to the Roots (with Digable Planets and the Jungle Brothers) and Mdou Moctar, so at least we got something. (The latter wasn't expensive to begin with, it was originally only $5 more with fees, but I was planning to go anyway.)
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 18:30 (two weeks ago) link
I should say "plus fees" not "with fees"
Wasn't sure where to put this, but the Black Keys have cancelled their Fall US tour apparently due to the combination of low sales of expensive tickets in large arenas.
https://consequence.net/2024/05/the-black-keys-cancel-tour-dates/
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 May 2024 13:28 (yesterday) link
this is not me being messy, im genuinely curious when they ever had the audience for that kind of a show?
― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Sunday, 26 May 2024 13:52 (yesterday) link
Actually, they did. I was looking at their gig history in Houston on setlist.fm, and they've been in sheds/arenas since 2010!
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 May 2024 13:54 (yesterday) link
From what I gather, they did an arena/shed tour with considerably lower ticket prices in 2022, so it's understandable if fans didn't want to drop more coin on them so soon.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 May 2024 14:08 (yesterday) link
Judging by the wording of this statement, I'd say they overestimated their draw:
The band wants to assure everyone that Dan & Patrick are alive and well.Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly. Everyone who had purchased tickets and/or VIP to the initial tour dates will be fully refunded - and when the new plans are announced, will be the first to be able to buy tickets. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the surprise change… We’re pretty sure everyone is going to be excited when you see what we have in mind though, and look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly. Everyone who had purchased tickets and/or VIP to the initial tour dates will be fully refunded - and when the new plans are announced, will be the first to be able to buy tickets. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the surprise change… We’re pretty sure everyone is going to be excited when you see what we have in mind though, and look forward to seeing everyone soon.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 May 2024 19:01 (yesterday) link
lol whoops sry black keys but i thought fer sure this revive would be re: this
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 26 May 2024 19:19 (yesterday) link
^ me too
― budo jeru, Sunday, 26 May 2024 22:17 (yesterday) link