concert ticket prices

My 16 year old daughters wanted to go to a 5sos (boy band) concert in mid April at The Varsity Club and the tickets went on sale at 10:00am this past Saturday so I went online at 10:00am and the concert was already sold out. I checked out Ticket Master a little bit later that day and the same tickets that were supposed to sell for $25.00 to $45.00 were going for up to $700.00. How can anyone afford to go to a concert these days when the ticket brokers buy up all the tickets before the general public has a chance?

It’s horrible-various promotions, radio stations get tickets in advance. They should only be allowed to sell 4 txs at a time to whoever. Buy your 4 go to the end of the que if you need more. radio station wants to give some away? Call or wait in line when and where everyone else does. How many for KDWB? 4! “we are KDWB we need more than 4! Fine- get your 4 then go to the end of the line and get another 4. Anyway thats how it will be when I’m king of the world along with a variety of other very positive changes.

I have long suspected that ever since ticket scalping–errr “reselling”–sites became legal in MN, the concert promoters have been jacking up prices by sending tickets straight to resale sites. That way they can create demand by advertising the “face value” price, but then make much much more by pretending the concert is sold out and the scalping sites are reflecting market price.

Grouse

At least you don’t have to go to the boy band concert now. Just say you’ll take them out fishing instead.

It’s getting weird because it seems that now there is no event that the scalpers aren’t in on. Small-time national independent bands playing 300 seat clubs, that used to be an easy ticket or you just bought at the door. Not anymore.

The reseller business model for shows like this seems to be buy at least 4 of EVERYTHING and slap astronomical prices on em. When you find that super fan who forgot to buy tickets and buys a pair for 10x face value, that makes it work. Ticks me off too.

The tickets should go down in price. Give it a couple weeks

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I have long suspected that ever since ticket scalping–errr “reselling”–sites became legal in MN, the concert promoters have been jacking up prices by sending tickets straight to resale sites. That way they can create demand by advertising the “face value” price, but then make much much more by pretending the concert is sold out and the scalping sites are reflecting market price.

Grouse

Chicago Cubs have been accused of this for years. You will likely find the venue owners buried deep in the ownership of the secondary market re-sellers.

Damn capitalism.

Don’t like it, then move to a different country. Nothing in the constitution says they can’t do this, so get over it.

David Blais wrote:

The tickets should go down in price. Give it a couple weeks

This. It can be a gamble, but the re-sellers still sitting on tickets a few weeks before the show, usually drop the prices a TON to ensure they get sold.

I actually attend a lot of concerts every year and don’t see it all that often, but sometimes. At the same time, I’m going to older country shows, usually at Casinos…wow, I feel old just for saying that…Clay Walker tickets at GC ML are still available, should be a good show.

I am a huge music fan and attend dozens of concerts each year. Ticketmaster gets a cut from the resale market so they often limit the number of tickets sold at the initial sale to boost hype and create scarcity. They also tend to hold the better seats so that the nosebleeds sell out first. Eventually, they’ll quietly drop news batches of tickets. If you really want tickets, check in on Ticketmaster every so often and you might find good seats become available, especially in the 10-14 day window before the show. If you wait until the day of the show resellers on StubHub and other places often liquidate at well below face value.

Most the live bands I enjoy typically offer a presale event through their fan email system. That helps a ton.

I hate TicketBasstard.

Hopefully since it sold out so quick that group will announce another show and stick it to the reselling sites.

Every so often you’ll hear of artists who have the same complaints that many have voiced here and they’ll actually do something about it. Eric Church and Garth Brooks come to mind as two guys who have extremely limited the way you can buy their tickets so that typically they’re only bought through their website or some authorized ticket seller so the prices don’t get jacked up. Eric Church even said something to the effect that he wanted the everyday working man to be able to come see his shows, not people who are able to fork over the marked-up stubhub tickets.

A few years ago there was a report on 60 minutes or other watchdog type show that explained exactly how these brokers are able to get so many tickets in advance. By the time tickets act6ually go on sale, the vast majority were already committed from the venue to different agencies. So maybe only 10% or less were available to the general public. I would prefer that information was disclosed to the public in advance.

So the man who originally posted might be able to get a good tix if he checks in and waits a bit. Too bad, all because of games and greed. If you really want to wait be out at the venue 15 minutes before the show and you can get a great buy-I’ve done this. But would’nt it be nice if the man and his daughter had the tickets right now-she could have something to look forward to, dream a bit-games have to mess that up. Sad

This is screwed up. Mr. Wieland it sounds like you may be a contractor as I am I am electrical you are different but if we as contractors collaborate to drive up pricing it is illegal and called collusion and we can go to jail for that, what is this type of a practice called and how is it considered legal. We provide a service that is needed or an upgrade to ones home or business yet in in the entertainment industry it is called good business to make a profit? I am old and confused here on this one.