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Ticket Pricing


wrighty

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Personally not bothered about Oasis playing again, and didn’t even try to get tickets. But what about that pricing?

If I was in charge, ticket prices would be set in advance, and priced according to what you get - front row would be more than nosebleed section etc. I don’t really agree with the dynamic pricing such that you can wait in the queue for hours, and then find that the tickets you want are double the price because they’re now running out. 
 

Similarly touting. Tickets should be sold to real people who want to see the show, not treated as a speculative investment. There will of course be changes in circumstance such that tickets bought today might not be wanted in a year’s time - they should be sold back at face value via the original agent. 
 

But… if you believe in free markets, which I largely do, is there anything wrong with pricing by supply and demand rules, and entrepreneurial profit making?

Discuss. @Chinahand what’s your view?

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I've benefitted from actual touts in the past, scallies outside the ground/gig, and selling for (or even less than) face value. I assume they were knicked.

Shouldn't really buy from touts of course, but I'd argue that the dodgy bloke on the corner is far better for the world than fucking ticketmaster. An abomination of a company.

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Fully agree. Same with Steam Packet. I’ve no objection to advance purchase discounts, midweek and peak fares, published in advance. Quite happy with a resident or club membership ( paid for in the latter case ) giving cheaper fares. 

My choice of entertainment is theatre, opera, ballet. Some theatres have moved over to dynamic pricing, it’s mad. My current peeve is accessible ticketing. It’s so uneven and contradictory. Different registration requirements. Special card in Wales, being treated as if you’re going to bother getting a wheelchair for reduced tickets. Being parked at the oddest places with restricted views. 

That being said, because I go with a friend, and that frees up a staff member from having to supervise evacuation in emergency, ( they haven’t met some of my friends ) I get really good deals. Half price tickets, plus drool wiper/carer for free.  Best deal is one theatre in London. Best seats in house, £250 each, £30 for me, £0 for companion. Worst deal recently, Madrid, where I’m going to see San Francisco Ballet, no discount as I’ve not got a residents ID card. Only told that at end of booking process, after I’d been told at the start that I was entitled. All the Barcelona theatres, and Bilbao give decent discounts.

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2 hours ago, TheTeapot said:

I've benefitted from actual touts in the past, scallies outside the ground/gig, and selling for (or even less than) face value. I assume they were knicked.

Shouldn't really buy from touts of course, but I'd argue that the dodgy bloke on the corner is far better for the world than fucking ticketmaster. An abomination of a company.

Awr ay. Come 'ed. Say you're Scouse without saying you're scouse.

Right about Ticketmaster though.

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Should probably just be pre-registration and lottery at this point for gigs of that popularity. I've camped the Ticketmaster website at 9am as much as the next bloke (not for Oasis, mind) but it's a daft system. Prices shouldn't change either, and you should have to resell at face value only.

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I got amazing tickets for Imogen Heap (middle front row RAH) & the Edinburgh Military Tattoo from EBay,  both lots were reasonably priced. I’ve also been involved with buying Glastonbury tickets from a tout, not so great an experience- I don’t remember the ins and outs but it was expensive and there was drama which “put me off” people. 
Ticketmaster aren’t very nice. A similar tier thing happened with Depeche Mode tickets, lucky for me my friend got ours when they were only £98 the seats weren’t spectacular but by the time I got on to try and buy another ticket they were £400 odd. 

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The promoter/artist has to agree to the dynamic pricing so on this occasion Oasis would have known all about it and are happy to fleece their fans. 

 

It is wrong, you go into a queue to buy something for an expected price get to the front and the price has jumped by double or even triple

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Supply & demand, init.

There is huge demand for Oasis tickets and a limited supply. The regularities of human behaviour mean that when this occurs prices go up. Surprise surprise.

Oasis, working class lads and all that, are hugely under pricing their tickets. Effectively transferring millions of pounds which they could have taken for themselves to the holders of the tickets.

If you sell objects for £x when they are worth £y where £y >> £x then surprise surprise you create demand for a secondary market.

The only way to defeat such a secondary market is by restrictive terms and conditions and trying to micromanage the after sales use of the tickets.

This is by definition intrusive, and bureaucratic.

I'm not surprised at all that the Labour party are all in favour of being intrusive and bureaucratic to supress the regularities of human behaviour.

"It's not fair why do so many people like my favourite band ... please government put a stop to this."

"Government restrictions are necessary."

The lazy shits should play some more gigs or stop being working class heros and increase the price of their tickets.

"It's not fair ... I can't afford to see Oasis"

How dare they be so popular.

There will be calls to make it VAT exempt next.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/admission-charges-to-cultural-events-and-vat-notice-70147

Find out which admission charges to cultural exhibitions and events are exempt from VAT.

@TVOR there are reasons why I'm a bit grumpy at the moment.

Edited by Chinahand
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Just to add ... if I was Oasis I'd auction it. People can bid whatever they want for a ticket. They then take the top 100,000 bids or whatever the concert capacity is, after doing that I'd then have no restrictions whatsoever on re-selling.

Would that be "fair".

Noting that life isn't fair ... the interesting question is whether we should strive for it to be fair ... whatever that means.

Economics - the study of how society uses its scarce resources and the consequences of environmental, cultural and historical constraints on human decision making. 

 

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Another option - auction half the tickets and have a lottery for the other half with the price to enter the lottery the average price paid in the auction - winners for the lottery are randomly selected.

Is this "fairer".

With the internet all these ideas are perfectly manageable.

 

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2 hours ago, Chinahand said:

Oasis, working class lads and all that, are hugely under pricing their tickets. Effectively transferring millions of pounds which they could have taken for themselves to the holders of the tickets.

£150 or whatever the face value was for a couple of hours of entertainment is not hugely underpriced.

Quote

If you sell objects for £x when they are worth £y where £y >> £x then surprise surprise you create demand for a secondary market.

If they were £350 each to start with it'd still sell out and there would still be a secondary market.

It doesn't need Government intervention unless TicketMaster refuse to do what's necessary themselves. My preferred solution, as above, would be a lottery you enter 2 weeks ahead of the tickets being available. This is preferable to a broken queueing system where it's effectively a lottery who gets through anyway, at least this way it's up-front. Tickets should be bound to an actual person each, via some form of ID (or parental ID). Transfer should only be permitted at face value, and have to be done via the vendor, and would swap the ID to the new person. Done.

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4 hours ago, Chinahand said:

Supply & demand, init.

There is huge demand for Oasis tickets and a limited supply. The regularities of human behaviour mean that when this occurs prices go up. Surprise surprise.

Oasis, working class lads and all that, are hugely under pricing their tickets. Effectively transferring millions of pounds which they could have taken for themselves to the holders of the tickets.

If you sell objects for £x when they are worth £y where £y >> £x then surprise surprise you create demand for a secondary market.

The only way to defeat such a secondary market is by restrictive terms and conditions and trying to micromanage the after sales use of the tickets.

This is by definition intrusive, and bureaucratic.

I'm not surprised at all that the Labour party are all in favour of being intrusive and bureaucratic to supress the regularities of human behaviour.

"It's not fair why do so many people like my favourite band ... please government put a stop to this."

"Government restrictions are necessary."

The lazy shits should play some more gigs or stop being working class heros and increase the price of their tickets.

"It's not fair ... I can't afford to see Oasis"

How dare they be so popular.

There will be calls to make it VAT exempt next.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/admission-charges-to-cultural-events-and-vat-notice-70147

Find out which admission charges to cultural exhibitions and events are exempt from VAT.

@TVOR there are reasons why I'm a bit grumpy at the moment.

I think the main objections are due to the dynamic pricing, such that the price you pay is more than you thought when you joined the queue, rather than the high price of the tickets themselves.  Fairness in this regard is quite important I think, and trumps the natural law of supply and demand.

Perhaps they should have sold the tickets like a Dutch Auction.  Announce the price is £10000 per ticket.  See how many they sell at that, then progressively reduce it (in a public and obvious way) until they're all gone.  People could then choose when to bite. 

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