Re: Scalpers

On Tue, 2 Jul 1996 18:45:30 -0700, rjh-esq@ix.netcom.com (Robert J.
Hundertmark) wrote:

>On the subject of Scalpers, Kevin O'Brien wrote
>
>>Indeed, scalpers perform a great public service, for which they
>>naturally receive a payment. When the tickets go on sale, they get
>>sold to anyone who calls and has the cash. These people may not be the
>>biggest fans, or the ones most desperate for the tickets. The scalper
>>market creates a way for the tickets to get into the hands of the most
>>committed fans.
>
>I couldn't disagree more strongly. 

Sure you could. Come on, put some effort into it.<g>

>What happens often times, is the 
>promoter, the hall, and other non-artist types get, as part of their 
>compensation, maybe a 1,000 tickets per night.  The best seats.  
>Factored into their compensation at cost.  then, they wholesale them 
>out at say $20.00 over face and make a quick $20,000.00 a night.

What precisely is wrong with that. I presume that they wouyld get
compensated in some form, and that this would be reflected in the
ticket price. If you don't think that this is the case, what novel
type of economics are you subscribing to? 

>the 
>scalpers they sell them to sell mark them up another $30-50 per, and 
>you have fans paying $50-70 more per ticket than face.

Yes, but what makes the face value any more important than the street
price? The way I see it, if you can get good seats at the face value,
you got a really good deal. If that doesn't work, you end up paying
the market price.  

>And this money 
>doesn't go to the artist.  And these tickets NEVER went on sale.  they 
>NEVER were available to the fans.  they NEVER were available to anyone 
>who calls and has the cash.  and the scalper market feeds this demand 
>for promoters, etc. scarfing up the good seats before they are even put 
>on sale.  If the scalpers didn't exist, the promoter would just take 
>his $40,000 in cash, not tickets.  but he takes the tickets, because it 
>means not $40,000. but $60,000., $70,000. or more.  

And the face price of tickets would have to rise by at least enough to
cover the additional $40,000. But who says the promoter would settle
for $40,000 just because the is the nominal value of the tickets? If
they have been getting $60,000, $70,000, or more, than they will in
all likelihood demand an equal amount of cash. So now how high are the
face ticket values.

>and then the tickets that DO get released - sure, I'm standing on line 
>there, and there are six people in front of me, who have been there 
>since 4:00 am.  at 8:00 am, a black mercedes pulls into the lot, one 
>guy runs over and gets six envelopes full of cash, with instructions on 
>what tickets for each of these guys to buy.  Sure, a 14 year old kid 
>goes up to the window with $700.00 cash and buys the limit for every 
>night.  He just wanted to make sure the tickets got into the hands of 
>some fans?  Don't give me this @#$%$# about scalpers providing a public 
>service.  They have totally undermined the distribution of 
>entertainment tickets in America.  and it makes me sick.

If you want to eliminate this, there are a couple of alternatives:

1. Outlaw scalping altogether. How precisely you can do this is
questionable. Does this also mean that if I can't go because of a
personal problem, I cannot sell my ticket to someone else? How will
you enforce this? But the worst problem is that if there is no
secondary market for tickets (to use the technically correct term),
what happens to the desperate fan who *didn't* get a ticket from the
box office? SOL, apparently, which was precisely the point I made in
my original post. As it is, someone in BFE who just discovered this
list and has just found out about MSG can still go if they have the
cash. I like that. It is how markets are supposed to work.

2. Have the original ticket sales by auction. No one gets any special
deals, we *all* pay scalper prices. But the money goes directly to the
promoter, who *may* share some of it with the artist, but that is
between them. There is no scalper market because the promoter has
already charged the maximum price.

If you can think of any alternatives I've missed, by all means suggest
them.


Kevin B. O'Brien
kob1@ix.netcom.com
"I feel a very unusual sensation--if it's not indigestion,
I think it must be gratitude." Benjamin Disraeli