Re: Scalping

>I will note that it's 
>impossible to administer "committment tests" to determine who is most 
>deserving of tickets, or even to arrive at a standard by which to measure 
>this. 
 
Difficult perhaps, but hardly impossible.  Several prominent artists (U2,
Pearl Jam, Peter Gabriel) have made premium seats available to fan club
members.  I certainly don't see why wealth should be the default measure of
commitment, as opposed to, say, willingness to wait in line at a TM outlet.

 
>Market principles are _not_ compromised in many other cases, too (e.g., 
>shoe production).  Why should ticket sales be any different? 
 
Actually, market values probably have been compromised with respect to shoe
production (e.g., tariffs and duties on imported Italian leather shoes),
but that's beside the point.  I think the fact that (the Eagles
notwithstanding) artists routinely price their tickets (especially tickets
for premium seats) below market value shows that there are other
considerations involved.  Call them idealists, call them crazy -- hell,
call them commies if you'd like -- but many artists want to make their
music and performances available to the general public on equal terms. 
Scalping injects an element of elitism that many artists and fans alike
believe should have no place in rock music.   
 
>A free market does not require equal access to tickets.  All it requires
is 
>that force not be involved in the distribution. 
 
Let me get this straight -- do you honestly believe that the unique access
that a handful of scalpers have to premium seats in no way impinges upon
free market principles?   Whatever happened to freedom of entry and free
access to information?  I thought these were necessary conditions to a free
market.  Oh well, what does Adam Smith know anyway. 
 
 
> _If_ you see empty seats (and I rarely if ever 
>do), it's the result of a maximum exercise of people's choices; the former

>holders of those seats willingly sold them because they valued the money 
>more than the show. 
   
Many of these seats were aquired directly from promoters and bribed TM and
venue employees (at least this appears to be the case in NYC).  You seem to
have missed this point.  If you're simply defending the right of
individuals to buy tickets  from Ticketmaster on the same terms as anyone
else and then resell them, that's a slightly different argument.  I think
it should generally be up to the artists, and not the legislatures, to
discourage scalping of this sort (and in another post, I've suggested a few
ways in which they can do that).   Of course, I may have to reconsider my
position in light of the Ticketmaster monopoly.  Does anyone know if TM has
cooperated with artists who wanted to take special measures to prevent
resales?