Re: disagreement on brokers

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

From: Sroundtable@aol.com
"It may be true that this isn't "regulatable,"  but you assertion is 
flawed."

Nope.

"Tickets to a concert are in demand and are clearly finite in number."

You missed my point entirely.  Demand and finite supply do not make a thing 
a necessity.

"The concert ticket is also trademark and copyright protected."

This makes no sense to me at all.  I will guess that the point you were 
trying to make is irrelevant.  A concert ticket is a completely 
transferrable pass into an event.  Sure, counterfeiting a ticket is illegal 
and I'm not advocating that at all.

"It is illegal to buy out all stores of a certain CD then go outside and 
sell it for more than you paid for it."

A CD is not a concert ticket.  There is no comparison.

"There is no where else for fans to go but to ticketmaster or the box 
office- so when brokers snap these up then mark them up 100-200%, we 
obviously have no choice."

Wrong again.  How many brokers are there?  How many seats are there?  How 
many potential concert-goers are there?  How many concert-goers are there 
with extra tickets?  Do you have to go to the concert?

(Don't answer that last one, Bjorn.)

"The best thing to do would be to organize a national boycott of ticket 
brokers, but I know a bunch of rich assholes won't care and will continue to 
pay ridiculous prices for tix."

You should organize a boycott amongst non-assholes.  BTW, I'm interested in 
this "rich asshole" concept.  Would you care to elaborate?

"And by the way, scalping is illegal in most cities,"

I don't buy this assertion.  Can you define scalping?
Scalping is illegal in Massachusetts when it is defined as selling tickets 
in close proximity to the venue's box office.  There have been cases of 
people arrested for selling Red Sox tickets outside Fenway Park for face 
value.  Stupid law IMHO.  It should be removed, not expanded or revised.  
Brokering tickets is completely legal as defined by selling them out of an 
office that is not directly competing with the box office by mere proximity.

"...so a national law isn't that far-fetched,..."

Not far-fetched, but still a bad idea.

"...and would allow the FBI to assist local law enforcement in reducing the 
incidences of it."

This is a horrible use of federal law enforcement.  I can think of many 
other things that would be a better use of the FBI - prevention of violent 
crime comes to mind.

Ticket brokers, scalpers and touts are not taking anything from anyone.  
They might be "assholes", but they are simply offering a product at an 
elastic price.

I can understand your desire to spend less of your money for better seats, 
but the reality is that you (and your money) are competing with many other 
consumer for the seats.  I think your argument should be more with the "rich 
assholes" who have the money and desire to outbid you for the good seats, 
not the dealer who is simply making a living by buying low and selling high. 
  The other rich concert-goers are your competition, and they probably 
aren't even 'real fans'.

Jeff

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