Anyone know how ticketmaster works?

Last Mango in Atlanta · March 13, 2006 10:56 am

I'm not going to complain about people selling tickets on ebay for profit. If there's a concert I want to go to I'll pay the price. But my issue with ticketmaster (aside from there ridiculous fees) is how ticket brokers get tickets. Pretty funny that encore had 50+ tickets for sale at 10 and how ebay had 125+ listings at 10:05. Even funnier that the majority of those tickets are currently in Texas, NJ, etc.

So how do the brokers get tickets? Does TM give them to them in advance or do they have seperate website/number to log into? Or do they have agreement with venue/promoter. Bottom line, no way same guys/brokers continously get tickets online or at outlet like general public.

Quiet and Shy · Post by **Quiet and Shy** » March 13, 2006 11:01 am

Not very well. I was just refreshing my screen to try and get Alpine and got this:

Please note.

We limit the rate of web page requests that can be made by individual users in any given time period. Your web page requests have exceeded these limits and your access has been temporarily disabled. We impose these limits to protect the web site from automated programs, as part of our efforts to promote fair access to tickets. Please allow several minutes and then try again.

LIPH · Post by **LIPH** » March 13, 2006 11:23 am

I never refresh when I'm waiting for the bell to ring. I start clicking on "More Info" 1 minute before the on sale time. If I time it right I can get in just as "More Info" changes to "Find Tickets". It's worked every time, until Saturday and today.

allucaneatbuffett · Post by **allucaneatbuffett** » March 13, 2006 12:19 pm

you can't hit refress button too fast or you will get that message. I learned that the hard way. You can hit it once every 2-3 seconds, any quicker and your screwed.

Quiet and Shy · Post by **Quiet and Shy** » March 13, 2006 12:23 pm

So I've learned. I thought about once a second would be okay. Oh well....

spucketts · Post by **spucketts** » March 13, 2006 12:43 pm

How does ticketmaster work? Picture a room full of monkeys......

Actually some venues have season ticket holders that will sell off shows that they dont want to see or think that they can recover some of their cost season ticket costs from. I guessing these are the tickets (along with venue sponsers) that have tickets showing up a few days before the actual sales date. (Along with the political payout tickets)

Rum_Runner · Post by **Rum_Runner** » March 13, 2006 1:13 pm

Don't different venues allow local residents first chance at a block of tickets also. I think GW used to do that, a friend lived a couple of blocks away and used to sell his tickets every year. He was allowed 4 tickets per household or something like that. Some kind of deal for allowing the noise level in the neighborhood to exceed a certain level at night.

jiggs(2) · Post by **jiggs(2)** » March 13, 2006 2:45 pm

and don't be fooled into thinking that brokers always pay face value...there are many brokers who buy from fans that buy to sell to brokers or pick them off ebay and sell them for a mark-up...many times brokers will not promis you your tickets right away, maybe they don't even have them yet and they have to find tickets...

I'm not saying that they don't have ways to get tickets but not all of their tickets are face and not all of the money you see those listed for is pure profit above face...

If i were to get thrid row seats to a show, you can be sure that a broker would pay me hundreds over face for them and sell them for even more...not to mention that brokers have the man power to place hundreds of people in lines to get tickets...

There are tens of thousands of people trying to get tickets to some of these shows...when there are only 30-40 thousand to go around, there just aren't enough...brokers only represent a few thousand tickets to each show...sure, they mark them up, but they might not be making as much as we think...

CaptainP · Post by **CaptainP** » March 13, 2006 2:48 pm

Anyone know how ticketbastard works?

It doesn't.

chippewa · Post by **chippewa** » March 13, 2006 3:00 pm

I've seen some video footage from inside TM corportate HQ...

http://careerbuilder.com/tv/Default.aspx

(I think it would be funnier if it wasn't so true)

Quiet and Shy · Post by **Quiet and Shy** » March 13, 2006 4:06 pm

chippewa wrote:I've seen some video footage from inside TM corportate HQ...

http://careerbuilder.com/tv/Default.aspx

(I think it would be funnier if it wasn't so true)

Huh...I thought their office was where the gal works...you know...the jackasses??

SomeGuyNamedDan · Post by **SomeGuyNamedDan** » March 13, 2006 4:13 pm

I cleeck button. It tell me "no ticket."

jsfins · Post by **jsfins** » March 13, 2006 4:17 pm

I got on ticketmaster at 9 am cst, and to my suprise got a pavillion ticket and lawn seats. My buddy part of the crew taht goes every year was denied any tickets in any quantity at apparently the same time and walkin him through the ticketmaster maze by 9:08 am there were no tickets available. Tickmaster #@*^!. Ebay has had tickets on sale by brokers for several weeks, one broker had ebay sale with sold out show listed last week, the auction on these tickets ended 3-10-06. The tickets hadn't even gone on sale.
All I can say is I got mine!

IF WE WEREN"T CRAZY< WE'D ALL GO INSANE

jsfins

Captian Morgan · Post by **Captian Morgan** » March 13, 2006 7:02 pm

Ticketmaster works? When did that happen?

CaptainP · Post by **CaptainP** » March 13, 2006 7:03 pm

Captian Morgan wrote:Ticketmaster works? When did that happen?

See my post above.

EYES FRONT MORGAN!!!! I DIDN'T MEAN THAT POST!!!!

CrznDnUS1 · Post by **CrznDnUS1** » March 13, 2006 7:27 pm

I saw some guy on ebay selling 200 tickets for Camden. That's just sickining to us who don't even have lawn seats. There must have been some mega pre-sale.

gatorbait05 · Post by **gatorbait05** » March 13, 2006 8:26 pm

I had a friend who was a floor sales rep there. What usually happens is Ticketmaster and the venue option so many tickets for "private sale" usually to brokers who will pay more than us for a certain amount, others go to people the venue feels warrant them, some for promotions (radio, etc.), some for venue sponsors, and finally they do leave some for their employees.

Its the brokers where they get you...The "public sale" (notice all ticketmaster sites say "public sale date") is when the average Joe gets them.

It's a monoply and there is NOTHING we can do about it.

rudybreno · Post by **rudybreno** » March 13, 2006 8:36 pm

That's a valid point right there. Ticketmaster is evil, and we all have to accept it. I remember back in '94 when Pearl Jam tried to topple Ticketmaster, and used a different ticket service than Ticketmaster. Let me tell you, and you want to talk about a disaster. We got our tickets for the Soldier Field show over the phone, and never got them in the mail. More disorganized than anything I've ever seen. The radio stations reported that if you hand't received your tickets yet that they'd be available at a will call stand outside the stadium. Well, said will call stand looked like refugees crowding the relief truck - people shouting, screaming, pushing - we got our tickets, but after that experience, the brokering, questionable online services and service fees didn't seem too bad! If I'm not mistaken, the Cubs pull the same thing with their single game tickets - some sort of legal brokering scheme. It ain't right, but it just seems like a long way to go before anything can be done about it...

jonesbeach10 · Post by **jonesbeach10** » March 13, 2006 8:39 pm

rudybreno wrote:That's a valid point right there. Ticketmaster is evil, and we all have to accept it. I remember back in '94 when Pearl Jam tried to topple Ticketmaster, and used a different ticket service than Ticketmaster. Let me tell you, and you want to talk about a disaster. We got our tickets for the Soldier Field show over the phone, and never got them in the mail. More disorganized than anything I've ever seen. The radio stations reported that if you hand't received your tickets yet that they'd be available at a will call stand outside the stadium. Well, said will call stand looked like refugees crowding the relief truck - people shouting, screaming, pushing - we got our tickets, but after that experience, the brokering, questionable online services and service fees didn't seem too bad! If I'm not mistaken, the Cubs pull the same thing with their single game tickets - some sort of legal brokering scheme. It ain't right, but it just seems like a long way to go before anything can be done about it...

Hmmm...I do remember last year, at least the Philly Stadium shows were sold through New Era Tickets and not TM, and it was a lot easier.

moeron · Post by **moeron** » March 13, 2006 10:13 pm

Room full of monkeys sounds about right. Hey! The monkey started complaining!!