Buffett would be mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Cubbie Bear]

The problem is as Ann stated, Your definition of "Little Guy" who is a part of these boards includes a wide socio-economic demographic. There are those of us like me, trying to feed my Keets and keep the ship afloat or Ann trying to feed her various habits. Then there are those of us(you) who have tons of money. I believe one person in the "What do you Do" thread, admitted to being CEO of a Fortune 100 (I think) company.

The fact is, for many face value is a tuff nut to crack. You add whoring charges and then it is cost prohibitive. My two days in East Troy Wisconsin have to be budgeted more carefully than some of the people here who fly off to this or that island several times a year. In fact. Alpine is the only vacation my wife and I have had since she was 6 months prego with our 10 year old.

Further, I have no problem with one "little guy" trying to make a buck with tickets. I do have a problem with Ticketmaster sanctioned ticket whoring. When companies are posting seats on ebay, before sale dates are even announced, someone has condoned and probably already gotten a cut.

The legalization of "Ticket Brokers" (whores) is the root of the problem. make it legal to get a premium price and instantly somebody has got a hand in somebody elses pocket. Clear Channel/TM has more than enough hands to go in any and all "legal brokers" pockets making tickets for you and me impossible to get.

[mikes65]

HI! I know I've vowed to keep quiet and lurk, but this discussion is too good to pass up...

Here's how you do it... Let's say:

1)Jimmy has a fan club who's members pay annual dues, and one of the benefits of membership is to purchase PREMIUM (let's say rows 1-30) seats before tickets go onsale to the General Public.

2)Each Member's order is good for only 2 tickets.

3)The Tickets are held at WILL CALL for pick up the day of the show.

A scalper can't sell a ticket that is in his/her name until the day of the event. ('Cause they can only pick up the DAY of the event by showing ID and the Credit Card in which the tickets were purchased). The only thing is... The Authorities just will HAVE TO enforce the "on the street" sales.

This way, the FANS who fork over the $$ (Let's say $49 annually) get the opportunity to purchase the best seats, and scalpers (brokers) will have to resort to selling only lawns.

I know that Buffett Shows sell out super quick, but at least this way the people up front didn't have to pay $800/ticket to see him play. And if a Buffett Fan Club member can't get tickets, they will know well before the Public General Onsale date.

Prince uses a variation this method with his fan club with HUGE Success. I know most brokers stayed away from purchasing his fan club tickets...

[RockinRick]

Nobody HAS to pay $800 to see Jimmy Buffett.
Its called supply and demand.
When people refuse to pay too much for tickets, sales will drop.
Only when the profit is taken out of the ticket reselling business will it end. These "legal scalpers" get in to deals with Ticketshyster and buy tickets directly with the intent to resell.
The only other way out of it would be if an artist or promoter stricly forbids Ticketshyster from selling to brokers for a given show, or the mail order only idea.
It will only get worse if people are willing to pay $180 to sit in the grass.

I'm curious as to how much "kick back" an artist or promoter gets from the ticket brokers if any.

Ticketshyster sells $40 tickets to a broker for $80 who then sells to the consumer for $160. If a percentage gets back to performer, say $60 for that same $40 ticket, everybody wins...except of course the fans.

[Cubbie Bear]

WHORES

[creeky]

*** yawn ***

[Cubbie Bear]

I just like that I got to say "socio-economic demographic" in a post

[creeky]

I just like that I got to say "socio-economic demographic" in a post

big words there Cubbie

[Cubbie Bear]

I just like that I got to say "socio-economic demographic" in a post

big words there Cubbie

now my brain hurts

[ragtopW]

That kinda crap is why Ticketbastard is trying to get all the artists to go along with auctions for tickets... They see other people making huge amounts of money on some tics, and they think 'why don't we get in on this'... It's only going to get worse.... As long as people put up with it... And then there are deep pocket corporate people who could care less about which artist they are going to see as long as it gets them a sale to a customer, or gets them the right connection... IMHO...

ok so now that you've explained the problem what do you have to give us as a solution?

no there is a way out it will slow down the ticket buying process but there
is a way; there is already a limit right? so here goes on all of the tix
there is either a state ID NU either a DL or for those that don't drive
an ID card. print this on each ticket bought and make it to where you have to enter the venue with the person who bought the ticket
or in a large group have everyones ID on their tix, If it turns out you cannot go, than you and the person who buys the tic goes to
an outlet and a transfer is done, and everyone who sells and transfers
tix will be entered to a data base if you sell tix for more than 4 events a year you are shut off from transfering any more. Yeah this would be a PIA but look at what we have now.

[SuperTrooper]

That kinda crap is why Ticketbastard is trying to get all the artists to go along with auctions for tickets... They see other people making huge amounts of money on some tics, and they think 'why don't we get in on this'... It's only going to get worse.... As long as people put up with it... And then there are deep pocket corporate people who could care less about which artist they are going to see as long as it gets them a sale to a customer, or gets them the right connection... IMHO...

ok so now that you've explained the problem what do you have to give us as a solution?

no there is a way out it will slow down the ticket buying process but there
is a way; there is already a limit right? so here goes on all of the tix
there is either a state ID NU either a DL or for those that don't drive
an ID card. print this on each ticket bought and make it to where you have to enter the venue with the person who bought the ticket
or in a large group have everyones ID on their tix, If it turns out you cannot go, than you and the person who buys the tic goes to
an outlet and a transfer is done, and everyone who sells and transfers
tix will be entered to a data base if you sell tix for more than 4 events a year you are shut off from transfering any more. Yeah this would be a PIA but look at what we have now.

An interesting idea, but it would never fly. That would put a time consuming burden on the ticket seller and they would probably have to charge ANOTHER fee for the transfer. I mean, look at what has happened to the simple task of checking in at the airport since everyone must have a matching ID now. You'd have to line up to get into the venue at 9AM!

So far I like mike65's solution the best.

[SuperTrooper]

HI! I know I've vowed to keep quiet and lurk, but this discussion is too good to pass up...

Here's how you do it... Let's say:

1)Jimmy has a fan club who's members pay annual dues, and one of the benefits of membership is to purchase PREMIUM (let's say rows 1-30) seats before tickets go onsale to the General Public.

2)Each Member's order is good for only 2 tickets.

3)The Tickets are held at WILL CALL for pick up the day of the show.

A scalper can't sell a ticket that is in his/her name until the day of the event. ('Cause they can only pick up the DAY of the event by showing ID and the Credit Card in which the tickets were purchased). The only thing is... The Authorities just will HAVE TO enforce the "on the street" sales.

This way, the FANS who fork over the $$ (Let's say $49 annually) get the opportunity to purchase the best seats, and scalpers (brokers) will have to resort to selling only lawns.

I know that Buffett Shows sell out super quick, but at least this way the people up front didn't have to pay $800/ticket to see him play. And if a Buffett Fan Club member can't get tickets, they will know well before the Public General Onsale date.

Prince uses a variation this method with his fan club with HUGE Success. I know most brokers stayed away from purchasing his fan club tickets...

Seems like the best solution so far, although the WILL CALL pickup could be a problem. A national club could issue a plastic ID card on a lanyard, to be presented with the ticket(s) for the cardholder and the appropriate number of guests. These members would have a separate entrance, like the express entrance at GW.

Anyone member caught selling tickets at a profit is booted out. The tickets become the responsibility of the member. That could be self-policing. I think club members would be on the active lookout for club tickets for sale from scalpers. I have NASCAR tickets to NHIS and their policy is to remove you from the list when they find your tickets for sale at a profit. The last I heard they've dropped more than 10,000 people for this.

[Wino you know]

Damn! It won't be long before a ticket to a concert will cost as much as the G.D. gas to GET there.

[tryin' to reason]

Buffett News July 4th, 1776....

With God as my witness, we tryeth to get billets to the Sunday contradance celebrating the Independence, but verily yon rascal would only sell them at six pence over his cost!!
Surely, this will be the end of the new republic if such evil ways are allowed to persist!!!!!

Always have been scalpers, always will be scalpers, always will be people willing to pay over face for tickets, always will be frustrated loyal fans, always will be complaints that people are making a profit on easy re-sales, always will be complaints that "less-loyal" fans are getting all the good tickets, always will be theories on how we could make it better, always will be long lines where MOST people in line will NOT get tickets, always will be screwed up phones sales, always will be imperfect computer sales. Aside from the therapeutic purpose of all the ranting and raving, maybe we should accept things we cannot change and get on with our lives...

Apple core...

[Tarheel Tail-Gator]

I don't think the ID on the ticket thing would work. After 4 hours tailgating at the Renaissance Hotel next to the Charlotte Coliseum, we lost half of our group of 8 in the short 200 yard stumble to the front door. Not to mention the additional time it would take for everyone to enter the arena, since everyone usually tries to drink one more in the parking lot.
JB has many business endeavors, why not form his own ticketmaster... by the way what would it be called??? and tie it in to the Margaritaville empire. While there will always be supply and demand, moving away from the traditional Ticketmaster system may stop some of the scalping...Stay away from geo restrictions however...What better reason to travel to a new place then to see a Buffett concert. I missed out on tickets to Fenway, then got kicked off Ticketmaster while processing Section 7 tix for Pittsburgh

[iuparrothead]

I still think the title of this thread is rediculous... "Jimmy would be mad!!!"

Sha, right!

[Key Lime Lee]

I'm curious as to how much "kick back" an artist or promoter gets from the ticket brokers if any.

Ticketshyster sells $40 tickets to a broker for $80 who then sells to the consumer for $160. If a percentage gets back to performer, say $60 for that same $40 ticket, everybody wins...except of course the fans.

Artists get nothing. Most get a flat fee for the performance, plus a percentage of merch.

Ticketmaster doesn't sell them to brokers at an inflated price or any way other than through the box office. Individual employees may be a different matter.

[12vmanRick]

I just like that I got to say "socio-economic demographic" in a post

big words there Cubbie

now my brain hurts

You have a brain? and do you know what that means or are you just trying to confuse us "little people" more ?