The tickets have bar codes, so it would be possible to link the ticket to the person who bought it. Make them non-transferable–when you buy four tickets you give the names of the four people who will use them, and you have to show an ID when you redeem your ticket for a wristband. (Or at least the purchaser has to be there and show an ID to redeem the four tickets). I doubt any true festivarians would mind that, and it would prevent scalping.
And I agree with those who have crunched numbers and concluded there aren’t that many scalpers overall (and yes, we should still do all we can to stop them), and the bigger problem with the ticket rush is that there are a lot of true festivarians who all want tickets! That can be a problem, and it’s less of a problem than if they had trouble selling enough tickets to make the fest viable.
Thanks Planet Bluegrass! We love you!
Scalping is just reflective of human nature. It’s just a selfish opportunity for personal gain, and there will be people who will take advantage of it. You buy 4 tickets for $800, sell 2 for $400 apiece, and now your 2 are free. I don’t think we need to get into a Keynes vs. Hayek debate here on the issues of the free market, but as someone has already pointed out the obvious in an earlier post, there’s a damn big market here for tickets. Puts PB in a very enviable and awkward position. It looks like they are doing all they can to prevent scalpers getting their hands on big blocks of tickets, so the 100+ tickets that show up on StubHub really are a very small percentage of the actual number sold. Lowering the limit from 4 to 2 would upset most festivarians, since most attendees come in groups. The best revenge for scalpers is economic, just don’t buy from them. There are ways to identify them, but I don’t know if it’s legal, and it would require the help of the buyers and PB. Every bar code can be tracked back to a credit card that made the purchase, but then what do you do? But is the holder of the credit card the scalper? Maybe TBF is a victim of its own success?
Since I have a history background, please remember that today is Pearl Harbour Day, just as important a day for us old timers as 9/11 is for today’s generation. Take a minute to reflect.
As much as it pains me to say this, about this subject…This is what makes America so great. See, they don’t believe in the same things we do. They don’t hold themselves to the standards we do. They don’t believe in honesty like we do. They don’t believe in having the same pride in ourselves as we do. They believe it’s ok to scalp your brother. Whether it’s 1 ticket or more, and you sell for more than face, your a scalper! Unfortunately not everyone is fit to live like we do. Or even have the ability to think like we do. This is America, and a free nation… But we sure as he%% don’t haft to like it, or take it sitting down. Yep, this is why America is so great! SCALPERS SUCK!!!
I just found out that my alltime favorite beer is being sold in town. So I went to that one outlet and it turns out that the store is selling 6 packs for twice as much as I can get it at the brewery. Damn scalpers!
It’s just supply and demand. If people stopped buying the tickets after selling out for $400 a piece, there wouldn’t be a scalping business to speak of.
I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with selling something you own for a profit if someone is willing to pay you for it. I’ve been in plenty of festival/concert situations where I would never have been able to attend the festival had I not bought extra and sold some off. I’d feel bad for selling them at more than cost if these people didn’t have the same exact chance I did to get the tickets at cost. So…I buy like 4 tickets to a highly sought after show, sell a pair and I get to attend the show for relatively free? I don’t see anything wrong with that if people are willing to pay for them.
Fine - then you are ok with and, in effect, promulgating scalping. 
It’s not the festivarian way, despite the free market forces that will always be present.
I don’t hate or like scalpers.
I’ve had my times where I’ve had to pay double or even TRIPLE for a ticket myself, so I feel the pain. On the flip side of that, without certain scalpers (FYI, I am totally against scalpers buying up ALL tickets and hiking up prices, and I think a lot of ticket vendors have gone to great lengths to prevent a lot of that) a lot of people who otherwise might not have made it to the show, are now making it to the show.
So yeah, someone just made some cash, but someone is also going to an amazing show where in all honestly? You can’t really put a price on the memories that could and will most likely be made. People are buying the tickets at double the list price because they WANT to be there. If people didn’t want so badly to be at certain events, the supply and demand effect would not have any footing. I just don’t see what the big issue is, as this has been the case for festivals/Further/SCI/Phish for at least the past 15 years I’ve been doing them. Sometimes you pay more, sometimes you pay cost. I once paid $250 for a Further show because I had some friends going and we all knew it would be a killer show. The original cost of that ticket? $45. I was unable to get a ticket at that price before it sold out, so at the end, I said 'screw it. I’ll pay the scalper. I did, and had one of the best nights of my life despite the cost.
In a perfect world, there would be a ticket for every soul who wanted to attend any event they wanted. That simply isn’t the case, and the current situation is the best option until someone comes up with a different purchase method that makes everyone as happy as possible.
I defer to the following:
http://www.festivarian.com/index.php/topic,9856.0.html
Scalping is not tolerated on this forum. In fact, Planet Bluegrass policy, at least for 2014 Town Park tickets, says that if a person can/will be banned if caught selling for more than face.
You could be a newbie, you could have been lurking. Regardless, what I’m telling you is that your ideas on the necessity of scalping don’t fly here.
:thedude
Good thing I only bought a pair of tickets then HUH? I have no plans nor intentions to scalp TBG tickets.
I’m merely defending people who ‘scalp’ from time to time to support their festival/show habits.
Someone get me the “keep digging”/shovel emoticon. :sorry
Really? I buy a ticket to a show and someone is willing to offer me double for it, and I’m not supposed to take it?
Yeah, that makes total sense. :wave
True festivarians wouldn’t. It’s called acts of kindness, etc.
There are other ways to be kind. I share my entire kitchen when camping with fellow campers, I pass out free beers and jello shots, I help stragglers locate their tents etc.
Some of us don’t make six figure salaries and can’t afford to attend every show or festival they desire. I get what you’re saying, and as I said, in a perfect world, that’s how I would want it as well, but as it stands? I have zero issues with someone selling a ticket at double face value to make some money back. If the demand exists, someone will attempt to fill it. Would you rather pay StubHub and their bots TRIPLE face value?
Or would you rather pay someone who actually is a fan of the music double and get to see the show, all the while helping out an actual fan selling the ticket? I had a buddy a few years back sell his spare ticket for double in the parking lot so he could afford a bus ride from Red Rocks back to his house, otherwise he’d of been stuck with me until a family member could pick him up god knew when. So not everyone sells at more than face to ‘rip’ people off.
If I buy a antique vase at $100 and immediately turn around and sell it to another collector for $3000, am I doing anything wrong? Or am I merely taking advantage of the demand for said item?
It’s not an easy decision to make, because I was raised by hippies (living dirt poor) and that lifestyle showed me a number of things over the years. First and foremost, try to live as ‘kind’ as you can. Secondly, I learned that you had to at SOME point make smart decisions regarding money and your ability to make more of it to live on. So I’m split between my upbringing, my desires to create memories at shows, and my financial life where I have a difficult time not using the ‘supply and demand’ to help me see more shows.
While I certainly don’t see the world in black and white terms, and generally am a supporter of the free market, I don’t believe flipping tix for a profit in the aftermarket ought to be considered an acceptable practice among festivarians (dead heads).
DB: it really appears as if you’re saying that an individual’s righ to make a buck ought to trump other festivarian’s desire to gain access to the venue (at face value) and partake in the festivities?
I don’t think it TRUMPS that ‘right’ per se? I just don’t see the negativity surrounding someone making a profit from someone fully willing to pay ‘X’ price for a ticket.
Again, in a perfect world, I would love nothing more than to see scalping end entirely so that we ALL pay only face for every show no matter when the tickets are on sale. Problem is, it’s not going away soon, and I think if selling a ticket at more than face value can help both parties involved? Why not go for it?
I know I’m in the minority here, but that’s just how I see it.
If you feel scalping should be allowed, then I believe you’re essentially saying YES, that a scalper’s right to sell above face value is more important.
I don’t feel scalping should be allowed on a large scale. I’m completely against bots and companies like StubHub attempting to corner the entire ticket markets.
But I guess, yeah, I’m all for the right of an individual to make a profit from their purchase if the demand exists. I don’t look negatively upon that move.
Yep, there is something Planet bluegrass can do, they can stop it.By offering previous orders get top priority before they put on sell,so people who been going for years get there tickets. Just seems to me that Planet Bluegrass doest truly care about Festivarian, like most of this country all about the money! For example ,raising the price!Big jump. No holiday price due to the scrapers that just started in the last three years.and last took 4 days to get approved to come on to forum.PB needs to look out for those who has been coming for year’s. Some of us can’t take off of work and sit of internet to buy tickets.
Exactly why an idea might work great in ‘spirit’, but not so great when faced with the reality of the situations. Prices go up, and people make/want money. That will never change in this society. They tried in the sixties and early seventies, and got buried.
I still believe that if you want to end scalping for large scale fests like this, you force people to add a clear photo of themselves and their party, at the time of purchase so that every individual who is going has their face on the ticket, thereby ending the resale market almost ENTIRELY.
I see my rating here plummets when I disagree with people regarding tickets and their resale values, haha.
Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?