Yet again, tix are flooding the board

… which I believe has now pivoted to a “buyer’s market”.

http://www.festivarian.com/index.php/board,31.0.html

In light of the feeding frenzy for tickets upon their initial release, do you have any thoughts about “reverse scalping” (i.e. paying less than face)?

Reverse scalping, as you call it, is fine by me. Is there any other alternative? PB already offers a buyback program, as we all know, to mitigate this but that can’t run all the way through to the fest date.

FOM, are you really getting at limiting the amount of ticks upon the initial sale?

I believe people load up on extra tickets in the hopes that they can talk their friends into coming, and then they have to sell them at the last minute when their (lame) friends bail out on them. I think that’s part of the risk you take if you want to hedge your bets by buying extra tickets for your uncommitted friends to a remote festival that takes more time and effort to attend than an ordinary concert.

:thumbsup

I actually wasn’t thinking that far ahead, was mostly making an observation and wondering about buying below face and how that’s looked upon?

Yeah, you’d think the buyback program would mitigate it … unless people aren’t aware or just flake out at the last second.

I’m a late comer this year; other things were going on. I’m glad there will be a tix for me. I’ve been coming since 1978. Only missed 3 years when for Rockygrass when kids were 4, 5, 6 :headphones::smile::dancer::coffee:

who’s got my extra? :evil

Now now, don’t turn this thread into a ticket search.
You’ve been around long enough to know where those are. :thumbsup

But Tom, what if I need a miracle?

IF?

:wave I can think of all sorts of miracles I’d like to have happen to me :hop

:peace

In 2012, we initially planned on not coming but, late in the game (and with conditions at work mandating a getaway) I reverse scalped a scalper on Ebay for half price TP tickets. No second thoughts or regrets about it, in fact, I still smile when I think about it. That’s back when they were hard tickets.

I would never have done that to a true Festivarian with tickets to sell, but had no problem reverse scalping a scalper.

Now, if the seller offers a reasonable, believable reduced price, I see no moral problems; however, with emailed tickets these days, there really needs to be a trust between buyer and seller (that sellers aren’t selling the same ticket ten times for half price) so that potentially complicates things (for the better, actually.)

So nice to see the only listing on Ebay right now is for festival lodging reservation…

4 day passes on Stubhub currently are $165 each.
Because SH allows both brokers and individuals to list, hard to tell who is who on the selling side.
But I would imagine the majority are brokers that purchased during the PBG sale last Winter.

http://www.stubhub.com/telluride-town-park-event-tickets/venue/7310/

The only way to stop brokers and scalping is to return to hard tickets, and only shipping tickets to CC billing addresses.
Most brokers don’t want to mess with hard tix, unless they live local to the event.

I totally understand and appreciate that there are Town Park and Warners available, or 4-day passes with camping, but I am surprised by the number of 4-day passes with NO camping. Buying these would require SOMEwhere to stay, and I would think the town’s rooms are nearly or completely sold out. Because of that factor, I would think these are a tough sell, and there seems to be quite an abundance of them available.

I also have similar feelings in regards to not having any issue re: getting a severely discounted ticket from a scalper … although the argument could be made that we’re allowing them to “cut their losses” & likewise providing them funds to purchase more tickets to re-scalp vs. re-directing partial funds to festivarians who might simply be looking to recoup whatever they possibly can for friends who couldn’t make it (and might return).

Having said that, I realize the nature of the aftermarket is grounded in supply and demand … and the “magic hand” will dictate said pricing ultimately. So, I will go after deals; however, I will never be aggressive in negotiation … in fact, I’ll normally explain to the seller that I’m looking for a great deal and not seeking to undermine their efforts … and if all else fails they can come back to me. Not only do I not want to put pressure on festivarians, I also know a gazillion locals too … so the same applies on this front.

Likewise, it’s not just Bluegrass, but Blues & Brews, Jazz, The Ride, and the various one-off’s (i.e. Neil Young is being courted for just prior to the oldcochella). All of the above have steadily raised their pricing & over the past few years the cumulative cost is prohibitive for me in light of my particular tastes and proclivity to travel to see music of primary interest to me (GD related, SCI, etc.). So, I can often be found hanging out @ the Post Office looking to see what shakes loose.

But yeah, lack of hard tix makes it a bit more of a gamble these days.

That’s interesting, I hadn’t really thought to look at StubHub for Bluegrass tix … I know it’s obvious, but for some reason have never bothered to look there … even though I know it’s a great metric for guaging the aftermarket supply/demand.

I believe hard tix might provide a bit of “speed bump” re: scalpers, but I think the most iron tight method would be to implement the same system Planet Bluegrass used for the Telluride Phish shows … which not only bound the tix to a cc, but required the purchaser to obtain them in person at will call. I’m sure there’d be an additional cost to implement this sort of arrangment, but I suspect it’d just be a “small blip” in relation to how ticket prices have been increasing in recent years.

I think you’re on to something re: Telluride being a remote destination without a large population center nearby; however, with the “merchant pass” (local’s tix) having gone by the wayside a few years ago, I think if the aftermarket ticket prices drop sufficiently enough, I think we’ll start to see more locals who are able to afford tix and attend.