...or just don't buy the tickets.



I'd love to go see The Who in Leeds tonight but I simply refuse to pay upwards of £150 for two of us to get in, and as a taxpayer in Leeds I'm supposed to be a shareholder of the frikkin venue !

The online marketplaces are simply filling the gap that was previously filled by eBay or the blokes standing outside the arena in trench coats selling (often fake) "spares". The secondary marketplace existed long before the internet did.



It comes down to whether people should or shouldn't be allowed to resell tickets. For football, for instance, there is public order legislation that prohibits this, but it doesn't apply to anyone else. If you want to ban the reselling of tickets, who polices it and who bares the cost? Is it an issue for the authorities or the event promoters? At the moment, we have a series of individual and confusing systems which vary from event to event - and that's not helpful for anyone.



If we are to allow the reselling of tickets, then why shouldn't basic supply and demand take hold?

ID checks were done at all and we just strolled through a brief security check and in. Completely pointless announcement if you aren't going to follow up.



I understand and agree with the principle but think it's unworkable for a few reasons.



If, for example I bought the tickets and they have my name on, and I arrange to meet my wife in the gig for whatever reason, how does a female with a male name on the ticket get admitted? If the tickets have both our names on, then one of us can't go, does that mean the ticket is useless?



How does putting a name on a ticket prevent chancers camping on phone lines, buying loads of tickets, then re-selling them? Caveat Emptor and all that. If the venues and bands have an issue, they can sort it out between them. Punters, as Jerry C says, can vote with their feet.



I don't know how we solve the problem, and is there the will, in the current free market climate, to stop it anyway?

I read on twitter someone complaining of trying to book tickets, through Ticketmaster for a gig, only to find that they were all sold out. He then went onto LetMeIn and found whole blocks available at inflated prices. This was for a gig where individuals were restricted to the number of tickets they could purchase, so it seemed a bit strange that large numbers of tickets in concentrated blocks became available. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that something not quite kosher was taking place

One explaination for "concentrated blocks" being available is whether these had been sold as part of a a priority pre-sale, prior to tickets going on general sale. I know that American Express and O2 customers sometimes have these offers availalbe to them, 24 hrs before general release.



Or, it could just be a conspiracy, since its very frustrating to be denied the opportunity to buy tickets to an event, despite trying as soon as they go on sale, only to find them on inflated resale almost immediately after.

Because the supply & demand model is being skewed by (and increasing number of) resellers who have no intention of actually attending the event, but are reducing the available tickets by maximising the numbers they buy purely for profit purposes, and by allowing this to occur, and taking a percentage of resale value, Ticketmaster are contributing to the problem, whilst maximising their income.

Pure market forces in action. You snooze you lose.

Promoters couldn't care less as they sell their tickets and bank the money no matter who buys them.

It took me about 2 mins to have a couple of tickets for 41 quid in my shopping basket. Just checked and Phoenix Nights has 12 nights in Manchester. I think if you can't find reasonable priced tickets you're just not looking hard enough.

Keep voting Tory and rip off Britain will continue. As for UKIPers any policy that is not racist would be interesting, but as they are a one trick pony I ain't waiting in anticipation.

I still shake my head and wonder how the hell we ever got to a position where people were ready, willing and able to pay £41 each (and more) to watch a comedian.



My father was a huge supporter of the CIU and in his role as amateur singer and comedian went out of his way most weekends to watch the country's top comedians perform in a club somewhere in this, and other cities - if he ever had to pay a cover charge on the door then he'd walk away stating that his £5 a year CIU card covered all of that mullarky, he NEVER paid a cover charge, he would have apoplexy having to pay a £41 (and the rest) cover charge to watch a comedian.



Mind, none of the comedians he ever saw were millionaires, most were full time professional though.

To be fair, although many may be millionaires, describing them as comedians would probably breach trades descriptions

Absolutely not, with the single exception of stuff where there is some sort of public interest justification (public order at designated football games, alcohol minimum pricing, and suchlike) the government can't and won't interfere with a free market. It is entirely up to the vendors to self-regulate and could quite easily (but at significant cost) do, but never will. They also mostly have contractual terms that tickets can't be resold but for the most part have zero interest in the bother of enforcing this.



There was the famous instance of [url=http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/nov/21/court-ruling-ticket-resale-websitesViagogo and the RFU[/url but I don't think it came to much and certainly had no impact on the vast secondary market for RU tickets