blog.mises.org — Scalpers generally are portrayed as a seedy bunch of grifters only a few steps up the food chain from child pornographers, fantasy football participants and Pete Rose's circle of friends. Rather than a bigger blight on society than the Backstreet Boys, the scalper is a humble businessperson and a fan's best friend, next to $1 Heineken Night.
Aug 25, 2006 View in Crawl 4
seanlAug 25, 2006
Scalpers are speculators in ticket futures :) They make sure there is enough supply available for the Taco Bell employee who *really* wants it but couldn't compete with the yuppies buying tickets via their work Internet connection or taking a "mental health day" to camp out in line!
skyorbitAug 25, 2006
Well I think that this could be solved simply by them raising their rates. But I don't think they really want to do that because it would probably generate bad will and bad publicity among their fans. So they sell tickets a lot cheaper then they could, to ensure a full house. Then the scalpers help by spreading the word more, and by helping people get in on the secondary market.Tracy
seanlAug 25, 2006
Another option would be to do what airlines and Burning Man and some concerts do and have a certain number of tickets at each price level, that way even if not all the tickets at the highest price level sell out, it will only be a small number of total seats that aren't filled.
Closed AccountAug 26, 2006
How about if the music industry were to break their ties with Ticketmaster and instead, sell their concert and event tickets on eBay.com? Highest bidder wins. Seller makes what his customers believe his offering is worth, buyers get what they want at the price they're willing to pay. Just like playing Mousetrap. You roll your dice, you move your mice, nobody gets hurt.