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by karzeem 3667 days ago
The efficient solution is to price tickets at the market price in the first place. Even if primary sales weren't dominated by resellers, "sign on at the exact moment tickets go on sale, and hope you're one of the lucky few who snag one" isn't a fair way of allocating tickets to the fans who want them most.

But why set a price at all? Just auction off tickets in the first place. For popular events, don't set a price, just let the market decide. That gets tickets to the fans who value them the most, gives the venues/performers/athletes the money they should have been getting all along, and cuts out the resellers completely.
1 comments
DrScump 3667 days ago
It's still supply and demand, and by withdrawing supply, brokers will drive prices up further regardless.

The solution is to go back to the old days:

1) have only live, in-person purchases at authorized retailers and list all sale locations clearly.

2) limit ticket quantities per-person and per-turn-in-line.

3) PDF ticketing must end. It is a HUGE vector for fraud. Not only does it make duplication easy, it makes outright counterfeiting via modification easy.

4) (when needed) earmark the seats with buyer information and restrict entry to the actual buyer (e.g. use the purchase credit card, or photo-ID if cash purchase)

Now, brokers could still hire people to get in line, but there is insufficient payoff with a per-turn limit: the broker would end up with a lot of scattered pairs (assuming limit=2) of decreasing quality.

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FireBeyond 3667 days ago
"4) (when needed) earmark the seats with buyer information and restrict entry to the actual buyer (e.g. use the purchase credit card, or photo-ID if cash purchase)"

which was already proposed in NY, per the article, but lobbied against hard by, you guessed it, ticket agencies and major secondary sellers. Shocking, truly.

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karzeem 3667 days ago
Could you elaborate on what you mean by "withdrawing supply"? Are you worried that sellers will hold some tickets back from the auction, or that resellers will buy the tickets that go up for auction?
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StavrosK 3667 days ago
How does that system handle four-five people wanting to go see a concert together?
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DrScump 3667 days ago
They get in line together to purchase?

Or, quantity limits per purchased are relaxed after the initial sale surge is complete.

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