[mhartl]

Last year Burning Man sold out for the first time. In an attempt to alleviate the shortages, this year they had a lottery where people could request up to four tickets per person. The obvious strategy was to request more than you needed, in order to hedge your risk of losing the lottery (essentially a prisoner's dilemma situation). The utterly predictable outcome was worse shortages. They added an aftermarket to "fix" the problem, but (like Louis C.K.) they capped the price at ticket face value. Since the market price is higher, this guarantees shortages.

[peterwwillis]

It's almost strange that they would implement a system like this just because they sold out for the first time. Other regional burns around the country regularly sell out up to a month before the event, and they never implement alternate strategies for people to buy tickets. Then again i'm not aware of a scalper market for these since they are small and regional, but I have often considered buying four tickets at the lowest introductory price and selling them a week before the event ("Hello, my name is Peter, and i'm a capitalist.")

[unwiredben]

Burning Flipside here in Texas has had a lottery system for the last few years due to not being able to exceed 2500 people on site or be under the TX mass gathering law. They make the lottery a little inconvenient (sign up in early January, mail in a money order during one week later in the month, have the MO returned if you don't get tickets). They also have a no scalping policy and regularly go after sales on Craigslist and other sources for more than face value.

[scoot]

not being able to exceed 2500 people on site or be under the TX mass gathering law

Sorry, what? have all major sporting events been cancelled too?

[damncabbage]

No, it doesn't permit gatherings of more than 2500 people to last longer than five hours without a lot of overhead (money and paperwork):

http://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2005/hs/009.00.000751.00.h...

[unwiredben]

no, it's just that when you exceed 2500 people, a bunch of special provisions come into play, like having to provide water, security, vending, etc. that clash with the self-reliance/gift-economy aspect of a burn.

[ben0x539]

> Since the market price is higher, this guarantees shortages.

I don't really understand this. There's obviously more people who want to see the event than there's room, so isn't that what guarantees the shortage?

Raising the price just artificially moves the point where you say "welp, can't go" from not being able to find a ticket to not being able to afford one. It doesn't really improve availability?

[dredmorbius]

That's how economists define "surplus" vs. "shortage".

There's a shortage of a good when the price is set lower than what the market is willing to pay. The economist's solution is to set the price higher (this may also encourage means of increasing supply, depending on price elasticity of supply).

There's an excess of a good when the price is set higher than what the market is willing to pay. The economist's solution is to set the price lower (which may also result in some producers exiting the market and/or reducing output).

There are problems in this theory where it intersects with social / political / physical production. Food, for example, is relatively price-inelastic: there's a certain amount of calories people require to survive on a daily basis, and all the price pressure you can apply isn't going to move mere calories by more than a relatively small amount up or down (people will either starve or become obese). Though you can manipulate food quality: meat (more resource-intensive than vegetarian diets), nutritional quality, freshness, organic vs. artificial / technologically intensive agricultural methods.

[blhack]

*Two tickets per person

[mhartl]

"Up to four" covers two. There was an early lottery that allowed four. (I got four myself.)

[blhack]

Was that the lottery back in, like, November? The lottery in January only allowed 2 per person.