I tried but couldn't get tickets to Tool on 10/15 in denver. They announce a second date 10/16, but it's my kid's 5th birthday. Well I attempted to get tickets anyway, and I did, lower level. OK, so now I'll just scalp them and buy a scalped pair for 10/15 to hopefully break even.


So get this;
My initial purchase had $27.10 fees on it, $125 face value paid $152.10 for. I sell that one on ticketmaster.com, 'verified resale'. I list for $275. It sells, I get $235.67, so they got $39.33 on it.
So since mine sold, I go to buy one. I actually find a lone ticket quite below all the other listings, even closer than my original ticket and it was $180.00, but final price was $220.75, so $40.75 fees.

Assume the ticket I sold had the same $40.75 worth of fees, my original ticket has now had 3 fees on it - 27.10+39.33+40.75 = $107.18. Someone paid $315.75 for my ticket, and I received $235.67.. $80 straight back to TM!

All on a $125 ticket.


I have to say, it is nice to have ZERO issues with trust. Since it's TM, there is no transfer of money or ticket by the parties. TM takes my ticket and gives it to buyer, 100% guaranteed.


It's still unbelievable though.

i'm going to need a T account diagram or 3D pie chart of the financials involved in order to understand.

Basically looks like this, with the black slice representing how much money TM makes off tickets.
The other small slices are artist, parking lot owner, Ticketmaster.com webmaster and food and beverage owner.

So who's the tool?

gggmann said:

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So who's the tool?

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Sounds like you made more scalping the ticket for the concert you were never planning on attending than TM did on fees?

Did we just go back in time 25yrs? Did you get a Visaband?
Man, it is so hard to see Pearl Jam anywhere these days since they stopped playing Ticketmaster venues as a protest against ticket fees.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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Did we just go back in time 25yrs? Did you get a Visaband?
Man, it is so hard to see Pearl Jam anywhere these days since they stopped playing Ticketmaster venues as a protest against ticket fees.

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It's a good thing because Pearl Jam sucks. Eddie Vedder is a crappy singer with a crappy voice.

I'm confused on why you bought tickets for the other date you couldn't attend?

Quote:

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Ticketmaster is a racket

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CJS4715 said:

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I'm confused on why you bought tickets for the other date you couldn't attend?

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third coast.. said:

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To scalp it and get a ticket to the date he could attend. It says it right there in the OP

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At least someone is paying attention.


I want to f-in go to the show, but it's not happening on my kids bday. I either bend over and pay what scalpers want, or buy and sell for profit then buy secondary market for the date I can attend.

And at that, I did succeed. I got a closer seat in a closer section, and I paid less than face value, even after paying almost $100 in secondary market fees.

Proposition Joe said:

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Sounds like you made more scalping the ticket for the concert you were never planning on attending than TM did on fees?

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No, I profited $85. I paid $108 total in TM fees.

Then I over paid $70 for a ticket to a sold out show.

So to avoid paying scalper prices, you became a scalper.

Proposition Joe said:

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So to avoid paying scalper prices, you became a scalper.

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He's not complaining about paying for tickets on the secondary market. He's complaining about the fees that Ticketmaster charges.

Proposition Joe said:

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So to avoid paying scalper prices, you became a scalper.

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I have no issue with scalpers, or scalping.

The difference now is, a buyer paid $315 for a $275 ticket, and seller only got $235. There is $80 worth of fees on that ticket.. almost 33%

That's just crazy. And that's after the original fee on the face value sale that TM already got.

Back in the day, you paid 10% for ebay sale... buyer didn't pay any fees except maybe a $5 shipping charge. So a $250 ticket was $250 for buyer, and seller got ~$225.

But ticketmaster is getting smart, and putting delays on ticket deliveries and even using dynamic bar codes.. thwarting traditional scalpers. But scalping isn't going away, it's just moving to TMs own website with ticketmaster resale, and it's costing the buyer and seller a lot.

I don't mind so much TM getting into the resale game and keeping a bigger piece of the pie for themselves.

What bothers me is that they allow said resale during actual public onsales for events -- their whole site is designed around creating an immense amount of urgency to buy tickets as quickly as possible -- even sometimes taking tickets you don't want because you're afraid if you throw them back they will all be gone. These urgent/panic buys have unsuspecting people buying TM-Resale or Platinum tickets without even realizing it until after the fact.

They'll tell you they want everyone to have a fair shot at tickets (or that it's these bots gobbling up all the good stuff!), but reality is they want you to be pressured into buying as quickly as possible no matter the price. There's a reason they don't even show prices before the sale begins anymore.

It's these practices that have led many people simply to simply go directly to the secondary market where you can take your time and get the exact seats that you want.

Id love a breakdown of where the money of the face value of the ticket went too.

I'm sure they're making money there too.

I'm honestly really surprised that a big name artist hasn't had an onsale yet that was auction style.

Tickets get sold at 'market' value the first time around, with that big name artist getting same % as they always have, but now instead of it being a $250 front row ticket, it's $2500.

I would think most scalpers would stay out of that game. Much more risky to buy it in that way with intent to try and resell for even higher. Therefore, only fans are getting tickets.

You'd almost have to have different sale times for different sections.

That's essentially what Platinum listings are. "Market value" for some of the best seats. That money goes to artists and TM.

If demand is high out of the gate, they'll pull more of the good inventory and convert it to Platinum.

We're now also at the point that prices are changing as the sale is taking place. Plenty of videos out there showing someone choosing a $75 face value ticket before fees that after being carted is a $95 face value ticket before fees.

I did not follow any of that.

I tried TickPick last year for some Mavericks tickets. Just about the same list price as the others but no extra fees. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but they worked just fine.

rynning said:

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I tried TickPick last year for some Mavericks tickets. Just about the same list price as the others but no extra fees. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but they worked just fine.

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The problem with all these reseller sites (including stubhub) is a ticket/entry is not guaranteed. Only Ticketmaster guarantees entry. The best the others can do is guarantee a refund. That's a huge difference.
It would suck to find out you don't have a ticket the day before the show.

All this math is confusing, but I just wanted to point out that TOOL is awesome and I'm seeing them in San Antonio in one Earth-month.

Ticketmaster at least provides a service for all those fees.

Scalpers don't provide any service at all. But of course that's okay because you are a scalper.

The guy who gets to see an otherwise sold-out TOOL show disagrees. Not me, I mean the guy that buys OP's ticket.

aggiebq03+ said:

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Ticketmaster at least provides a service for all those fees.

Scalpers don't provide any service at all. But of course that's okay because you are a scalper.

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I scalped it through ticketmaster.

Proposition Joe said:

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That's essentially what Platinum listings are. "Market value" for some of the best seats. That money goes to artists and TM.

If demand is high out of the gate, they'll pull more of the good inventory and convert it to Platinum.

We're now also at the point that prices are changing as the sale is taking place. Plenty of videos out there showing someone choosing a $75 face value ticket before fees that after being carted is a $95 face value ticket before fees.

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If that's what official platinum is, they aren't covering much ground.

I've recently purchased two really high demand shows (Metallica S&M and Tool), and for both I maybe saw a dozen official platinum seats. They are easy to spot as they have a different logo as you're looking at the arena layout.

So... given that Ticket Bastage is a cash machine, imagine my surprise when I interviewed with them for a senior IT specialist role in Los Angeles and they wanted to pay me about 10% less than what I had been earning in Austin. I had to laugh. My guess is that money is all going to CEO/Executive bonuses or something like that. I'm sure the artist never sees any of it.

HollywoodBQ said:

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So... given that Ticket Bastage is a cash machine, imagine my surprise when I interviewed with them for a senior IT specialist role in Los Angeles and they wanted to pay me about 10% less than what I had been earning in Austin. I had to laugh. My guess is that money is all going to CEO/Executive bonuses or something like that. I'm sure the artist never sees any of it.

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Figures. I've been to two concerts in the past month and seeing all those damn fees really makes me want to invest in them. At least that way when I'm getting gouged, I can feel like I'm sort of profiting in a way.

Do people go to concerts by themselves often? I feel like going with a buddy or a squad is half the fun. Kinda think thats weird.

62strat said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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That's essentially what Platinum listings are. "Market value" for some of the best seats. That money goes to artists and TM.

If demand is high out of the gate, they'll pull more of the good inventory and convert it to Platinum.

We're now also at the point that prices are changing as the sale is taking place. Plenty of videos out there showing someone choosing a $75 face value ticket before fees that after being carted is a $95 face value ticket before fees.

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If that's what official platinum is, they aren't covering much ground.

I've recently purchased two really high demand shows (Metallica S&M and Tool), and for both I maybe saw a dozen official platinum seats. They are easy to spot as they have a different logo as you're looking at the arena layout.

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I could have sworn I saw that happening while I was buying my TOOL tickets, but I was half-crazed at the time anyhow.

PoohAh97 said:

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The guy who gets to see an otherwise sold-out TOOL show disagrees. Not me, I mean the guy that buys OP's ticket.

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OP increased the price of the ticket to the end user while providing no value whatsoever.

At least ticket master is a ticket delivery platform that has a guarantee that your tickets are authentic.

aggiebq03+ said:

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PoohAh97 said:

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The guy who gets to see an otherwise sold-out TOOL show disagrees. Not me, I mean the guy that buys OP's ticket.

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OP increased the price of the ticket to the end user while providing no value whatsoever.

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I provided the buyer with an opportunity to get a ticket to a sold out show through an outlet with a guarantee.