Sporting and music events are what really get me. Because of large contracts, businesses like stubhub and the like are able to scoop large volume tickets BEFORE the go on sale to the general public. Then they mark them up 300%. This is scumbag.
Sporting and music events are what really get me. Because of large contracts, businesses like stubhub and the like are able to scoop large volume tickets BEFORE the go on sale to the general public. Then they mark them up 300%. This is scumbag.
Sloth Love Chunk
I worked for a ticket broker located in Missouri in college 15 years ago. All perfectly legal and with huge money making potential. The two brothers that ran the business started out small and built it up to a several million dollar business by the time they sold out to a larger firm.
There are many people that are willing to pay big money (high demand) for premium seats that sell out in minutes (limited supply) for sporting events and concerts. Buyers would rather shell out the cash than go through the hassle of trying to buy tickets online (refreshing 50 times), at a retailer after standing in line, or on the phone (redialing 50 times). It requires quite a bit of luck to get front row seats at events and your chances go way up if you have dozens of people working for you. I don't even have a problem with presales to large ticket brokers - those guys move large volumes of tickets for events so they get preferred treatment. Preferred customer status is a common (and common sense) business practice - for example giving preference to season ticket holders and individuals who have purchased tickets for many years.
The average guy gets left out and has a difficult time getting through for premium tickets (I'm a Laker fan so I know first hand). But if the average person plans and dedicates the time to getting the tickets in advance, they can still get seats at face value for most events and if they are lucky maybe even some premium seats (which even at face value are highly priced). I've spent thousands on sporting event tickets because it is worth the cash to me to go. The only real impact is that I can only go a few times rather than all the time.
The term 'scumbag' gets thrown around a great deal on this topic (to include the previous discussion). These guys aren't purse snatching or driving up the price of baby formula. We're talking tickets and limited edition books which are by their very nature scarce in number which naturally creates the market for low supply and high demand = expensive.
It's alarming you don't realize what an absolute retarded statement this is. According to that logic someone making a living-someone making profit EVER, is "taking advantage people". Any business, any service is charging more for that product than they are paying for it and selling it to other people--for profit.
So someone has the foresight so predict that a product will go up in value and they buy some to sell and that makes that person a piece of shit? LOL
You said "they know" will go up in value... but there is no sure thing. Maybe the value won't go up at all. Maybe it will go up a little bit but after shipping cost and time spent, there was no profit to be made. So quit with these stupid assumptions. You look very foolish, sir.
To me there is nothing wrong with it. I would assume (perhaps incorrectly, but IMO I beleive...) that the items that sell out, would sell out regardless if it was sold to people who just want it, or people who purchase with an intent to sell for profit. Either way the end result is the same - item sold out.
When it comes to items showing up on the secondary market, the purpose behind the sale is irrelevant. If someone who purchased it with intent to keep it ends up selling for personal/financial reasons etc, they are still going to enjoy the inflated price and sell at a profit no? So there is no difference if the intent behind that sale was to always sell at a profit - end result equals you being able to buy something that had sold out, at MARKET value.
Now some may argue that the items only sell out because of these profiteers, and that the second hand value is artificially inflated. Well to me that is just guess work and you'd never really know. When it comes to King books and S/L's selling out so quickly, you would have a hard time convincing me there aren't plenty of true collectors out there that would be next in line to purchase and the item would still sell out.
For some things I do not have an issue with purchasing to flip and make a profit. My main problem would be where there is no limit (to number of purchases) or preferred purchasing involved. I have had to go on the secondary market (specifically sporting and music events) and purchase things for inflated price for this reason. I was online/on the phone/etc at the appropriate time for certain things only to find out the event is already sold out within 5-20 minutes of the tickets opening up. How is it possible to sell 15,000 seats within that timeframe unless seats were held back and/or groups can buy massive amounts of seats on a preferred basis. This practice is a little disturbing to me.
I don't really begrudge the purchaser (and subsequent re-seller) for making a proft though. They are only utilizing the system that is already in place.
Yea, but there is a difference between 10 different people buying 10 items and being happy compared to 1 person buying all 10 items and the other 9 people buying the items at inflated prices.
I’ve always been told that the value of an item is whatever you can get somebody to pay you for it. Maybe I’m looking at this backwards? Maybe I should be complaining about all the people that buy stuff at inflated prices. If nobody bought the stuff on the secondary market there wouldn’t be any sellers.
Pipe dream I know…
There is almost 2 different arguments here. There are things that are made in limited supply that are sold and once they are gone, they are gone. Like books and movies and concert tickets. Then there are things that are in high demand simply because they are new.
Look at the people that stand in lines for the newest electronic item whether it's an Iphone or a PS3 or an Xbox or whatever. They buy out the store and then minutes later the stuff is on eBay for 100's of dollars more. Then people pay the enormous prices just so they can be "first". But a couple of weeks later everyone and their brother has one because they waited until the rush died down.
Christmas time typically causes an inflated demand and value as well. Look at the people that pack the stores on Black Friday to buy stuff that they can usually get in January for less.
Hearts are tough, she said, most times hearts don't break, and I'm sure that's right . . . but what about then? What about who we were then? What about hearts in Atlantis?
Hearts are tough, she said, most times hearts don't break, and I'm sure that's right . . . but what about then? What about who we were then? What about hearts in Atlantis?
It seems obvious to me that in any economic system this would happen and I don't at all view it as taking advantage of people. So long as your not like buying all the baby formula or medicines on the market and marking them up to astronomical prices I don't really see anything shady in the purchasing and reselling of stuff.
If you don't like the price don't buy it, it's that simple. If you want a copy at retail price then make time to buy it when it gets released otherwise don't begrudge people who are spending thousands of dollars in order to make a profit
You can't please all the people all the time.
Remember in a free market society that simple economics is the primary driver - the Law of Supply and Demand! Never better exemplified than on ebay. I got something; five other people got the same thing; twenty people want the something. The price goes higher and higher!
House prices, gasoline, milk, bread and eggs. Teletubbies, S/L books, tickets to sporting or concerts, beanie babies, insurance, ... How about the banks, doesn't it just yank yer chain to have to pay some stupid $2 - $3.50 fee to get you own money out of an ATM when it has been long proven that the cost to the bank for ATM electronic transactions is minimal, as in pennies. Think of how much of a markup that is! It's in the thousands of % markup!
To me the only real "scum bags" would be those that jacked up the price of something that was "life-saving" to profit on someone else's woes.
My pet peeve is in fact Stub Hub - whcih I call legalized ticket scalping. You can get busted for scalping tickets at teh gate at a ballpark, but you can sell the same tickets at inflated prices online! I know its all part of supply and demand and someone is going to profit. In the case of stb hub they aer just not going to profit form me. As an example, just recently the only way for me to get decent seats for the Yankees/Nationals Exhibition game (and most here know that I like Merlin am a diehard Yankee fan) was through Stub Hub, where the seat prices were more than tripled. I am not paying the price asked to see my beloved team. Perhaps if it was a meaningful game like The World Series (stranger things have happened) I would swallow my pride and buy the tickets. But for the everyday games - not happening. I'll buy the tickets through the venue if I want to see the game.
DT Spoiler - Enter at your own risk!
Spoiler:
Neostatus - It's alarming that YOU don't understand that this is extremely offensive to a lot of people asshole. Quit with the stupid assumptions that the word you just used is okay, You are the one looking foolish sir. I work with mentally handicapped and physically disabled children every day. I can't believe you even had the nerve to say that.retarded
I realize that this may sound a little off coming from me, but really folks we should really try to remain civil and refrain from insulting each other with foul or questionable language. Right?
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
im with you on that merlin - i apologize but that word is horrible
...The terms used for this condition are subject to a process called the euphemism treadmill. This means that whatever term is chosen for this condition, it eventually becomes perceived as an insult. The terms mental retardation and mentally retarded were invented in the middle of the 20th century to replace the previous set of terms, which were deemed to have become offensive. By the end of the 20th century, these terms themselves have come to be widely seen as disparaging and politically incorrect and in need of replacement...
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
If you think that someone is being ignorant, it's better to just accuse them of ignorance than to compare them with the mentally handicapped. We should learn the difference. If people just conform in their word choice and don't actually get the point of this, then nothing really changes. Same thing with state control over resources. If a government institutes any system to control greed and exploitation, the greedy just conform outwardly and then move on to exploit the new system.
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Back on topic please.
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
So far, all I've heard in the way of explaining why it's okay to engage in profiteering of the kind that I was talking about when this topic got kicked off is some variant of the following: "The system permits for it, and it worked for me, and that's all I care about." At the bottom of things, it's selfish behavior that fails to take into account other people's feelings.