[accidentreport]

OK...dunno if the band actually read any of this at all but I'd love to hear their response so here goes...

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Dear 30 Seconds to Mars,

I was wondering how you feel about the current climate in regard to tickets for concerts where people are buying the tickets at the reasonable price set out initially (£17.50 for the Koko gig) but have no actual intention of going to said gig but in fact turn around and sell them for double, if not more. This is a particular aspect of the modern age which has become quite annoying to myself. The general ticket touting at venues isn't too bad as I have on occasion ended up with a spare ticket due to someone not being able to come but now we get people buying a number of tickets with the express purpose of selling them on second hand ticket sites or eBay. One example of this outrageous price inflation is someone on eBay selling four ticktes for the Koko gig at £59.95 per ticket and £4.95 postage. This means that a ticket has gone from £20 (inc fees) to nearly £65! more than tripple the original value. so this person will have spent £80 but will theoretically sell the tickets on for £260...thus making £180 out of yourselves.

Something should be done about this...under no circumstances should any ticket for a concert or show be allowed to be sold for anything higher that the face value. I very much doubt these people declare this income on a tax return. eBay is probably the worst culprit as they won't be inclined to stop it as they make a fortune out of it. But even Aloud.com has a second hand ticket selling section now which could at least be controlled. And the worst of it is that people are even selling these tickets before they've even gone on sale. There were auctions on eBay which started before 9am this morning selling tickets which could only be purchased after 9am!

Please, take this into account and realise that your true fans, and the true fans of many other bands, are being scammed out of their money by people making money off yourselves and other bands. In the music industry got behind this idea then a stop could be made to this unfair proffitering.

Regards,

Chris


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What do the other forum members think about this???

[Alexandros]

I'm not sure but I think my eye caught some posts in the TOUR forum- UK thread saying people found tickets cost more than 100 GBP. It's shocking really.

[ukheather]

Yep there are tickets available for over £100 which is stupid as they only cost £17.50!

It seems that not many fans managed to get a ticket which is a real shame.

[J30STM]

I'm not sure but I think my eye caught some posts in the TOUR forum- UK thread saying people found tickets cost more than 100 GBP. It's shocking really.

That is loose change by now, there is a seller that has 1 bid up for 2 tickets on ebay for 122 GBP or 195 US Dollars
http://cgi.ebay.com/30-SECONDS-TO-MARS-2-T...p3286.m63.l1177

Iin the left bottom corner where it says More from the same seller, it shows what they are selling..they are all tickets to shows that have high prices so far.

I think it's outrageous!! Posted this in the London thread earlier as well..

Checked on rules and found this, that clearly states they are breaking rules of trade as far as I read it..

Primary ticket sales may be listed on eBay and are exempt from state ticket resale regulations. To qualify as a 'primary sale' of an event ticket, the ticket must be sold on eBay by the artist, team, promoter or organizer of the event and the seller must clearly and explicitly state in the listing that the listing is an
authorized first sale of the ticket directly from the promoter, artist, organizer or team to the public. For help with primary ticket sales please contact eBay.

Also ticket is listed with this info: "There are no restrictions on these tickets for photo id" As far as I have read in here, you need prove of age, so that classifies as needing photo id I.E Passport or drivers license in my book

This doesn't sound like an authorized sale form the promoter as they sold ticks for 17,50, clearly not what they are charging now. And they don't mention it anywhere on the page.

My thought is to report any of these ticks found and going for high prices

Hope I read that right, here is the link
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/event-tickets.html

[BeautifulBeasts]

I'm disgusted by this... seriously.
I had a bad experience with touts last year. I'm never, ever going through that again. I really do hope the band realises this, even if something can't be done straight away - I hope it'll get better in the future!

Oh, and if anyone wants to get it noticed by tweeting #ihatetickettouts as a trending topic. Do so.

[ayousu]

I understand how shitty the situation is, but, realistically, I don't think the band can do anything about it. Scalpers have been around since forever and I don't think they are going anywhere...

I do hope to at least in the future, whoever they sell tickets through limits the number of ticket people can buy at one time.

& good luck to everyone looking for a ticket!

[fallenxmarsxgirl]

I completely agree. It really pisses me off.
We call them scalpers. A few years ago I was at one of the summer music festivals and ended up having 2 spare tix cause a couple friends cancled. So before the show I was trying to sell them and I saw this girl talking to a scalper trying to get him to lower his price or whatever (he wanted 3x what was printed) so I went up and told her I had 2 and all I wanted was what I paid. She bought them and the guy looked really pissed
But I've seen them at pretty much every concert I've been to so I don't know if the band (30STM or otherwise) can really do anything unfortunately.

[TeachJoanne]

I understand how shitty the situation is, but, realistically, I don't think the band can do anything about it. Scalpers have been around since forever and I don't think they are going anywhere...

I do hope to at least in the future, whoever they sell tickets through limits the number of ticket people can buy at one time.

& good luck to everyone looking for a ticket!

Yes, I'm afraid it's a problem that doesn't have an easy solution. Limiting the amount of tickets per buyer is one solution (although these scalpers seem to be able to sail around that limit when it is there).

I was thinking maybe a fan e-mail listing code? We get the transmission e-mails, maybe a code could be included in them that you need to buy tickets? Not fair to those who aren't on the mailing list and, for sure, there will be scalpers who sign up for it just to get the code, though, so still not perfect.

[beetle]

NIN had ticket presale for their official board members so I'm sure it can be done by other bands too...

[ukheather]

NIN had ticket presale for their official board members so I'm sure it can be done by other bands too...

Yeah, if the presale had gone ahead I bet there would be a lot more fans with tickets rather than the touts

[ayousu]

Yes, I'm afraid it's a problem that doesn't have an easy solution. Limiting the amount of tickets per buyer is one solution (although these scalpers seem to be able to sail around that limit when it is there).

I was thinking maybe a fan e-mail listing code? We get the transmission e-mails, maybe a code could be included in them that you need to buy tickets? Not fair to those who aren't on the mailing list and, for sure, there will be scalpers who sign up for it just to get the code, though, so still not perfect.

Yes, those are partial solutions. And unfortunately there is no better option; especially when sites like ticketmaster are owned by companies who also operate scalping sites....

NIN had ticket presale for their official board members so I'm sure it can be done by other bands too...

Technologically, I don't think Mars has the capacity to run the ticket sale system quite the same way as NIN. Trent has spent a lot of effort trying to reduce involvement of 3rd party ticket resellers (e.g. ticketmaster and its international equivalents). From my limited experience that is the best way there is. But 1. Even that is not perfect** and 2. the cost and man power to set that kind of a system up is probably beyond what 30STM can afford 3. Frankly I don't think the label would allow them to... NIN only got that after breaking off from their label.

** as obvious from unlimited number of scalpers outside any NIN show even during the 'Wave Goodbye" tour. Actually, this issue was also addressed by Trent himself; I am sure the post is still somewhere on NIN forums, if anyone is interested in reading...

[Nine]

NIN had ticket presale for their official board members so I'm sure it can be done by other bands too...

And they did it the only way you can to eliminate scalping.. WILL CALL ONLY. end of story. NO tickets sent in advance.
Of course, I don't know the business end of getting something like that together, it also prob depends on the venue.


To add:

Scalping sucks, but you have the option to get tickets you don't currently have, so either suck it up and pay more or quit your bitching about it.
In the same way Pearl Jam couldn't do jackshit about Ticketmaster surcharges nothing anyone can do will get rid of scalping and re-selling of tix, it's been around for ages, it's not going anywhere.

Think of it like a hooker, you don't have it, you want it, you gotta pay for it, you'll have a happy ending.

[jmig]

Think of it like a hooker, you don't have it, you want it, you gotta pay for it, you'll have a happy ending.

[Morrigan]

And they did it the only way you can to eliminate scalping.. WILL CALL ONLY. end of story. NO tickets sent in advance.
Of course, I don't know the business end of getting something like that together, it also prob depends on the venue.

Plus the NIN presale tix had the name of the person who ordered them on the actual tickets at will call, so they were seriously not messing around.

The band can only do so much, as others have said. There may already be plans in the works for presales and such - we can only hope. I feel very badly for those in the UK and Europe who didn't get tickets today because of this.

[Echeloness]

Nine.. right on.

This happens everywhere, every popular show, everyday. It sucks ass and I'm gutted for the folks who missed out.. but it's just the way the world turns. The band can do nossing about it.

As somebody on some thread said today (I think it was olly).. There's a whole tour coming up.. if you really wanna see em - you will. SOON *ducks*

[ROSSSSSS10]

ill personally punch every person that pays more than $30 bucks to see 30STM live.

I would need a lot of damn persuasion to pay that much to see them, especially after the mediocrity (at best) that was the last time i saw them.

[SiobhannNessieHaggis]

Nine I agree on all of what you said. Its just part of the system now unfortunately it sucks but until someone can figure out a 100% guaranteed way to stop it, it will always happen.

Oh and Nine, can I sig this? cos this made my laugh so hard

Think of it like a hooker, you don't have it, you want it, you gotta pay for it, you'll have a happy ending.

[Leavchip]

I know here in Florida there has been a lot of crack downs on the scalpers for shows. And when tickets go on sale there is a limit to the number of tickets you can purchase per phone and ip address for the computers who have the bots that autodial and such.

I agree with the pre-sales and will call - that is what we have had to do for several shows in order to get the discounted price & we have had to show id's also when picking up the tickets at the will call booth.

The sad part is how quickly they showed up on ebay- it is breaking the USA federal laws to post a ticket for more than the face value of the ticket -so not so sure how they get away with it on ebay - obviously backs are being turned..

There will be more shows and a full tour. maybe this will show the band and promoters that a larger venue will be needed for the shows.. this was like a test run....

There is also the case of boggus tickets that will turn up now too- here in the USA they scan the tickets and if its a bogus one the scanner beeps really loud... I have never had the beep but people around us have.. this one gal paid $150 each for tickets to see Tokiyo Hotel last year here in Orlando at HOB - yep they were boggus and she and her friend were out the $$ and could not go into the sold out show.

If you chose to buy from a scalper or off site resale venue then it really is buyer beware..

[jmig]

What did they do for the 2 dollar tour? I think I recall that working out ok? Another good thing to do is to when we know the shows are small, and ppl can afford to, just buy as many tickets as you can and then sell them here to other forum members who couldnt get to them or whatever. I have done that a few times for shows. I know not everyone can afford to buy tons of spare tickets but when you can it is a good way to help beat the system a bit.

[Milady Rhiannon]

Think of it like a hooker, you don't have it, you want it, you gotta pay for it, you'll have a happy ending.

Great. Nine mentions a hooker, and my mind goes to Lily's Hooker!Jared! pic. Thanks.... (well, at least I didn't think of the Hoff).