Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I don't buy the "free market" argument. If someone is selling a product, they should have the right to decide what the appropriate price is for their target consumers. Since repeat business is the staple of any good business and getting a bargain is one of the best marketing tactics for many businesses, scalpers are directly hurting these businesses. Charging the extreme of what the market can bear is not in their best interests (and hence why they don't do it).
And as jammies mentioned, scalpers create an artificial shortage. Businesses are the ones that should be in charge of the supply for their products.
|
But between ticketmaster, the artist and the venue scalping could be virtually eliminated. This means these entities either dont care, are stupid, or are getting a cut of the action. They allow scalping to occur.
A good example is the NFL. They have an arrangement where ticket exchange is the official reseller (SCALPER) for the NFL. I think artist, promoters and venues all benefit from scalping but just want the public to keep blaming Denver Broncos guy and not ticketmasters subsidiarys. I dont even believe that ticket master cheats, they just provide a service.
The first time a ticket is sold they get about 10-15%. When it gets resold they get another 25. Venues dont want to bother fighting it as it would cost them money to do it and artist benifit buying having an increase in demand when tickets are initially sold. Once you here a band sells out instantly scalpers and regular people will buy instantly so even if their is only demand for 12000, 15000 tickets will sell.
Everyone in the business benefits from scalping. Now ticketmaster might make more from an auction but then they give up multiple commissions from the same tickets.