It’s the annual ticket fest on eBay as thousands of fans open the purse strings hunting for tickets to the popular Edinburgh festival T in The Park. Geoff Ellis, chief executive of T in the Park, complains “The Government has failed to give us the support we need. They don’t seem to see what the problem is“.
The problem is quite simply that more people want to attend than there are tickets available and some of those have the funds available to buy tickets regardless of cost. It’s called supply and demand, and all the time someone has tickets and someone else can name a high enough price, they’ll be willing to exchange them for a boost to their PayPal account.
Ellis has no room for complaint, it’s not like he didn’t trot out the same complaints last year, he knows that there is a thriving secondary market for these tickets. If he wants to prevent tickets from being resold at a profit it’s time he (and other concert organisers in the same position) started issuing named tickets with photo ID. If it works for Glastonbury it can work for T in The Park.
In the mean time nothing has changed since I wrote “Why ticket sales on eBay should not be restricted” in January 2007. It’s a free market economy out there and the sooner Ellis et al realise the fact the better.
17 Responses
One might even imagine that they enjoy the annual press coverage, raising the event’s profile. Oh hush my mouth.
Dan! Such cynicism in one so young 😀
The thing that gets me is this “it prices the genuine fans out” argument. I mean, if you’re prepared to pay three times face value, you’re a GREAT BIG FAN, surely?
Balerno is in Kinross an awful long way from Edinburgh
the lord preserve and save us from Sassenachs
yer as bad as the yanks that think everyone lives within a mile of buckingham aplace
My apologies North, geography wasn’t ever my strongest point
(You mean I don’t live just down the road from Buck house? 😯 )
we must be neighbours
😳 balerno is in Edinburgh lol
T in the park is Balado
I’ve always said that if promoters for these events put say 10,000 tickets on ebay they would wipe out the tout market and probably make a bit more profit for themselves.
But all they do is whine. Perhaps they should wake up to the fact that demand will always outstrip supply for quality music and sports events.
One might also imagine that if he was getting his % from the re-sales, that his bleating would diminish somewhat.
You have to ask that when it comes to accusations of touting how is that the same PowerSellers have the tickets in bulk week in week out? How do they manage to acquire so many to sustain a business model if the ticketing agencies (Ticketmaster et al) work on a one-system-for-all model?
I doubt the organiser really gives a [beep] about people reselling on ebay, but its good PR to appear to care and he’s told to comment buy his PR firm.
If you did put 10k, or however many ticket up for sale on ebay the touts would probably buy them up and sell them as corporate packages.
I am the happy customer today of a gig ticket, having paid x3 it’s face value.
I love the secondary market.
Ohh nice one Dan, just don’t let Mr Ellis know how happy you are 😈
Just testing…
Here is a link for T in the Park tickets listings:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1?AID=9479574&PID=2040833&mpre=http%3A//search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3Dt+in+the+park+tickets
Woo! No more long URLs breaking our layout. I love WordPress 😀
Do we have to do anything to get that short url or is it automatic?
It’s automatic Lynne 😀