5… 4… 3… 2… 1… It’s time.
You’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks. You’ve refreshed the webpage 15 times in the last two minutes waiting for the perfect time to make your move. Finally, the tickets to your favorite band’s concert go on sale.
And they’re gone.
But how? You—just as the cheetah stalks the gazelle—had been waiting to pounce on these tickets since last month. Money was set aside, plans were set in place and you even planned an outfit for the show. Scrap your plans and blow that money on hard liquor, because there’s no way you’re getting to that show now.
The pain would be tolerable if other fans had beaten you out. If it were other super ans also obsessively waiting for tickets, then the outcome wouldn’t be so bitter.
But it’s not fans of the artist buying out all available tickets immediately.
It’s the scalpers and scammers who are using illegal, automatized means to buy out tickets with the intent of flipping them for profit. These actions are against the terms of service for major ticket sale sites, but people are able to find ways around them.
Buying secondhand tickets is very rarely a fan-to-fan sale. It’s more often an example of a scumbag who’s getting rich off others’ desire to attend concerts at the expense of fans and artists.
Sure, tickets will be available again, but they’ll be marked up 250 percent of the original asking price the artist intended. The jacked up price is compounded by unnecessarily high “service fees” that are attached to every online ticket sale.
The fan doesn’t receive any additional perks for being forced to pay twice the original price. The artist doesn’t see a dime of that excess money.
Instead, the exorbitant excess all goes straight into the pockets of the scammers who are perpetuating the unreasonably high prices.
The secondhand ticket market is destroying our lives and we as consumers are entirely helpless to it.
Some bands like the Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden are taking steps to prevent this kind of thing from happening. However, we will not see any form of change until all touring artists take a unified stand against it.
In the meantime, we are forced to become accustomed to either missing out on concerts, or paying far too much to attend them.