46zilzal
10-16-2007, 11:40 AM
Yesterday, as I was about to make an assault on my favorite course (Fort Erie), I received a frantic phone call from my neighbor. Seems that his computer had gone down and he HAD to purchase some tickets for his son for an upcoming Bon Jovi concert. He told me that tickets officially went on sale a 10:00 AM so he had to be on line at 9:59.
I watched in amazement as he explained how he had to by pass "blocking" software that negates other requests so that scalpers can gobble up MOST of the tickets for re-sale. At 10:04, no new requests were being accepted as all 18,000 seats had been sold. HE NEVER GOT THROUGH. Then a few minutes later, a second show was announced, and, lo and behold, they were all gone in a few minutes.
In light of the recent fiasco (Hannah Montana, a Disney character from television) with all the seats sold to middlemen, there needs to be some control on this. None of her fans even got the chance to buy a ticket directly.
Up the street, a new apartment building began sales MONDAY. Already, there are real estate signs in the lobby, RE-SELLING many of the, as yet, UNOCCUPIED suites at big mark-ups. Years ago, when I tried to buy a seat for the Kentucky Derby a friend at Claiborne told me not to bother; "Big ticket agents get all the seats year in and year out and only about 1000 are sold each year."
I am all for free enterprise, but this practice is outrageous. I thought there were laws against scalping. I guess they aren't ever held to account these days.
I watched in amazement as he explained how he had to by pass "blocking" software that negates other requests so that scalpers can gobble up MOST of the tickets for re-sale. At 10:04, no new requests were being accepted as all 18,000 seats had been sold. HE NEVER GOT THROUGH. Then a few minutes later, a second show was announced, and, lo and behold, they were all gone in a few minutes.
In light of the recent fiasco (Hannah Montana, a Disney character from television) with all the seats sold to middlemen, there needs to be some control on this. None of her fans even got the chance to buy a ticket directly.
Up the street, a new apartment building began sales MONDAY. Already, there are real estate signs in the lobby, RE-SELLING many of the, as yet, UNOCCUPIED suites at big mark-ups. Years ago, when I tried to buy a seat for the Kentucky Derby a friend at Claiborne told me not to bother; "Big ticket agents get all the seats year in and year out and only about 1000 are sold each year."
I am all for free enterprise, but this practice is outrageous. I thought there were laws against scalping. I guess they aren't ever held to account these days.