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Originally Posted by bikerchic
But the "re-sellers" on TicketsNow is Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster owns TicketsNow and are illegally scalping the tickets themselves and calling it a "ticket exchange". Shady, shady.
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Don't confuse the people who own the tickets (the re-sellers) and the forum/marketplace that facilitates the transaction (TicketsNow). And, pardon me if this seems like a dumb question, but are there actual examples of where Ticketsnow is illegally facilitating the resale of tickets above face value?
As listed on their site (
http://www.ticketsnow.com/info/faq.html) :
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Is it illegal to sell tickets for more than face value?
No. It does generally require a license and set of standards to follow. In Illinois, where TicketsNow is licensed, it also requires a $100,000 cash bond for consumer protection to be held either privately or through an association. We are licensed to sell in 98% of the markets and will notify you if we cannot. All transactions that we handle meet all state and local provisions.
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Really, my only problem with Ticketsnow is the concept of Ticketmaster redirecting consumers when tickets are still available (it should be redirected ONLY if the show is completely sold out). But, it seems that the Springsteen clusterf*ck fixed that problem.
You can argue that its in poor taste that a ticket seller/distributor would have a vested interest in the resale of their product but, in the end, its not illegal (except, when it is, of course... but in most cases, its not). Its a viable business model involving in-demand aftermarket commodities- the only reason why ticket scalping is vilified vs., oh, I don't know, IPO trading is because of the emotional component that tends to be involved with music/sports.
HOWEVER, if the merger of Live Nation & Ticketmaster goes through, then they absolutely need to dissolve Ticketsnow, or at least disallow any Live Nation promoted events being listed on the site. Artists/managers won't allow it... or will want to make sure they're cut in on the transaction somehow.