Help! FM @ Mohegan Sun Uncasville CT

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Wow, I didn't know that about Ticketsnow.

You know, I honestly don't mind paying someone a premium, who got a better ticket than I did because they went at it more diligently. But I do mind paying someone whose actions actually prevented me from getting a decent ticket, no matter how hard I tried, starting the second they went on sale.

Michele

You don't mind paying more to someone because they diligently managed to buy a ticket specifically to sell that ticket back to someone like yourself at a higher price? Isn't that preventing you from getting a decent ticket too? It all seems to be the same thing to me.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

You don't mind paying more to someone because they diligently managed to buy a ticket specifically to sell that ticket back to someone like yourself at a higher price? Isn't that preventing you from getting a decent ticket too? It all seems to be the same thing to me.

No, I don't care if someone (and I'm thinking of individuals here) purchased a ticket with the intention of re-selling it. I'll tell you that I am very lazy and I'd rather pay more for something than fool around with Ticketmaster.

But I do mind thinking that ticketmaster, its subsidiaries and the people involved with ticket sales are withholding tickets from the open market, channeling them to brokers and basically ensuring that the average fan (the one more diligent than I am) doesn't have a chance to get a good seat at face value. I mind thinking that the first 3 or 5 rows will never be available on Ticket master, no matter how long I sit there and hit the "search again" button, because the powers that be have blocked them off. That gets under my skin.

Michele

[RoseGarden]

Today the casino told me the 15th of December they go on sale.
Yesterday they told me the 10th.

Wonder if the prices are going to change with all their misinformation. I am getting to old to play a ping pong game.

I am NOT that motivated to play. I think I'll sit this one out .

[Macfanforever]

local radio station WDRC 102.9 FM has a radio contest going on since monday for free FM tickets. taday the dj said the ticket did not go on sale yet.any way I always have bad luck at winning radio contests. the contest consist of the FM song of the day.be the 10th caller you win the tickets.today song was Don't Stop.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by michelej1

No, I don't care if someone (and I'm thinking of individuals here) purchased a ticket with the intention of re-selling it. I'll tell you that I am very lazy and I'd rather pay more for something than fool around with Ticketmaster.

But I do mind thinking that ticketmaster, its subsidiaries and the people involved with ticket sales are withholding tickets from the open market, channeling them to brokers and basically ensuring that the average fan (the one more diligent than I am) doesn't have a chance to get a good seat at face value. I mind thinking that the first 3 or 5 rows will never be available on Ticket master, no matter how long I sit there and hit the "search again" button, because the powers that be have blocked them off. That gets under my skin.

Michele

On Stevie's 2007 tour I bought a scalped ticket upgrade at the Mansfield show.awesome seats middle 4th row seat in the middle and I also the bonus of getting a chance to shake
Stevie's hand with no security on my back to till me to get lost.It was priceless will worth the $50.00 more.

[LukeA]

Originally Posted by michelej1

But I do mind thinking that ticketmaster, its subsidiaries and the people involved with ticket sales are withholding tickets from the open market, channeling them to brokers and basically ensuring that the average fan (the one more diligent than I am) doesn't have a chance to get a good seat at face value. I mind thinking that the first 3 or 5 rows will never be available on Ticket master, no matter how long I sit there and hit the "search again" button, because the powers that be have blocked them off. That gets under my skin.

If tickets in the first 5 rows have truly been blocked off and rendered unavailable to the consumer in the general public-onsale, 98% of the time its because they are held for VIP packages, fan club members, etc, OR are held back the promoter for various reasons (artist holds, venue holds, marketing promotion/record label holds, or held by the promoter for use for themselves).

The notion (as suggested earlier in this thread) that all the good seats show up on Ticketmaster 24-48 hours before the show takes place are due to the scalpers returning their tickets is just a silly conspiracy theory. Promoters release the holds I referenced once they are authorized to do so. For example, artists tend to hold at least a pair or two in the front row and others in the first five rows in the event of family, friends, VIP's, etc., who might want to attend. In most markets (especially for a big arena tour like this one) they often don't end up using many or even any of them, and they get released back to being on-sale.

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by michelej1

No, I don't care if someone (and I'm thinking of individuals here) purchased a ticket with the intention of re-selling it. I'll tell you that I am very lazy and I'd rather pay more for something than fool around with Ticketmaster.

But I do mind thinking that ticketmaster, its subsidiaries and the people involved with ticket sales are withholding tickets from the open market, channeling them to brokers and basically ensuring that the average fan (the one more diligent than I am) doesn't have a chance to get a good seat at face value. I mind thinking that the first 3 or 5 rows will never be available on Ticket master, no matter how long I sit there and hit the "search again" button, because the powers that be have blocked them off. That gets under my skin.

Michele

I'm sorry, but how is it different? Someone who doesn't want to go to the show (and buys it purely to re-sell) buys up a ticket that stops you from having the chance of buying that seat at a fair price or Ticketmaster give it to a broker who stops you from buying it at a fair price. Where's the difference? Please explain.

But it's nice that you have so much money to spare that you don't care how much you spend. Personally I prefer to pay face price knowing that the majority of that money goes to the artist in question and not an opportunist looking to make a fast buck.

[camchristo]

Originally Posted by LukeA

If tickets in the first 5 rows have truly been blocked off and rendered unavailable to the consumer in the general public-onsale, 98% of the time its because they are held for VIP packages, fan club members, etc, OR are held back the promoter for various reasons (artist holds, venue holds, marketing promotion/record label holds, or held by the promoter for use for themselves).

The notion (as suggested earlier in this thread) that all the good seats show up on Ticketmaster 24-48 hours before the show takes place are due to the scalpers returning their tickets is just a silly conspiracy theory. Promoters release the holds I referenced once they are authorized to do so. For example, artists tend to hold at least a pair or two in the front row and others in the first five rows in the event of family, friends, VIP's, etc., who might want to attend. In most markets (especially for a big arena tour like this one) they often don't end up using many or even any of them, and they get released back to being on-sale.

What you said makes sense. I've always wondered though how the brokers/scalpers always get first, second, third, etc. row tickets to sell. Consistently. And they list them before the tickets even go on sale. On TicketsNow.com, they are offering tickets for sale to the second Chicago FM show that hasn't even been announced yet. The website states that it is a Ticketmaster company. So how does that work? How do they know they'll have those tickets for a show that hasn't even been announced, much less gone on sale. I think that a portion of the good seats are held back for the reasons you stated but I can't help but think there is something shady that goes on between TM and the brokers.

[StandbackStevie]

Originally Posted by bucklind17

So do they go on sale the 10th or the 15th? Conflicting info!

according to my email i have gotten from the mohegan sun vip services says that venue and ticketmaster public on sale date is Monday December 15th 2008 at 10am there is a venue presale date is Friday December 12th 2008 at 10am ticket prices are $125, and $175 they did say it was also $195 but ticket master is only showing $125, and $175. they sent me the info last week i posted it here last week when i received the info.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

I'm sorry, but how is it different? Someone who doesn't want to go to the show (and buys it purely to re-sell) buys up a ticket that stops you from having the chance of buying that seat at a fair price or Ticketmaster give it to a broker who stops you from buying it at a fair price. Where's the difference? Please explain.

But it's nice that you have so much money to spare that you don't care how much you spend. Personally I prefer to pay face price knowing that the majority of that money goes to the artist in question and not an opportunist looking to make a fast buck.

I don't know that it's different, but it's different in my mind. If you and I have an equal chance to buy tickets and you get there first and want to sell me your ticket for a premium, I'm grateful for the opportunity, quite frankly. However, if you and I don't have an equal chance and you are getting tickets blocked by Ticketmaster that are not available to the public or you are using some sort of computer software that allows you to get into the system and buy volumes of tickets at once, so that the individual doesn't have a chance, then I mind that.

I like artists to get money too and I think I do all I can to support them by buying from the commercial outlets that they utilize (like Amazon) or buying merchandise at their concerts. And I actually do buy a lot of mediocre Ticketmaster seats that don't get used at all. I buy them in fear thinking I won't get anything better. Then, when something better comes along, I get it from a broker and the Ticketmaster ticket is worthless. At any rate, I'm confident that a great portion of the money I spend is getting into the artists' pocket.

Michele

[trackaghost]

^^ Hmmm. Well, personally I'm not grateful that someone has stopped me buying a ticket at the price it was meant to be sold at in order to try and make money out of my fandom. I think that is just as unfair as Ticketmaster doing underhanded deals, if indeed they are doing that. That is pure speculation at this point, but a so-called fan buying a great seat purely to make money out of another fan happens all the time and is pretty lousy imo.

And why should they make extra money out of that performer? I would prefer any extra cash go to the artist personally. If I were a singer and sold my tickets for say $50 and then someone bought them all up and sold them for $150, I'd be pretty pissed that I would not be getting any percentage of that $100 profit that opportunist has made.

And thank god for the likes of Pearl Jam and recently Tom Petty, who offer the best seats through their fan clubs (and PJ's fan club is pretty inexpensive to join too) and then cancel any seats that are re-sold to stop people buying seats purely to make a profit out of them and cheat their fans.

The other issue is that if people weren't buying up the best tickets purely to re-sell you would have a far better chance of getting those tickets, it would be easier for you to buy them through legitimate ticket agencies.
A case in point would be Tom Waits. Now, anyone who knows Tom Waits knows that he doesn't tour much and when he does it's quite an event and there's always huge demand for tickets and his shows always sell out. He played Europe during the summer but in a rather successful attempt to stop scalpers/touts from getting their hands on tickets over fans he put in place measures that only the person who bought the ticket and their named guest could go to the show. Basically you had to show your credit card you used to get in.
The result? The tickets for his shows sold out in a day or two (where usually they would sell in mere minutes, and believe me his popularity here hasn't faded) but were incredibly easy to get through Ticketmaster during that time and not one was on eBay being re-sold for ridiculous amounts. When you took the touts and opportunists out of the equation the only people buying the tickets were fans who actually wanted to go to the show. And Mr Waits got his fair percentage of the tickets sold.

Compare that to the last time Bruce Springsteen played a smaller date here in London where minutes after the tickets went on sale pages of individuals were re-selling tickets on eBay for three or four times what they had just paid.

That said, many of Bruce's fans are pretty cool and on the fan site Backstreets there's even a forum for fans to sell tickets are face value only. Shame we don't have that here, because as a fan of Fleetwood Mac, I could never personally bring myself to rip off another fan. But that's just me.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

A case in point would be Tom Waits. Now, anyone who knows Tom Waits knows that he doesn't tour much and when he does it's quite an event and there's always huge demand for tickets and his shows always sell out. He played Europe during the summer but in a rather successful attempt to stop scalpers/touts from getting their hands on tickets over fans he put in place measures that only the person who bought the ticket and their named guest could go to the show. Basically you had to show your credit card you used to get in.

Well, I wonder how the VIP packages work, because I did not do them for the SYW tour. But with the requirement that you meet at a location that is to be announced in the future, but just a little bit before the show, I am thinking that once you do get there, you will have to prove who you are to get the ticket and will have very little time to resale that ticket for a profit. So, for the VIP packages, I don't think there's going to be a lot of scalping.

But sometimes I just like to buy things and cut out the back and forth. This doesn't always work for me. In October I sent someone $80 to make me a copy of the Nokia boot and 3 other FM dvds and I still haven't gotten them yet. So, when you make a trade fan to fan, at least you don't lose money on the deal and no one feels ripped off or exploited. Plus, it's not illegal! That's one way to do it. But I sometimes would rather just pay. It's not that I think they deserve the money. I guess I am just paying for the convenience and, yeah, I'm glad the option is there.

Michele

[trackaghost]

I do appreciate it's more convenient, it's just these days it's so difficult to even have a chance a getting a decent seat at face value and a big part of that has to do with so many people buying tickets now specifically to re-sell them. I just can't afford to pay someone twice what the ticket is worth. Going to see live music is such a big part of my live, if I had to pay over the odds for every show I wanted to see I'd only be able to afford a few gigs a year and I think that's true of a lot of people. And that can't benefit the concert industry as a whole.