Joe Queer fired his rhythm section, but the Queers nonetheless are touring again soon:

http://www.myspace.com/thequeers

http://thequeersrock.com/

ah yes, the pit of vultures that exploits musical fans that do not have interns and 12 computers set to buy at their disposal.

ah yes, the pit of vultures that exploits music fans that do not have interns and 12 computers set to buy at their disposal.

I'm just glad that something besides tickmaster has sprung up... thank you Internet Gods!

this is not an alternative for ticketmaster, they just re-sell ticketmaster bought tickets (and others previously purchased tickets)

Exactly, this just makes a bad situation worst, not only are brokers/scalpers creating false demand by buying up all the tickets they are passing on the monopoly fees Ticketbastard charged plus additional exploitative charges. The only legislation should be to cap service charges on original sales at say 3-5%, eliminate "convenience charges," outlaw scalping all together, and find ways to protect the fans/customers rather than the businesses. Pipe dream I know but please understand that ebay, stubbhubb, et al isn't expanding options but rather phucking you even more.

make tkts will-call only.
at large stadiums this is not feasible,
but smaller places like bb, merc, etc., i don't see why this won't work.
it won't stop scalping all together, but the inconvenience will deter many.

The market can go both ways. Lots of tickets for CSNY at MSG this past weekend were selling for below face on Craiglist and on the street. That was a case where the buyer was winning out.

Right. Sometimes you can snag a deal on ebay. However, altogether this is not a good thing. While many musicians are overpaid many are not. And it's not fair for a broker to make $100 on a ticket and the performer $10.
It is disappointing that ticketmaster has created this market. I think they are doing it so they can justify their auctions and higher ticket prices for premium seats. Ticketmaster could limit scalping more. Ebay could at the very least enforce the new york scalping law. I don't buy that ticketmaster will use the higher prices to then offer lower prices in the nose bleeds. Not that I see arena shows much.

I buy tickets on ebay all the time. Yes, I pay above face, but I can get great tickets to almost any show I want. For me, it's definitely worth the extra cost as my work does not allow me to be online when the tickets go on sale. I've found that ticket prices on ebay are generally well below what ticket brokers charge.

StubHub is a 200 million dollar operation

http://www.inc.com/app/inc500/viewCompany.jsp?cmpId=2006008

The convenience of selling unwanted tickets on craigslist is great. I've had to sell or trade several tickets after other plans have come up, and I disagree with the suggestion that all tickets should be will call (I have ONLY sold tickets for face value). The problem with scalping, is that some people are willing to pay far more for tickets than face value. In most systems, it would make sense for artists to charge more for tickets (which is happening, especially for big arena shows). The problem with concert tickets, is that I think many bands do not want to raise ticket prices too high for fear of a fan backlash. And this discrepancy between the ticket price and the price that some people are willing to pay creates the market for scalpers.

Will call for the good seats is really the only way to avoid all of this scalping but it will never happen because Ticketmaster is "in bed" with all of the scalpers and always has been.

I also often sell or trade my extra/unused tickets on CL (face value only). The problem with CL vs. selling on Ebay is that alot of the people who troll CL for tickets are working multiple angles and because they have not invested anything other then sending you an email they have no problem standing you up at the last minute and leave you with extra tickets with no time to give them to someone else (even for free). At least on Ebay there is a monetary incentive to follow though.

No, will call is not the only way, ticketmaster auctions for the best seats would stop a lot of the ticket reselling and that is exactly what ticketmaster's starting doing.

tm managed to stay alive in the pearl jam struggle against them a few years back. it continues to dominate regular onsale tickets. NOW it has auctions for primo seats, it has exclusives with itunes (red hot chilli peppers and bob dylan caved in to tm).
the will-call show your id at the door will help kill eBay/craiglist market and fans should get in. Alice in Chains did good with their recent selling strategy... though question why some shows were the old regular ebay horde fest.

another way fans have been screwed out of tickets is that most dont know about presales and getting them early access to tickets that ebay resellers know about. join the bands fanclub, visit their myspace, do a google search of presale password and that helps. not a perfect solution because scalpers know that too. next thing you know tm will sell presale passwords to further its domination.

There are lot of great ideas here, on a free site no less, shame that Ticketbastard, et al are probably spending tens of thousands coming up with similiar ideas and then devising strategies to thwart them at every turn. Is it NOW ok to hate the players AND the game?