Rage against the Scalpers - $16 million dollar tickets on Ebay.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Australian Rage Against The Machine fans are now raging against cyber-scalpers and Ticketmaster after tickets to the rock band's local shows sold out within seconds yesterday. Enraged fans who had been hoping to see the shows, scheduled for January next year, were so dismayed they attempted to sabotage the eBay auctions by registering fake accounts and entering bogus bids as high as $1 billion.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/fans-rage-a...0486540211.html

 

Note: Now there is a $16 million dollar limit on bids but that hasn't stopped people going berzerk with creating accounts and bidding to piss off the scalpers. Just do a search on Rage Against The Machine on http://www.ebay.com.au and you will see what I mean. have to admit, I took part in it. LOL.

[Pidesco]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Rage-Against-the-Ma...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Holy fork!

[Hiro Protagonist]

^^^ hahaha. yeah, that's been going on all day. I got one email from a seller where I won a $16 million dollar bid and he went ballistic and called me a wanker in email. Said he was going to call the cops, etc. Hard calling the cops when you have fake id's and fake email accounts going through anonymous proxies. I processed the ebay checkout and selected bank cheque and sent him an email saying, 'cheque is in the mail'. LOL.

 

Oh well, my fun is over. But with the Sydney morning herald having this story on the front page of their website, it will just attract more people to do this on ebay.

[Sand]

Why be such an asshat like that? That is just the way capitalism works. Someone has a product, its first come first served, and those who are too slow either suffer or pay through the nose. That is how it is. If you don't want to be part of a capitalistic society that is your problem but I don't see how messing with someone like this is "fun."

[Rosbjerg]

That's how a democracy works Vic. If you don't want to be a part of a democratic society, that's your problem.

[Sand]

Being in a democracy doesn't give you the right to be a jerk to someone or continually try to screw them over. In some countries that is in fact a form of harassment and that is against the law in some areas.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Sand

[Tale]

doesn't give you the right to be a jerk to someone or continually try to screw them over.

This is what scalpers are doing.

 

Which is why it is notoriously illegal in some places.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Tale

[Rosbjerg]

It gives you the right to be a jerk, but not screw people over - right - but I say that these guys deserve a little of their own medicine, they are bending the law as it is. And as such I don't see any harm in people doing the same to them.

 

as long as it stays civil like this. As soon as actual laws are being broken and not just bend - it's no longer ok.

[Sand]

If it is illegal where they live then the responsible thing is to alert the authorities so they can be arrested. I see this as someone who bought a product and is now reselling it for a profit. Is it wrong? Nope. The buyer has the choice to buy or not buy, bid or not bid. The choice is up to the consumer. If it is illegal to resell RAtM tickets then by all means alert the authorities to arrest them and let the law do its work. Going online to harrass them on eBay is not the right way to solve this problem.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Sand

[Atreides]

Why be such an asshat like that? That is just the way capitalism works. Someone has a product, its first come first served, and those who are too slow either suffer or pay through the nose. That is how it is. If you don't want to be part of a capitalistic society that is your problem but I don't see how messing with someone like this is "fun."

It does. I think the argument most people have is where the consumer's surplus should go (difference between what buyer would be willing to pay, and what s/he pays). In the case of "resellers", the surplus goes to the reseller, instead of the band or the consumer keeping more of their money.

 

A better solution would probably be the concert organizers themselves auctioning off most of the tickets. With the internets this should be easy to pull off.

[kirottu]

What a total shocker! People are being mean in teh internets under the protection of anonymity. This have never happened before!

[thepixiesrock]

I'd imagine stuff like this would just screw up ebay so they have all kinds of strict limits in order for someone to buy something now.

[Walsingham]

Personally my British instincts tell me to side with the people goosing the scalpers. However, precisely because I sympathise I should point out that using false credentials may constitute a crime.

[Tale]

Personally my British instincts tell me to side with the people goosing the scalpers. However, precisely because I sympathise I should point out that using false credentials may constitute a crime.

Yeah. And bragging about that on message boards is rarely the brightest activity.

[taks]

Personally my British instincts tell me to side with the people goosing the scalpers. However, precisely because I sympathise I should point out that using false credentials may constitute a crime.

yeah, they may be committing illegal scalping, a mere misdemeanor, but those issuing fake bids with fake credentials are committing wire fraud (or better, internet fraud), which is a serious felony, and potentially other crimes related to the fake credentials.

 

taks

[Walsingham]

I wouldn't like to say for certain, and franky the odds of getting caught and prosecuted are miniscule, given that genuine fraudsters get away with crimes all the time. I just wouldn't want to be encouraging kids to do it.

[Aram]

So eBay has banned holsters and gun grips, but illegally scalped tickets are still hunky dorry.

[Walsingham]

Is scalping illegal? If so, how do you prove it? I'm genuinely just curious.

[Gfted1]

Scalping is illegal here in Illinois. How do they prove you were scalping? If you sell the ticket for more then face value, its scalping (you are allowed to sell it at face value). They will often have plain clothed officers wandering around outside of the venue and they will approace people trying to sell their tickets. If the sell price is higher then the face price, I think, they will confiscate the tickets and write you a fine.

[taks]

Is scalping illegal? If so, how do you prove it? I'm genuinely just curious.

many (if not most) places, yup, but it gets fuzzy with the online thing since the laws of the state in which the venue resides don't apply to you if you're selling from another state. there probably needs to be some inter-state commerce regulation on that. what gifted1 said regarding catching the buggers, but that really only works outside of the venue itself.

 

taks

[thepixiesrock]

Scalping is illegal here in Illinois. How do they prove you were scalping? If you sell the ticket for more then face value, its scalping (you are allowed to sell it at face value). They will often have plain clothed officers wandering around outside of the venue and they will approace people trying to sell their tickets. If the sell price is higher then the face price, I think, they will confiscate the tickets and write you a fine.

 

In Home Improvment Tim and Al were taken to jail. They were here in Michigan though.

[Azure79]

I'm not really the concert going type, so is there a limit to how many tickets an individual can buy?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Why be such an asshat like that? That is just the way capitalism works. Someone has a product, its first come first served, and those who are too slow either suffer or pay through the nose. That is how it is. If you don't want to be part of a capitalistic society that is your problem but I don't see how messing with someone like this is "fun."

 

 

The scalpers are abusing the system, and they deserve the harassement. I mean, is it really free market enterprise if you would buy all the toilet paper in Iowa and then offer it to people at twice the selling price?

[Pop]

It would be tolerable in a free market system, yes, because the nature of the market would allow for someone not looking to rip people off to come along with a cheaper product and win out. But toilet paper ain't like concert tickets, there's lots of toilet paper but the amount of concert tickets is limited by the number of seats in a venue. There are measures you can use to get around scalping (a certain number of tickets to any one cardholder, for example) but they're easy to get around.

Edited September 29, 2007 by Pop

[Walsingham]

I see. Thanks for explaining.