Supply and Demand

On Friday many of my students may have noticed I was a little distracted around 10:00am. I was online trying to buy tickets to the Elton John concert in February. Maybe not the most professional thing to do during class but the students were busy working and I have been listening to Elton John for 30 years and need to see this concert. His music represents some iconic melodies from the last three to four decades. This concert is a "Bucket List" experience for many people. This is why I was extremely disappointed to sit and watch my browser spin and spin for an hour during repeated attempts to squeeze through the crammed bandwidth into the selectyourtickets.com server. The Q was reporting that both shows were sold out in seven minutes! How is it possible to process tickets online, over the phone, and in person for two shows in seven minutes? I really can not see how that could physically be possible.
I can understand that many, many people in the Victoria area were wanting to see this show. What really makes my blood boil is that very day there were several ads placed on usedvictoria and craigslist offering tickets for sale anywhere from $200 to $1000. Some of the sellers had six tickets available, which is the maximum number of tickets allowed to purchase by a single seller. These are the people that were clogging up the internet; people with no desire or intention to see the show, wanting only to make a profit. Something is just not right about this when scalpers can take advantage of people who are true fans. I was so ticked that I placed my own ad on usedvictoria they took the add off, but not before I got a couple responses that read:
"...we will not satisfied the scalpers that are greedey we will wait the day of and see if some one can't go and buy the tickets at cost thanks for being our voice here.

"Hi, I totally agree with you! I tried to get some but was unsuccessful... and to see them up on used victoria already makes me sick...."


I placed another ad that reads:
I have 2 floor tickets in the third row that I bought for myself and my wife . I have wanted to see this concert for years. Oh wait...no I don't because so many people bought them with no desire to actually see the show. They are illegally making a profit off of the popularity of this artist at the expense of the rest of us. For every scalped ticket for sale there is a disappointed true fan! What I am "giving away" is anger, frustration, and disappointment.

Here are some responses:

"I couldn't agree more.

Unfortunately, too many people are willing to pay the ridiculous prices. If everybody stopped paying the $800ea the scalpers might get burned enough times to make a difference."

"amen"

"Thank you,

For expressing what so many feel. Legalized crime by any other name is this ticket racket!

Bill."

"ain't it true!!!"

I am sure it will be removed soon, but it feels good to voice my opinion in a venue that may be seen by the scalpers!