What a lot of people don’t realize is that the ticketing biz is changing very rapidly in recent months. For example, TicketMaster bought TicketsNow, a major ticket reselling site,
which caused the criminal element to flee in panic as TM would now have their info.
(TM previously brought suit against them)

>He tries to legitimize the exhorbitant mark-ups by saying it’s “supply and demand.”

Thing is, there is a legitimate need for a secondary ticket market - lots of people buy tickets months ahead or own unused season tickets they want to sell, etc.
As long as an open market exists, there will be speculators, and supply/demand will rule.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that speculators, aka scalpers, frequently misjudge demand, and they can and do lose lots of money since the tickets they risk holding become worthless. As you mention, though, smart buyers can exploit this weakness if they have the right information and tools. The ticket marketplace is becoming more like a stock market.

Check out this page: http://squidoo.com/best-concert-tickets

>creating an artificial lack of supply …If 15 000 people want to see the Dixie Chicks

Yeah, but they have no real way of knowing how many people want to see the show.
If only 1000 people really want to see the show, the speculators start panic selling the excess supply in the days before the show - that’s when you can get tickets for less than cost.

You can now use gruvr tickets to monitor the market for a specific show and get alerts based on PRICE. Tell it your email and name your price - then as sellers start dropping their prices it mails you notifications. There’s also a lot of info on price ranges and (soon) supply trend. This should be a serious weapon in the hands of smart ticket buyers - no other service supplies this to my knowledge.

I follow you on twitter, keep up the good work!

BUT, for something like Madonna, where you know it’s gonna sell out in 5 seconds, then ya…pre-sale does make sense.