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£9 Connery tickets sold for £100 on eBay

Organisers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival have hit out at eBay sales of tickets to see Sir Sean Connery reading from his memoirs, ‘Being a Scot’. Tickets to the event had an original price of £9, and sold out in under an hour, the fastest selling event in book festival history. Inevitably, some of the tickets made their way onto eBay, where according to The Scotsman, they have been selling for £100 each. Frances Sutton, the Festival’s press manager, said she was “extremely disappointed” that tickets had ended up on eBay. She’ll no doubt be pleased to hear that at time of writing, I can’t find any tickets to see Sir Sean for sale at all.

eBay Germany boss doesn’t trust PayPal

German news weekly Der Spiegel reports today that the one-time head of PayPal Germany doesn’t trust PayPal payments for his own eBay sales. Frerk-Malte Feller was in charge of PayPal’s German arm until February, when he became head of auctions for eBay Germany; he has also been selling tickets for Euro 2008 on the site. The terms and conditions of these listings make very interesting reading, stating in both German and English:

If you pay with PayPal, I need copies of your passport/ID as well as from your credit card that you are using within PayPal (both sides). Please provide these documents as electronic scans immediately after the end of the auction. The tickets will only be shipped after you have provided these documents.

These additional terms are important, as PayPal will only protect sellers from unjustified chargebacks in accordance with the above. You as a buyer remain fully protected through PayPal’s Buyer Protection Policy. So both sides are well protected.

Assuming that Der Spiegel’s identification of this seller with Frerk-Malte Feller is correct, then he’s in breach of the employee trading policy, as he hasn’t identified himself as an eBay employee. The seller also appears to be breaking UEFA’s ticket resale rules (see section 8).

If you read German, there’s an interesting thread on the German community forums about this, but so far apparently no official comment from eBay.

Fatboy Slim beach concert tickets for sale

“Is this really news? So what? As if we didn’t know that was going to happen! And also who cares?”

That’s the comment of one reader of The Argus, when they reported Fatboy Slim tickets are being resold on eBay.

In an attempt to keep his Brighton beach concert for locals and avoid another 1/4 million fans descending on Brighton tickets were only being sold to buyers who’s credit cards are registered with a BN postcode. Tickets are only currently available on a ticket sales website publicised to previous attendees of his last beach concert.

With the popularity of FatBoy Slim aka Norman Cook it’s unsurprising tickets are being resold for a profit, but I have to agree with the comment above… Who cares?

eBay restrict Mandela birthday ticket sales

eBay UK have announced a restriction on the sale of tickets for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday party, being held in Hyde Park on 27th June. At least 20% of the sale price of the tickets must be donated to the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust (UK) via eBay for Charity. Sellers will therefore need to be registered with eBay for Charity. 1 and 3 day listings are not permitted.

click to embiggen

Sadly, a quick scan of the available listings shows numerous non-charity listings, many of them on a three day duration, though several have been pulled even while I’ve been writing this. When eBay can restrict listings’ visibility for potential trademark issues or even for naughty words, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t do it for a potential PR disaster like profiteering on charity concert tickets too.

‘Voluntary code’ to stop eBay ticket touts

The government today announced that it would crack down on touting of tickets for major sporting events by introducing a voluntary code of conduct for event organisers, promotors and ticket agents. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said that his department would work with the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers to develop consumer protection guidelines, including a limit on the number of tickets which could be sold to one individual, and clear refund policies.

An outright ban had been widely predicted, as several newspapers had stated the announcement would see tickets for events like Wimbledon and The Ashes treated like football tickets, which are generally banned from resale. Instead, the aim is to have more tickets in the hands of fans, and fewer block-booked by touts to be resold at huge profits. The Daily Mail talked of the danger of criminalising “ordinary fans” just trying to dispose of unwanted tickets, who, as an eBay spokesperson said, “appreciate the right to sell what’s theirs”.

Genuine Lou Reed fans turn ticket touts

The whole argument, that ticket touts prevent genuine fans from purchasing tickets at a reasonable cost, has been disproved this weekend. Front row tickets for Lou Reed’s performance at the Edinburgh Playhouse started to appear on the site yesterday, even though they only went on general sale today.

The tickets up for sale on eBay are those that were allocated through none less than the fan club organisations themselves, on Thursday. Genuine tickets allocated to genuine fans and the first thing they do is rush to make a few quid by flogging them.

If fan club members wish to sell their tickets and make a profit I see no reason why they shouldn’t. If fans are willing to resell tickets there’s even less reason why a non-interested party shouldn’t also buy tickets with the intention of reselling them.

If the organisers aren’t happy with the resale of tickets then there are plenty of methods, such as issuing photo ID tickets, to stop prevent it. It’s a free economy and they just lost the argument that ticket touts prevent genuine fans from obtaining tickets - It’s the genuine fans that are rushing to cash in by selling them.

eBay UK announce new charity tickets policy

eBay UK have announced a new policy on the sale of tickets for charity concerts and events. This will apply to events where 50% or more of the ticket price is going to charity, and will require that sellers:

• donate at least 20% of their sale price to the charity involved (or in some cases, to related charities)
• are registered with eBay for Charity
• do not list on 1 or 3 day listings

In addition, the resale of tickets to free events will be banned altogether.

With typical eBay precision, this policy is to be implemented “some time in the next few weeks”; if you’ve got tickets to sell, save yourself the hassle and comply with it now.

What really needs clarification, however, is which events the policy applies to. The beginning of the announcement says “any concerts or events where 50% or more of the proceeds from the original ticket sales are going to charity“, which looks like all charity tickets are automatically covered.

But later it says “we’ll be asking event organisers and charities to apply for their events to be covered by our new policy and will keep you updated on which events the policy will apply to“. If event organisers need to actively join a new program, this needs to be made very, very clear - otherwise the potential for negative publicity from those who haven’t joined is only made worse. Which would be a shame, because this looks like a really good idea.

Other coverage:

• the Financial Times
• Channel 4 news
• thisismoney.co.uk
• The Guardian, which does actually specify that events must be “registered” to qualify

Teenage Cancer Trust tickets must be sold through eBay for Charity

The Teenage Cancer Trust have been working with eBay to ensure that the charity benefits from secondary sales of tickets for their upcoming series of concerts. An announcement by eBay this morning has said that that at least 20% of the final sale price must be donated to the TCT through eBay for Charity. One and three day listings for the tickets will not be allowed; this clause, presumably, is to allow more vetting of listings.

I hope Geoff Ellis and others who’ve complained about eBay ticket sales are reading this: acknowledging that the secondary market exists and working *with* it to ensure charities benefit too is a much more rational approach than trying to ban resales altogether.

The four concerts are:
9 April: Noel Fielding plus guests.
10 April: Paul Weller and Steve Cradock plus Duffy.
11 April: The Fratellis plus guests.
12 April: Muse plus guests.

The TCT’s website, by the way, appears to be in meltdown at the moment. Hopefully that’s indicative of a great series of events for them.

Geoff Ellis, T in The Park, hasn’t learnt

It’s the annual ticket fest on eBay as thousands of fans open the purse strings hunting for tickets to the popular Edinburgh festival T in The Park. Geoff Ellis, chief executive of T in the Park, complains “The Government has failed to give us the support we need. They don’t seem to see what the problem is“.

The problem is quite simply that more people want to attend than there are tickets available and some of those have the funds available to buy tickets regardless of cost. It’s called supply and demand, and all the time someone has tickets and someone else can name a high enough price, they’ll be willing to exchange them for a boost to their PayPal account.

Ellis has no room for complaint, it’s not like he didn’t trot out the same complaints last year, he knows that there is a thriving secondary market for these tickets. If he wants to prevent tickets from being resold at a profit it’s time he (and other concert organisers in the same position) started issuing named tickets with photo ID. If it works for Glastonbury it can work for T in The Park.

In the mean time nothing has changed since I wrote “Why ticket sales on eBay should not be restricted” in January 2007. It’s a free market economy out there and the sooner Ellis et al realise the fact the better.

MPs urge action on eBay ticket sales

A report by MPs on internet ticket sales has called for eBay to prove that its ticket sellers are genuine fans with one or two spares, and not touts. A report to be published next month by Culture, Media and Sport select committee will accuse eBay and similar ’secondary ticket agents’ such as Viagogo and Seatwave, of collaborating with touts who buy up huge numbers of tickets for popular events, and then sell them online at vast profits.

They will urge the Office of Fair Trading to make test court cases against secondary agents, to establish whether the resale of tickets - prohibited under the terms and conditions of sale - is illegal or not. eBay and other sites claim they are “just a venue”, bringing buyers and sellers together: data protection regulations stop them revealing to ticket issuers who is offering tickets for sale.

I’ve said this before and doubtless I’ll say it again: I don’t think eBay are the issue here. There were touts outside gigs long before eBay was even a twinkle in Pierre Omidyar’s eye. This is yet another attempt by lazy ticket issuers to make eBay responsible for policing ticket sales, when they should be doing that themselves.

Springsteen promoter “takes precautions” against eBayers

The promotor of Bruce Springsteen’s May 2008 gigs in Dublin has promised to try to keep tickets for concert-going fans and out of the hands of eBay sellers. Tickets will be limited to two per purchaser, and will be sold through town centre outlets as well os via the internet.

Promotor Peter Aiken said “We will be taking all possible steps to ensure that people buying tickets are real fans planning to be at the RDS and not speculators about to auction them off on eBay.” However, he covered himself against blame for the reseller market which will inevitably arise, saying that “once tickets go on sale matters can be taken out of our hands.” What he failed to explain was why, once buyers have paid his price, they shouldn’t be free to sell on the tickets if they choose to.

Fans of The Boss were furious when tickets for the Belfast concert sold out within minutes, only to reappear almost immediately on eBay at prices up to three times the face value.

Tickets for England in Rugby World Cup final

As you could imagine England drawing a game against South Africa for the Rugby World Cup final has sparked a massive demand for tickets. Interest is fueled still further as the game is to be played in Paris which is a short hop across the English Channel and on a Saturday evening so there’s no need to take time off work.

If you want to go there’s still tickets and travel packages for the Rugby Final available on eBay, but the prices have skyrocketed. If England win, for those that went it will have been money well spent.

“I wish eBay would drop dead and die”

Concert promotor Harvey Goldsmith told Kerrang! Radio on Sunday that “I wish eBay would drop dead and die” after tickets for Led Zepplin’s reunion concert appeared for sale on eBay. He went on, “I have begged them to take [the tickets] off and they have basically told us to fuck off. So I will do everything I possibly can to ruin their lives.”

Organisers have said that tickets held by people whose names do not match the name on the card used to purchase them, may be refused entry. Goldsmith acknowledged on his blog that some names “genuinely” may not match, but added “I am convinced that those who are bleating the loudest seem to be protesting too much for other reasons.”

Those who’ve coughed up to Goldsmith for their tickets may wonder why he thinks he has any right to control what they do with them subsequently, especially in such nasty terms.

[Thanks to Dan for the heads up.]

38 seconds too late for Spice Girls tickets

Unbelievably tickets for the Spice Girls comeback tour sold out in just 38 seconds from when they went on sale! More than a million brits tried to purchase so there are going to be a hell of a lot of disappointed fans.

All is not lost for those with deep pockets, currently over 1600 sets of Spice Girls tickets are available on eBay at prices up to £1595 for four tickets. This is bound to cause controversy for those that missed out and don’t want to pay over the odds. If you wanna, you wanna, you wanna really really really wanna zigazig with them it’s gonna cost you!

Springsteen fans “furious” at sold-out gig

Bruce Springsteen fans today become the latest group to register “fury” at coveted tickets being sold on eBay. Springsteen’s Belfast concert on December 15th became the fastest selling gig ever as the 10,000 tickets were sold out in eight minutes. Those who tried to buy via the Ticketmaster website have said that at 9am, when the tickets were supposed to have gone on sale, they were immediately greeted with a message that they had sold out. Disappointed fans were angered to see the tickets available on eBay within minutes, and selling for up to three times their face value. With one fan reportedly asking “how many tickets were actually made available online by Ticketmaster”, for once the blame for the fans’ ticketless state seems to be on Ticketmaster themselves rather than eBay.

eBay asked to cancel rugby cup final tickets

The Rugby Football League has asked eBay to pull listings for tickets for the Challenge Cup final on August 25th. The RFL’s communications manager Craig Spence has said “The terms and conditions for all our match tickets state that they cannot be resold. We’re informing them that unless they remove their tickets from sale we will make their tickets void and they will not be entitled to a refund.” It seems that eBay have been busy this morning: from the “hundreds” of tickets the Guardian quotes as available, at the time of writing just seven pairs of tickets are listed, though bidding is hot on all of them.

The final is the first rugby league match to take place at Wembley since 1999 after the stadium finally reopened earlier this year. St. Helens will face Catalans Dragons, the first foreign team to make it to the cup final.

Glastonbury tickets on eBay after all

The BBC report that Glastonbury tickets have found their way onto eBay, despite organisers’ efforts to stop the secondary market. Festival owner Michael Eavis introduced photographs onto this year’s tickets in an attempt to stop their resale, but has admitted that he is “disappointed” with the quality of the printing. He said, though, that anyone buying the tickets was taking “a huge risk”, as any ticket thought to have the wrong details will be rejected and the holder not allowed in to the Festival: “I have people watching eBay so we will have their information”.

At time of writing there are several tickets for sale on the site, with canny sellers advertising tickets for “female with long hair”, and showing shots of the ticket photo in the Gallery picture.

Government call for R1 ticket ban

Government minister Shaun Woodward has demanded that eBay remove tickets for Radio One’s Big Weekend. Tickets for the free event were allocated by ballot, but are now being sold on eBay for silly money: some auctions are obviously being wrecked by those who object to the sales. Woodward, demonstrating apparent ignorance of how eBay works, said “eBay should stop selling the tickets - the artists are not making money from this free event, so why should the touts?” eBay have said they are investigating the matter.

Ticketmaster suing StubHub

Ticketmaster are suing eBay’s ticket sales subsidiary StubHub for violation of contracts between venues and Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster are apparently the exclusive ticket agent for the Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams Jr. “Rowdy Frynds” tour, but the Wall Street Journal reports allegations that StubHub “effectively extracted tickets from various client venues by threatening that if tickets weren’t made available, those venues ‘might not be considered as venues for future live-entertainment events.’ ” At the time of writing, StubHub has thirty listings for tickets for the tour.

Live Earth ticket resellers must donate to charity

There’s an interesting announcement from eBay this morning regarding ticket sales for the Wembley Live Earth concert. Tickets for the event, to benefit global environmental causes, go on sale today. eBay comment sagely that “we expect that some of these tickets will be offered for sale on eBay”: I expect they’re right!

But they seem to have managed to cut right through the middle of the usual argument about whether ticket re-sales are immoral or simply good economics, by stating that at least 20% of the final sale price must be donated to an environmental charity, preferably the official one, and that the donation must be made through eBay for Charity. Lets hope this will stop the bad publicity and whinging over eBay ticket sales, and raise some money for an important cause at the same time. Kudos to the organisers for their novel approach.

No Glastonbury tickets on eBay

It’s a day and a half since the initial allocation of 137,500 tickets for this years Glastonbury festival went on sale. They sold out in well under two hours on Sunday morning, but not a single Glastonbury ticket has found it’s way onto eBay. Although unprecedented this is due to the pre-registration required and printing of the ticket holders photo onto each individual ticket.

There are countless event organisers who are complaining about resale of tickets. Whilst I honestly can’t see why someone shouldn’t be allowed to resell for as much as a willing buyer is happy to pay in the future other venues have no room to complain. Glastonbury have shown if promoters want to restrict resale of tickets it’s perfectly possible. If promoters don’t take similar steps to Glastonbury then they should accept tickets will change hands and a profit will be made by the middle man because that’s how trading works.

Culture Minister wants to ban eBay ticket sales

Shaun Woodward, the Culture Minister, has called for voluntary code of practise to stop tickets being sold over face value on eBay. He said “People must not be able to exploit the market at the expense of consumers.” Labour MP John Robertson said that ticket sellers “should be punished”.

Despicable behaviour towards Take That fans

So you’re mad about Take That, you’re desperate to see them in concert (even if Robbie isn’t with them any more) and you didn’t manage to get tickets when they went on sale. You’re such a huge fan you’ll do anything to see them, so you go searching and find tickets on eBay. You’re over the moon and don’t care that you’re paying more than the face value, you just want to see your band, after all you’re one of the biggest Take That fans out there aren’t you?

Well prepare yourself for a shock, because the organisers of the tour have decided punish you for being so devoted a fan. In fact they’re not just going to void your ticket, they want to cause you stress and anxiety for months before they slam the door in your face when you turn up to the concert you’ve been looking forward to.

If Mr Revel thinks that’s the way to treat loyal fans, who are desperate to see Take That and other concerts, then he’s showing himself to be just as despicable as he thinks the touts selling tickets are. Either accept tickets will be resold and fans will pay whatever it takes to obtain them, restrict sales as Glastonbury have done with photo tickets, or stop complaining. To punish fans, desperate to see their idols, and make them suffer for months is just about as low as you can get!

FA cancel Wembley under 21’s football tickets

That’s the email that holders of tickets for the England Under 21s at Wembley will have received when they listed their tickets on eBay. Whilst I take the view that if you have a ticket there should be nothing to stop you selling it any more so than any other commodity, the sale of football tickets is highly regulated. eBay have very clear policies which ban the sales of football tickets. Not only that but unauthorised football ticket sales are illegal in the UK.

There really is no excuse, whilst I dislike any restrictions in trading online sellers need to be aware of both the law, and eBay’s policies if they’re going to trade on the site.

Postie brings tickets for last night’s concert

A Nottinghamshire man is fuming after concert tickets he bought on eBay were delivered the day after the concert had taken place. Richard Kirk of Hucknall says that his seller posted the tickets to see Keane on February 19th, six days before the concert, by recorded delivery. But they did not arrive at his house until Monday 26th, a day too late: their postman said that delays had been caused by shortage of staff. Mr Kirk is demanding that Royal Mail refund the £75 he paid for the tickets, but so far, they have refused. The disappointed buyer said:

I’m having second thoughts about using eBay now – not because of the sellers but because I’m worried about things being delivered by Royal Mail on time.

No one should be using recorded delivery to send time-sensitive items. All ticket sellers should be using special delivery, and all ticket buyers should be insisting that they do so. Fortunately for Mr and Mrs Kirk, eBay came to the rescue: they were able to buy another set of tickets the night before, and collect them from the seller in person.

Via Hellmail.

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