So there I was browsing Ticketmaster when I read that Russell Brand was going to be performing at Hull City Hall in July. Now he comes highly recommended by Kegs and having seen his stand up DVD he is quite good so I set about seeing what seats I could get for me and Kerry for his show. So what is the purpose of this blog apart from telling you what I've been up to I hear you ask. Well I'll get there.
Now Ticketmaster was showing no pairs of tickets available for the show and I could only find triples in the Gallery. Now after past ticket debacles I decided I'd try a few other options. The Box Office was shut (this was at 8.30 last night!!!) so whilst I planned to give them a ring when they opened this morning, I explored Fleabay to see what I could see, and there they were – a pair of tickets to the show – Row K in the stalls and they had other tickets available so they could make up a four or six if buyers wanted. So I messaged the guy – someone's birthday coming up, huge fan, yada-yada-yada. So I lied to an eBayer, so sue me!!! Lol!! But John on eBay he came back and said he'd had a lot of interest in these tickets (surprising seeing as at the time the pair of tickets he was actually auctioning had only attracted £6.50 in bids!! Lol!!!) and he'd take offers and accept the highest …… suffice it to say I'm not getting back to him, as I phoned the Box Office this morning and got me 2 Front Row tickets for the show!! So, John from eBay, you can stick your potentially overpriced Row K tickets mate!! Mine are more to the side, about the same place I was sat when Paddy performed there last September and the view isn't all that bad thank you very much, they'll most certainly do me!!
So where's all this heading?? Well, this is what annoys me about eBay, hell, it annoys me about ANY touts, and it has been a huge topic of conversation on the BBC news site of late, being that festival/gig season is fast-approaching. You get these people who phone up or go online as soon as tickets come on sale and snap up anything up to 10 tickets for the best seats to flog on eBay at hugely over inflated prices. Then get another credit card and do EXACTLY the same thing again!!! Sometimes they're already on eBay before they've even gone on sale?!?!? I mean, look at Take That for example, so I wasn't overly fussed about going, but they've made a comeback and heard good things so was curious as to how good they really are and like most I couldn't get tickets only to go on eBay and see pairs going for upwards of a grand?!?!? Not that I'm bitter, I'm not overly fussed at all, it would just have been nice y'know?? How eBay can let that go on is beyond me. Yet there are very few legitimate places you can go to return tickets you can no longer use. There is a condition on the back of the vast majority of tickets that say they are non-refundable so it's no wonder there are so many on eBay which do end up going through the roof. Ticketmaster do have a facility on their site called the Ticketxchange but only certain tickets can be traded there. Yeah. That's REALLY helpful ……
Don't get me wrong, I have bought tickets on eBay, as have friends of mine, and I have paid slightly over the face value – I paid £40 for a pair for Paddy's show at the Reebok in Bolton last year as a birthday treat for myself and to compare a home crowd to an, erm, away crowd, but when you can't get a look in unless you have a gold plated Paypal account it's unfair to say the least. Don't get me wrong. I'm not for an all out ban on ticket reselling, it's just the 200% plus mark-ups you see on there for a "Buy it Now" deal, or starting bid. If reasons for reselling are legitimate, i.e. a cancellation, a change in circumstance making you unable to attend, then all well and good, but holding fans hostage over sold out gigs is unfair. That said, until someone steps up and does something it'll continue.
By the other token, you also have the joy of the booking fee. Now, you would've thunk a booking fee would apply to a booking as a whole but when you have the fee attached to each ticket?? Well, I think you know what I'm going to say. Scissor Sisters tickets had a £6 or so booking fee attached to each ticket. I suppose the fact that part of that particular booking fee went to some charity or other takes the edge off, but when Producers tickets had an extra £2.75 at least added to each ticket …… why?? Guess the moral is go direct to the venue if you can. My RB tickets had a £1.20 booking fee – that's all for the whole transaction, about £1 for my Dave Spikey tickets. Both bought direct from the venue. But it's 'positive' on eBay – you don't have to pay booking fees.
I will continue to keep an eye on eBay for tickets, you do occasionally get some bargains, but I would advise all to think carefully whether paying £150 for a pair of Gallery Row Z tickets for some gig or other is really worth it …… try the venue first for last minute tickets if you can, you may be surprised. The layout of the stage could have changed so you may find new, better seats have suddenly become available. *cough* Sheffield *cough*. ;)
And what is the deal with people standing outside venues asking attendees if they want tickets or have any to sell?!?!? If I've come to see the show, why the chuff would I sell my ticket to you so you can whack a 200% markup on what you've paid me for them and sell them to someone else?!?!?
So there you have it – me on Ticket touts. That's my two cents. Here endeth the blogging …… for now anyway!! ;)
