Re: Frozen 4 tix arrived today
I agree. But with a supply and demand priced secondary market, the buyer can hedge his risk a bit. He could sell his ticket at, say 50% of face, the scalper could sell at, say 75% of face, and everybody's happy. If you eliminate the secondary market, the ticket buyer is not only a no-show this year as you point out, but he's also far less likely to be a ticket buyer in the future.
The FF Ticket Exchange is new; as of this morning it hadn't launched just yet. But I am assuming that it will work the same way other Ticketmaster Powered Exchanges work.
The most relevant thing for this conversation is that Sellers are free to set the price they want -- above, at or below face value. The fees are deducted from whatever price the Seller is able to command.
Let's walk through your example. Your Seller urgently wants to move the tickets, but would be satisfied with a 50% loss. Nothing's stopping him from listing the tickets on the Exchange at half off. If the Seller wants, he could calculate the expected total fee, and add that to the asking price. That way his net on the sale would actually be a full 50%. At the same time, the higher price would at least slightly increase the risk of no sale at all.
Now take your scalper. If the scalper believes that he can get 75% of face value on the Exchange with very little risk, he's free to buy from the original seller at 50% of face, and immediately re-list the tickets at the 75% figure. The biggest problem is that if the fees are substantial enough, the scalper is likely to take a pass on the Exchange, reducing the opportunities to make a sale in that forum.
But be that as it may, the Exchange doesn't eliminate the secondary market, it's just that the NCAA & TM are butting in, trying to get a piece of the action. And as long as Credit Card ID remains optional, the traditional secondary market can exist side-by-side with the Exchange.
Back to the hypothetical. Let's say Credit Card ID does become mandatory. Who are the winners and losers?
Fans With Extra Tickets
My conclusion may surprise you, but I think the fan with extras breaks even, all things considered. This Seller gets a larger pool of buyers all at once -- no need to deal with potential buyers one at a time. Payments are risk free; his account is electronically credited. It's easier; just create the listing, then you're notified when the sale occurs. No need to ship tickets or meet buyer at the arena. All of these things have value. Will you get less money in the end? Probably. Essentially you're hiring the NCAA/TM to be your broker, which of course means a fee if there's a sale. And yes, if you have no choice in the matter, that part is admittedly obnoxious.
Fans Shopping The Secondary Market
Again, it's kind of a good news/bad news scenario. More or less a break even situation. Seat selection improves. It's like talking to many scalpers all at once. In other words, you can weigh any number of offers, do your own cost/benefit analysis, and choose the deal that's best for you -- giving appropriate weight to both location and price. Will you pay a little more? Probably yes due to the fees, but remember the traditional scalper doesn't work as a hobbyist. It's quite possible that your final cost on any give pair of seats will be roughly the same. You're just paying a different scalper. Last but not least, you basically eliminate the risk of buying counterfeit tickets -- which Ticketmaster will remind you of every chance they get.
NCAA/Ticketmaster
Sell the same seats twice, collect two sets of transaction fees? Winner.
Sell the same seats three times, collect three sets of transaction fees? Bigger Winner.
Resale Seats cause a decline in Traditional sales? Perhaps some $$ are lost. But a customer with decidedly better seats is a happier customer. And it could very well be that such a customer would have cut a deal with a traditional scalper or ticket broker, rather than buying nosebleed seats from the venue at face value.
Traditional Scalpers & Ticket Brokers
As a group, they're certain to lose market share, and thus come out behind. And yet, buying and selling on a computer screen is easier than working the streets. A few skillful brokers may actually come out ahead. Still, doing more with fewer opportunities is admittedly a challenge.
The FF has been through a transition -- from when a FF ticket was a guaranteed profit to a situation in which there is some risk, but the risk can be limited. If the NCAA establishes policies that don't even allow purchasers to limit risk, they chance having unsold tickets as they've had in the past couple of years. And if you have unsold tickets, having a monopoly on the resale market doesn't do you much good.
Most of the unsold seats have more to do with the selection of non-traditional cities than anything else.
Obviously non-sold out events are less lucrative for the promoter, no matter what else they do. But controlling both the primary and secondary markets is still more advantageous than controlling only the primary market, other things being equal.
As for the original buyer's risk, I think I've covered that above. But if I'm missing something, do tell.
