JerryChicken wrote:
You don't "force" anyone to buy anything that they don't want, no-one ever bought a ticket (or any other product) from a reseller with a gun pointed at their head especially a product in the entertainment genre where you can pay a fraction of the reseller price (or free) to watch the same product online rather than live - yes its not the same "experience" but THAT is what you pay the premium for and THAT is what your free choice in the matter is all about.
Criticising resellers who are not doing anything illegal (despite what the originators of the tickets may try to enforce) is simply criticising the capitalist way of life, where everything you buy has had a markup, or several markups, applied.
But in most areas of the economy the markup does actually include something extra. For instance whilst Tesco charges the consumer more for the products they sell than what they pay the supplier they are doing something beneficial to you. They're making those products more easily available to you by bringing them to a shop near to where you live.
With ticket touts/resellers they aren't doing anything extra. The tickets are just as easily available from the supplier (artist/venue/production/whatever) than they are from the ticket touts/resellers. The touts/resellers aren't bringing anything extra and simply making a profit from doing nothing.
If the supplier (artist/venue/whatever) wants to use the supply & demand format to its full extent they could charge more than they currently release the tickets for (as the price is then jacked up by the touts/resellers afterwards). At least then that profit would be going to a person/organisation who's created something in the economy.
Personally I think that tickets for any events/gigs etc shouldn't be allowed to be resold over their face value. It would stop the touts/resellers buying up tickets on spec and open it up to the public more.