#blame resellers and scalpers

[naylor]

turning on taylor and blaming her for things she had no say or control over solves nothing and takes the attention away from the actual monopoly that fucked you all over just to maximise profits on a tour that was gonna be record breaking anyway.

taylor doesn't handle the logistics for her tours, and even if she was deeply involved in the technicalities of tour she still has no control over how ticketmaster deals with its own logistics or an option to not work with them. even if she wanted to give her fans the best experience possible she still can't control what ticketmaster does, nor how presale is handled.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I really think this community has some unchecked sinophobia that needs to be examined, especially in Super D0llfie spaces. So many discussions about resellers and scalpers put an emphasis on Chinese people being the main culprits, ignoring how many Japanese resellers and scalpers also exist (not to mention the western ones!) People blame Chinese hobbyists on every single hobby faux pas, for example sharing v0lks news leaks - despite the fact that westerners living in Japan and Japanese citizens themselves are often posting these. But pointing this out tends to make people very uncomfortable and immediately start throwing around ‘well what about the Chinese who XYZ?!’

No one’s saying that Chinese hobbyists are perfect and sin free but why is it that the Chinese rule breakers are the only ones you’re so focussed on? Bad hobby behaviour doesn’t have a nationality. There’s one user in particular who is always trying to paint Chinese hobbyists as uniquely bad. One or two comments about Chinese hobbyists here and there, it’s not weird. But when the same person is repeatedly bringing it up, it becomes really noticeable and uncomfortable. I won’t name them but I know they read this blog, they know who they are.

~Anonymous

[greta-flanveet]

So can we all agree that Ticketmaster is the actual fucking worst?

Thankfully I was able to get tickets during one of the presale windows even though that experience was a fucking headache. I am in no way trying to complain about that. I am, however, upset about scalpers and resellers and fucking Ticketmaster (among other sites) that raise the prices unreasonable amounts and take advantage of fans who would have died to get those tickets at a fair price. Some of the prices for nosebleeds TRIPLED at least due to resellers and sites raising prices due to interest. It’s insane.

I am not mad at the boys at all, it’s cuckoo bonks crazy to blame them. They personally have little to no control over the prices.

I’m so sorry to anybody who was set on getting tickets and having the experience of seeing Greta live. It’s an amazing experience and I hope that prices drop and resale isn’t as oppressive closer to shows. Manifesting a great experience and good luck for you.

TLDR: shame on assholes and corporations that fuck up pricing for everybody and don’t blame the boys for the madness that was the sale today.

[longwuzhere]

Nothing pisses me off more than entitled dickheads who think any artist who price their art high is ripping them off.

Jim Lee, president of DC, was the penciler for X-Men #1 (1991) which sold over 8 million copies, and is a fan favorite artist (a favorite artist of mine too) opened his commission list for the time in 15 years and is charging up to 35k for a commission.

Entitled assholes are throwing a tantrum over this, but as an artist (and a lot of other comics professional agree that...) this is perfectly reasonable for Jim Lee to price his commissions that high. People have been buying original art of his and flipping to make a huge profit. As you can see on that ebay listing.

I'm glad Jim Lee is charging that much, hell I would double maybe even triple the price for every asshole who thinks its too much. The man helped changed the industry by co-creating Image Comics that helped comic creators keep their IP. His art on X-Men #1 (1991) was what got the comic to sell over 8 million copies. His artistic skills are still unparalleled to anyone else even back then in the 90s when his popularity exploded.

But wait why is he charging so high, he's the president of DC he makes bank on that is what others are saying. Yeah hes the president and doing commission work takes time put of his hands for other duties. If anything you should blame scalpers who flip his original artwork on resell sites to make profit for them with nothing going back to Jim Lee.

I was just lucky enough to have met Jim Lee a couple times and all I wanted was a signature on my copy of Batman #608 (2002) and I am cool with that. I know I can't afford to have original artwork from him but I hope this gets comic artists to change their commission prices to really evaluate their time, effort, and experience so they dont get screwed over by scalpers trying to make a quick buck.

To end one a good note, check out this twitter thread from one of my favorite comic book writers, Gail Simone about a really cool and kind Jim Lee story where he helped raised money for awesome comic boom writer John Ostrander (co-creator of Barbara Gordon's Oracle identity, the modern Suicide Squad, and Amanda Waller).

[reddeluxeedition]

https://www.tumblr.com/reddeluxeedition/721533831207927808/tickettek-sounds-even-worse-than-ticketmaster?source=share We can't really blame Taylor for tickettek's system though, i'm aware that this is one of those things that is bigger than her 🤷🏻‍♀️

yea it's not her fault at all! i think a positive from ticketek is scalpers not being able to resell on third party sites or increase the price over 10% of the og value (correct me if im wrong!!!!!)

but they couldve kept the fan boost thing they did in previous years imo!

[evermorre]

i will not for one second believe that man’s bullshit. MAYBE 14 million people showed up. But like any ceo or company rep, he will say anything to cover Ticketmaster’s ass. to allow them to continue employing professional scalpers, charging high fees, jacking up prices during presales, allowing resellers to sell tickets for 700% of their original value, to continue forcing artists into their deals so they can make a ton of money off them. to make sure they don’t get sued, don’t get investigated, don’t get congress involved. to allow them to continue their monopoly.

don’t let them trick you. they should have been prepared for demand instead of trying to shift the blame of their failures as a *professional ticket selling company* onto an artist who is popular

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

I know I keep saying this in tags, but I’m going to put my thoughts out there about the presale today.

First of all, everyone is free to feel how they feel. It was a complete clusterfuck and my heart goes out to every fan involved because you all deserved so much better. Having only been through a similar experience once (Adele’s last Australian tour) and having been one of the lucky ones who got tickets even in that instance, I know how emotionally draining it is and I’m sorry it happened.

I also agree that while the majority of the blame falls with Ticketmaster and US laws, there are definite questions I have for all sides involved (both in terms of the presale itself and outside influences), especially given other artists have apparently been able to minimise this kind of thing. It has also unfortunately reinforced to me that the only way this is ever going to stop without legal intervention is if people stop buying resold/otherwise price hiked tickets, which, unfortunately I don’t see happening.

What I do not necessarily agree with is that this means that all international presales will go the same way. Now I will make it clear that I can only give confirmation/solace of this to Australian fans (or other fans coming to our shows I guess) because I do not know the laws in other countries, but I can promise Australian fans that, bar any major unexpected law changes, we will not have the same fuckery happen to us. Yes, we may be in line a long time and yes we may miss out on tickets, but our anti scalping laws literally make it illegal for scalpers to resell a ticket for more than 10% of the price. So while I am well aware that there is a price difference between US and international stage prices, there is absolutely no way that there will be mass tickets sold for $10K - $20K like what I am hearing is happening in the US atm. I can also say that using the system we have now (no boosts, maybe a code for presales), I have gone to dozens if not over a hundred concerts in the past decade and never missed out, even when Ticketek/Ticketmaster is being faulty. You just need to be open to getting nosebleeds and honestly yeah, you need to take the day off to be online at the time it starts and click that link right on the time (in saying that, Adele and Bruno are the only acts I’ve had to be on for hours for historically, like even Taylor’s other shows I got straight on, but like to be safe take the day off lmao). Like I promise you, we’ll be alright.

Again though, my heart really goes out to US fans right now and I’m praying for International fans that it doesn’t go the same way and for US fans that your Capital One and general sales go better.

[stuckasmain]

T2: the collection

I don’t know what stars aligned to let me get this stuff but I’m completely living for it.

So I have this mug from T2:3D, my grandpa worked for the company that painted universal and got a bunch of stuff from them. My dad kept it around knowing I like mugs and would eventually get into the movies… he was right.

Apparently it changes color and is being upseld by scalpers on EBay

Annnnd… this

They’re ridiculously good and I don’t know what dark arts allowed them to be remotely affordable. Like most newer figure releases they’re snatched by resellers before anyone can get their hands on them and then the price is jacked WAY up…I got this as a gift in hopefully a reasonable range.

They’re super nice in quality and I like the detail and some of the stuff they come with. Sarah’s heads in particular. Though, I wish it would have also came with John’s T2:3D head from his og release 😔 bandana boy I love you.

Sarah is surprisingly mobile in her legs , hips etc. john doesn’t sit well , his legs bend but his arms barely move. I partly blame his jacket as it’s the rubbery material. Sarah’s arms also don’t bend a whole lot but look like they should be able to. My only other criticism is that her heads are hard to swap out. It’s easy to get them off but hard to make sure they stay on.

Definitely more photos soon

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Happy bday idia-senpai 💙 Do you remember that ultra limited game figurine sold at the last anime convention? The one that you couldnt get because only a few copies were sold on a firstcome firstserve basis? Well the truth is I was one of the people who bought it! I lined up outside very early just to buy the best birthday gift for you! I hope you take good care of it 💙

“E-Eeeeh?! Th-The elusive Suellam Birthday Suit Up figurine...?! Y-You actually managed to get your hands on a copy?!” Idia could hardly believe his ears. “I can have it?! I-I can really, truly have it?!”

“They only made like 100 copies of those for a special anime con promotion, and he’s such a popular character that some scalpers aren’t even willing to part with theirs...!! Not that I blame them, because Suellam has such an amazing backstory and character, you rarely come across princes as well-written and fleshed out ad he is... Usually the princely types are Chads with no flaws or they’re so generically nice they feel like cardboard cutouts!!”

He clearly recalled cussing up a storm when he had failed to get his hands on one. One second too late, the staff member had told him. A tall, sharp toothed man in a suit and a fedora (or was it a trilby?) had claimed the last one (while mentioning something about how his ‘employer’ looked forward to reselling it for five times the retail value). Idia had retired to his hotel room that day, frustrated as all hell.

But now.

Now...!!

“Th-Thank you...!! Suellam-sama is mine!! A-At long last!!l Idia makes a lunge for the figurine—but stops himself at the last second and carefully picks it up instead. (He wants it in mint condition to display alongside his other figures.) “Hihihihihihi!!!”

His smile is brilliant, like the full moon upon the winter snow.

[xjoonchildx]

PSA:

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM BUYING TICKETS FROM SCALPERS OR PAYING AN EXORBITANT AMOUNT FOR THEM.

i suggest going into army twitter bc armys on twitter usually resell their tickets at face value as soon as they get better tickets for themselves, and army twitter is also good at spotting scalpers/scammers and airing them out for everyone to see.

i understand the desperation for tickets (TRUST me, i do), but PLEASE be patient. please don’t waste 1k on a ticket. BTS are worth that amount i agree, but the boys themselves chose to reasonably price their tickets for a group of their caliber (no, seriously. bc if you look at how much western artists charge, you’ll be MIND BLOWN by how generous BTS are). they love armys that much, so let’s be patient.

there WILL be fellow armys reselling their tickets at face value, especially nearing the show dates. BE PATIENT, I AM BEGGING.

hi anon!

i appreciate the spirit of this message, i think it’s great info -- and i hope this approach works for ARMYs who didn't get access to tickets!

i would ask you to consider this, though.

resale tickets may be the only way some ARMYs can see BTS at all. not everyone was lucky enough to get a ticket and not everyone can wait until the last minute to take a chance on the generosity of other ARMYs and make travel and lodging plans.

honestly, the entire ticket sale experience is terrible in general and the blame lies squarely with ticketmaster. it's wild that some people can get tickets to all four shows (not judging, mind you) and some people can't get tickets for even one.

[myprideandialone]

PSA: DON'T BUY 3RD PARTY RESALE TICKETS FOR LOVER FEST

As y'all read in the email we received from TicketMaster, to prevent loss they are using SafeTix™ which enables a QR code that changes every few seconds. This means the screenshots used on resellers like StubHub and SeatGeek are useless.

There was a major incident a few weeks ago in which the band Black Keys had a ton of put out fans because of this.

Many blame Ticketamaster and while it's inconvenient it will ultimately ensure 1 thing: you know exactly where real tickets are bought and sold. It's frustrating to see that many scalpers have already bought tickets but there are still a lot available and prices will likely be dynamic like the were in the Rep era so hold out and verify ticket quality.

This is the only post I ask that people reblog cause I don't want Swifties having an incident like the Black Keys, esp with only 4 US shows.

[naylor]

I cannot thank you enough for being the voice of reason on here. I’m saying this as someone who waited 8 hours in the queue and ended up not getting tickets. It’s understandable to be upset, and frustrated by the ticket sale and maybe just maybe there was something small she could have done to make it a bit easier. But there is such an incessant amount of people determined to blame everything on taylor and are just blatantly ignoring how much of this is Ticketmasters fault. Idk maybe it’s easier to be mad at a person instead of a faceless corporation. That people are just completely ignoring the reality of the situation and how much power Ticketmaster has. And then you have people comparing it to Harry, Halsey and Ed completely disregarding how different the situations are and that those concerts also had a bunch of these same issues too.

you sent this this morning and i hadn't had time to sit down and look at it properly but if this doesn't ring true after the past couple of hours lmao

i really don't know the specifics of ed, sheeran's tour and why everyone uses it as an example of what taylor could do to stop scalpers but as far as i could see ed did that in the uk and the uk government already has better laws and policies about the reselling of tickets than the US does so it was easier for him to implement that. i genuinely think that if that had been within taylor's ability she would have implemented it as well, but they're two different countries with different laws and regulations

[angelofcities]

Why everyone is so upset and frustrated with Ticketmaster isn’t the price of the original tickets. While it is still expensive, they advertised that tickets would host $49-$399, but as you can see, that’s not the case.

The reason why these prices are SKY HIGH is because of the amount of people who were able to get into the fan presale and the fact that people who bought them are RESELLING tickets to make a profit. Ticketmaster is allowing this. This tells me that the reputation era boosts didn’t do anything for verified fans who participated if people were able to buy and resell tickets so fast. Everything in red are tickets behind resold:

So why we’re mad that prices are rising is because Ticketmaster allowed people who didn’t participate in boosts into the presale (and lied to those who did participate last era) and are continuing to allow them to buy and resell at a much higher price so they and scalpers make a bigger profit because fans so desperately want to see Taylor.

The ultimate catch is there are young fans who cannot afford to buy them but feel like they have to in order to see Taylor live. This is in no way me blaming Taylor/TN for what’s happening, but I do hope they decide to address this on behalf of fans who aren’t as financially stable to purchase $2,000+ tickets on the fly.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Ticketmaster stung by undercover journalists, who reveal that the company deliberately enables scalpers and rips off artists

Even in this era, dominated by vertically and horizontally dominant monopolists, few companies are as chronically dirty and corrupt as Ticketmaster (previously), whose parent company, Livenation, is the world's largest concert promoter. Controlling promotion and ticketing is a one-two punch for a monopolist: Livenation's rival promoters still inevitably end up selling tickets through Ticketmaster, enriching their biggest competitor.

Ticketmaster and Livenation have managed to claim an ever-larger slice of the revenue generated by creative artists and the companies that invest in their work, Meanwhile, Ticketmaster's shows are notorious for selling out in seconds to bot-running scalpers who then mark up the tickets and sell them for many multiples of their face-value.

Ticketmaster has always maintained that these scalpers were unfortunate and undesirable parasites that preyed on Ticketmaster, the performers and the audience alike. Ticketmaster says that it uses anti-bot tools to kick scalpers off the system and prevent them from buying tickets, but laments that it sometimes loses the arms-race with the scalpers and their bots.

But a CBC/Toronto Star undercover investigation has revealed that Ticketmaster runs a secret, parallel system called "Tradedesk" that encourages the most prolific scalpers to create multiple accounts to circumvent the company's limits on ticket sales, and then allows them to re-list those tickets for sale in its "brokerage" market, which nominally exists to allow fans who find themselves with a spare ticket or two to sell it other fans. According to Ticketmaster reps who were unaware they were being secretly recorded, the most successful scalpers use this system to make as much as $5 million/year.

Of course, this means fans are getting gouged. With Ticketmaster colluding with scalpers, there's no way for a genuine fan to simply buy a ticket at face-value: not only are the scalpers always going to be better at buying tickets than fans can be (because fans buy a few tickets, every now and again, and scalpers work the system day in and day out), but they have an insider advantage, thanks to their partnership with Ticketmaster, who are supposed to be operating a fair marketplace.

But there's another way in which Ticketmaster is ripping off the world here: Ticketmaster is meant to act as a broker on behalf of performer -- the people whose creative labor is the reason for the sales in the first place.

The performers sell Ticketmaster the tickets to the show, and Ticketmaster takes a commission on the initial sale of the tickets and passes the rest on to the performers, but then, when Ticketmaster sells the ticket again (on behalf of a scalper, for a much higher price), it earns a second commission -- and the artist get nothing.

Ticketmaster issued a non-denial-denial to the Star and CBC, and implied that this was a case of rogue employees doing naughty things. But the misdeeds that the journalists caught on video came from a wide variety of Ticketmaster staffers, acting on behalf of the company at a major trade-show, with no hedging or any sense that they were offering access to something untoward. What's more, the  CBC/Star report is backed up by a leaked copy of Ticketmaster's handbook for professional "resellers."

In a separate investigation, the CBC/Star team showed how Ticketmaster manipulates ticket prices in realtime using deceptive tactics (withholding blocks of tickets until mid-sale, then releasing them at above-face-value prices) to bilk fans out of more money. Hilariously, Ticketmaster blamed this on the "promoter" of the concert, which was Livenation -- the company that owns Ticketmaster.

https://boingboing.net/2018/09/21/self-scalping.html

[kissing-inmy-car-again]

I have a couple of things to say about Ticketmaster, and this whole “pre-sale” bullshit. I’ve been buying tickets through TM for almost 20 years. I’m not blaming anything on Taylor for what happened with the misguided info on pricing and getting verified bullshit. But, for the first time in all my years, I’ve seen when a concert is going to be high demand, that they jack up ticket prices during pre-sale. I’ve seen this with Ariana Grande, Jonas Brothers and Fall Out Boy. Tickets that were supposed to be $100 are more like $300 and nosebleeds are over $200. It should be illegal to allow price gauging of tickets like that during any pre-sale. And then sell a handful of normal priced tickets. If Taylor didn’t want to see this happen, she could’ve done something completely separate from TM and sold tickets that way. She would’ve made a lot more money, I’m sure, but would’ve handled this confusion a lot better. And TM, they’re a terrible company to artists. How they allow scalpers and resellers to buy these tickets before fans. They only care about one thing, getting the money and then not giving a fuck after.

[tuesday6econlive]

PlayStation 5 Shortage due to COVID-19

According to Statista, Sony’s PlayStation network had 114 million monthly active users in December of 2020, which was 1 month prior to the release of Sony’s next generation consoles. Pre orders for both the PlayStation 5 Digital and Blu-Ray edition had gone live on most retailers on September 16 of 2020. The gaming community had made fun of those who were quick to make their preorders as they all believed that Sony would be able to mass produce their consoles as they had when they released the PlayStation 4. They also believed that with Sony producing two different versions of the console, Digital and Blu-Ray, there would be more than enough for most gamers to be able to secure. However, this all turned south very fast when Sony was unable to produce even close to enough to meet demand. Most consumers were met with “sold out” at every major retailer as well as PlayStation’s own site; the journey to obtain a PlayStation 5 console, soon turned to a long and complicated one.

Target:

Best Buy:

GameStop:

PlayStation Direct:

Sony, however, is not completely to blame for the shortages of PS5′s, resellers/scalpers are also at fault. StockX, a popular live marketplace which was originally founded for selling exclusive streetwear and sneakers, soon adopted selling consoles on their site. Apart from eBay, as of currently a combined number of 103,929 consoles have been sold on their site. The Digital version of the PS5 had an average sale price of $763, $300 above the retail price; and the Blu-ray version had an average sale price of $817, also a $300 markup on its retail price. This caused the supply of PS5s for regular consumers to decrease, and the demand to increase. In December, resellers/scalpers were selling these consoles on eBay upwards of $1,300 a piece consistently. 

Many consumers have decided to cough up the hefty markup and purchase a PlayStation 5 from C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) marketplaces, and others have attempted to boycott these scalpers in hopes of making them decrease prices. However, this has not done much, and resellers/scalpers are still making attractive profits. These resellers/scalpers use bots to automate the checkout process and secure as many as they can. Regular consumers are left at huge disadvantage as these bots are able to successfully checkout in seconds. One reseller from the US was able to make $40,000, just in one week by reselling only 200 units. Below is an example of the log of a checkout done by a bot, the bot was able to checkout in 10.58s.

This shortage of PlayStation 5′s is still a huge issue as of today, Sony has not been able to deliver to the high demand of their consoles, and it seems they will not be able to for the months to come. 

By: Areeb Kashif #10446056

Payal Kumari Sharma #58105755

Works Cited:

https://stockx.com/sony-ps5-playstation-5-blu-ray-edition-console-white

https://stockx.com/sony-ps5-playstation-5-digital-edition-console-white

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272639/number-of-registered-accounts-of-playstation-network/

https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/reseller-made-over-40000-in-less-than-a-week-from-selling-200-playstation-5-units/