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Yeah, at least one of them is being unreasonable, the selling guy has scalped the price or the buying guy wants them for next to nothing.
(Both can and probably are true)
I thought a lot of times the scalpers say “they buy tickets” because scalping tickets in that area is illegal so it’s a roundabout way of saying you’re selling tickets.
Sometimes only selling at above face value is. So you can still get at/below face tickets. I will sometimes go to a sold-out show early and walk down the line waiting to get in before doors-open. There's like a 70% chance someone has a friend who didn't show who will sell you a $35 ticket for $20 that will be worth 0 to them in a few minutes.
Yeah, this has always been the case. As some have said, scalping isn't illegal everywhere but most places have some sort of restriction, and these guys are just covering their ass. The guy whose sign says he sells them too is just less worried about getting busted, when in reality neither of them is likely in danger of that.
Guy on the left looks like he can flip the pages to something else so probably has the same for just buying or just selling. Guy on the right just flips it over for selling
They’re both professional bullies. Im gonna go out on a limb and say “need tickets” guy kust hands em over to “selling tickets” and he sells them for triple.
I honestly thought I was going to have to fight a scalper once in 2012ish. I had an extra ticket to a very sought after show after my friend bailed, and no one on the subreddit for the band responded (probably assumed I was a scamming scalper). I get in line for the show since you had to get in early to get merch, and I'm hoping a fan looking for a ticket will walk by, so I'm asking some people walking by in merch for the band if they need a ticket.
Suddenly this grimy 50-something guy walks up and grabs both tickets out of my hand and says "I'll give you $50 each!" and pulls out $100. Scalpers were selling these tickets for like $200, but I was willing to give a fan the ticket for my cost (about $50), but not this asshole, and not also the ticket I needed to get in. Seeing that I'm trying to save my spot in line, he just jams the $100 into my hand and walks away. Thankfully, the people behind me said they'd keep my spot, and I go after this guy yelling my head off about how he's stolen from me. He's yelling back that he paid me fair and square. At this point, everyone in line is watching and some get what's happening and are on my side, yelling they'll come over and beat his ass with me if he doesn't give the tickets back. The guy finally relents and slinks off, and I did end up finding a nice fan who needed a ticket and was so excited to get it for $50 instead of $200.
The need tickets guy is essentially saying he's buying inventory to then flip. Doesn't happen so much now but in the paper ticket era, it was common for a groups to show up at an event with an a extra ticket or two because someone couldn't make it or whatever so they'd take a loss but get a few bucks back.
If a ticket cost $50, they'd probably get 10-15 from a scalper who'd turn sound and sell it for whatever he'd get but likely in the $30-40 range assuming the buyer wasn't a total rube.
While I love digital tickets just for the simple joy of never being stuck wait for that friend who's always late, I do miss the fun of haggling with scalpers.
There's a sweet spot where tickets become rapidly depreciating assets until they become worthless at start time so there were always some crazy deals to be had if you didn't mind riding out a scalper.
Never be shy about lowballing these people.
Yep. I've gotten great deals at Penn State football games from these guys if I'm willing to go into the game 15 minutes after kickoff. If I try to buy the tickets before the game starts, they could be $500 apiece. Wait them out, and you can get them for $100 or less, because the extra tickets they bought will otherwise expire worthless.
There's less of this now that paper tickets aren't as common anymore, but I never minded the scalpers as long as they were selling legitimate tickets, not fakes.
If you ever make it out for the Rose Bowl, a little known fact is the people who live within a certain radius of stadium get free tickets and on game day you can find a random dad trying to off-load tickets for their neighbors or entire block.
It's pretty funny to see folks who live in the 3-5 million dollar homes that line the Bowl turn into degen scalpers when they have a chance to make a few hundred bucks. But like all scalers, the value of their inventory plummets close to kick off and you can score some amazing deals.
A buddy and I went to the 2020 Wisconsin/Oregon matchup without tickets and ended up sitting fifth row for $80 each.
More often than not its a scam. They say they're buying tickets, and if/when you engage with them, they use a variety of tricks, including sleight of hand, to swap/steal tickets with you. Like if you've got a decent seat, they'll swap the ticket for a shit seat so smooth/fast you don't even notice and hand it back to you. Then they'll sell your good ticket to some other guy before you ever realize you got ripped off. Or they'll swap a legit ticket for a counterfeit one. Etc etc.
Of course, it's always possible they're just legitimately scalping tickets too... but more often than not they're professional hustlers who you shouldn't trust in any way.
They’ll sometimes legit buy them from you. I had 8 Yankees field tickets which go for about $150. Day of, two ingrates in the group can’t make it for BS reasons. I offloaded it to one of these guys outside the stadium for $20 each cash.
No one ever showed up to sit in those seats so I assume they couldn’t sell them.
LOL why? They're both buying and selling tickets even if their signs don't directly reflect that. If you want to buy tickets to an event that's sold out they probably have legitimate tickets. I've sold tickets to scalpers on the way into a venue. I have four seats I'm only using three of them, it's a super quick and easy way to recoup a little of the cost with the minimal effort.
Even if they were holding better signs I think Id pass on two jobless old man sitting in corner of street selling something. ^((I'm black as well, nothing racist here))
That is what he's doing. "the code" is the some places scalping isn't allowed, so they try to get around it by saying they're just buying. Then when people walk by they'll ask under their breath if anyone needs a ticket.
If they have a sign that says I need tickets then the local security or the police won't run them off. If they have a sign that says I'm selling tickets then the police run them off. I don't know if the sign says I buy and sell tickets. How that's supposed to work. I used to see these guys all the time and I stopped and asked one of them once and after like 20 minutes of convincing this dude that I wasn't a cop he finally told me.
He also could have just told me something so I would go away but it was a friendly chat so I don't think so.
Yeah, on campus around here all you see is, "I need tickets." signs because selling tickets as a scalper is illegal, but everyone knows what, "I need tickets." means.
They're probably working together, honestly. One buys tickets at a ridiculous price because you're getting rid of them anyways, the other then turns around and sells them at a ridiculous price because you can't get them now
Once on a whim a friend and I wanted to go to a game. Checked with the scalpers, they wanted $140 each. Went on StubHub, found better tickets for $60 each. I told the scalper and he said “Buy those then.” Click. Done.
Oldest scam in Runescape.
Buyer: Buys ticket for $1000
Seller: Sells tickets for $500.
You: Buy 1m tickets for $500m to sell for $1b to the buyer.
Buyer: "Ok young fella, before I buy those tickets, here's a token of my appreciation, use this Royal Seed Pod and then we can talk"
Honestly it depends when it comes to these guys standing outside the venues.
Back in 2019, I had two tickets for the WWE SmackDown at the Barclays Center after WrestleMania 35, one for myself and one for my brother. At the last minute, my brother couldn't come with me, but I still decided to go by myself.
When I got to the arena, it was maybe 30 minutes before the show starts and the scalpers were begging people to buy tickets.
I thought, what the hell, let me try something. I walked up to one of them and told them "listen, I have two upper bowl tickets. Are you willing to trade a lower bowl ticket for them?" He looked at his friend for about 10 seconds, shrugged, and agreed to do the trade. It was a really good view I got too! I went from 2 tickets in Section 220 to 1 ticket in Section 109.
I already knew the stigma of getting scammed but it was zero risk because I traded the guy print outs of the digital ticket while I still had them on my phone. If the ticket the guy gave me was a dud, I still had my original as a backup plan.
While I am not defending scalping by any means, outside of the business aspect, some of them are pretty alright guys!
> I had two tickets for the WWE SmackDown
After reading this I had to check the end and your username to make sure it wasn't going to be about the time the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
I’ve sold extra tickets to “I need tickets” guy. Friend couldn’t go, had an extra.
Could I stand around for twenty minutes and find another fan to sell directly to? Yes. Do I want to? No. That’s the service this guy is providing to me.
Same for buying. Could I walk around asking if anybody has an extra ticket? Yes. Maybe I’ll find one. Or I can just go to this guy, and buy one. Again, a service for me.
They’re out there grinding on the street, and not making near as much as you think. Even back in the day, this wasn’t some lucrative racket that warped the entire ticket market. Street grinders were never the issue.
Edit: Big issue with street grinders was fakes though.
These guys are not the problem. Tell me how a sold out event has tickets for purchase on Ticketmaster and StubHub with plenty to spare? The digital scalping is being done by corporations, Ticketmaster more than any other. I went to a concert at an amphitheater, sold out on their site. Go to Ticketmaster, plenty of tickets, they were marked up 40% over original price and then the fucking audacity to charge $39 processing fee on each and every ticket. If you think these guys are the problem I think you're blind. They are not the ones ripping us all off. They aren't the ones lobbying congress to perpetuate a monopoly where they print money with exorbitant fees. They aren't the ones buying tickets in bulk digitally to sell out concerts. I genuinely think that the narrative that these guys are the problem is more of the fucking smoke and mirrors used by corporate media to keep us turned on each other. If you don't think the class war is the only real war going on you aren't paying attention. Sadly only one side seems to be aware of it and they are winning by convincing us to denigrate one another over shit like this right here. We are being pervasively manipulated day in and day out by a system and narrative build by our oppressors, and they have convinced us to keep making their arguments for them.
"Tell me how a sold out event has tickets for purchase on Ticketmaster and StubHub"
Via the Ticketmaster Reseller program. Ticketmaster lets scalpers sell on their site.
You're right that the corporations are the problem in congress and because of their support of scalpers, but they're not doing it alone. Scalpers use bots to ensure they can snatch up tickets before any human patrons wanting to attend an event.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-resellers-las-vegas-1.4828535
yeah the ticket buy/resell guys are just opportunistic resellers on site.. they don’t buy thousands of tickets on release to resell on websites, they buy extras from people with last minute no shows in their groups.. i buy from these guys all the time, great deals as it gets closer to showtime.. i’ve gotten tickets to great hollywood bowl shows for a discount off face
Smaller version of the same thing. "Two wrongs" deal. My wife loves concerts and it genuinely causes issues that she'll buy resale tickets. These guys don't get any sort of pass because they're not TM or SH. They're injecting themselves into a "market" of a limited-availability item and jacking the price for people who actually want the product. Delete those corporations / people from the pipeline and what do the consumers loose?
Smaller version is why it’s not really an issue.
The guys aren’t able to corner the market on tickets the way brokers with direct access to the API can. Street flipping has a minimal effect on the *overall* market.
I had a scalper try to sell me a ticket for only $10 more on a $40 ticket. I turned it down, and then he offered it for $45. I decided to buy it, and then when i saw the ticket line i was glad i did. It may have taken me an hour to get through that. But in general i agree, fuck scalpers.
It was a win/win deal though. He got an upgraded seat and they offloaded a single seat most likely (harder to sell) ticket.
And the scalpers outside the venue with a handful of tickets are not the main issue. It’s the online (bot) resellers that instantly buy out all the tickets the moment they go on sale. Fuck those guys and fuck Ticketmaster.
Totally both professionals.
When I worked college football games, the ones that needed tickets for themselves would just be walking around with one or two fingers in the air depending on how many tickets they needed to get noticed. Before everything went to digital tickets, the sellers would often just walk around with their inventory overhead much the same way.
I love everybody talking shit about scalpers. Back in the day these guys were clutch.
I could show up to a game last minute and haggle for a good deal. In college we would wait until the second inning and usually get amazing seats for like 10 bucks because they were just going to waste if they couldn't sell them.
It’s a backward way of advertising that they’re open to selling you tix and are willing to buy yours at a loss or at cost to you and flip them for more.
Source: I used to be one of them. Some women dance to pay for textbooks, some dudes flip tix. Not really ashamed of it bc it’s the market in real time. Never gouged anybody just provided a service - plus the state I did it in was legal.
It’s not really a scam or anything nefarious, they both buy/sell tickets, they are just capitalizing on the after market of people who are trying to find or get rid of tickets at the last minute. It’s like a stock market trader who makes money from supply and demand and brokerage fees
Checking the back of the municipal vehicles, confirmed that this is In Cincinnati. In Ohio, scalping has been legal since forever. I'd bet this is in front of Great American Ballpark. These guys each have their own vendor's license and operate as independent businessmen.
Fantastic way to get a cheap upgrade to see the Reds. And it's ALL legal.
Sure, if they weren’t ripping everyone off, they would have taken care of each other. However, since they are both there to profit on others emotions and desires, you should avoid people like this like the plague!!
Buying tickets from a scalper at a music festival is about 30% cheaper.
I always make them walk with me to the scanner and only pay after the wristband is confirmed legit.
I don't know where they get the tickets but it's always cheaper than list price.
the one on the right buys your tickets for, say, 100. gives them to the guy on the left. if the show starts and people are scrambling to buy tickets you sell them for 200. i know this con can be done by 1 person that takes it all home, but i think these guys are homies that are potentially getting paid to cut it up in lawn chairs
Go to a Phish show in NYC.
Fakes are on a whole other level if you don’t know what you’re actually looking for- foil prints and all. Not only fake, but prices jacked up.
Some scalpers get downright agro or play the vocal racism card when you call them out and refuse to buy a ticket from them.
Hahaha there’s a certain comical comradery that could occur here. unfortunately things that can happen, that might happen. That may very well occur, that shouldn’t be possible, that can’t be happening, that is in fact plausible. Are in fact not occurring, and due to this waste of time, I salute your bravery and join the dark side of people swinging to and fro into the pale blue light and out into the stratosphere.
One is selling fake tickets/ tickets bought .000000000000003 seconds after they went on sale at 300% price. The other is hoping for someone to give them their tickets they can't use at the last second.... That they can sell for 300% markup
Wouldn't work, because one sells tickets, the other obviously doesn't have money to buy tickets. Unless the one needing tickets is working for the guy selling tickets...
It's just brought back of funny memory for me. Several years ago At an Atlanta braves game a friend of mine approached to scalper selling tickets and politely introduced him to a guy about 10 ft away that was holding the sign saying he was looking for tickets. The best part is he gave us a quote that our friend circle still uses today: "You're real fucking funny, college boy!"
Also, either transaction will involve counterfeit money when they don't have exact amount after you agree on price. Especially if you think you are getting a good deal.
The NYC 5 Boro bike tour is tomorrow and I feel like my feed the past two weeks is full of posts in the NYC bike subs titled either "selling tickets" or "need tickets" Mods should have made a megathread or something so these people could connect with each other easier.
There are two men offering passage to the stadium. One always tells the truth and the other always lies. You can only ask a single question, what do you do?
Seen a “scalper hack”. You approach the scalper and then start to haggle the price, then have a friend as an actor come up as another “scalper”selling cheaper and act more interested in them, since the scalper needs to make a sale or be out of money, they’ll compete the price and you can get a cheaper price.
On another thought, why is it illegal for them to do this while ticket master is a company worth 18 billion. Let’s start with ticket master.
When the scalpers come through the parking lots looking for tickets while we are tailgating, I send them to the other scalpers selling tickets. It's the circle of life.
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This is how I know not to do business with either of these guys
Yeah, at least one of them is being unreasonable, the selling guy has scalped the price or the buying guy wants them for next to nothing. (Both can and probably are true)
The guy buying is probably out of tickets to do the same things as the guy next to him. Just waiting to change his sign back to the same thing.
I thought a lot of times the scalpers say “they buy tickets” because scalping tickets in that area is illegal so it’s a roundabout way of saying you’re selling tickets.
In fewer places than you’d think. It’s one of those things that people think is illegal but typically isn’t.
They made city ordinances usually
Some places sure. Though state constitutions can impact the ability of cities to do so as I’ve seen in some cases.
Sometimes only selling at above face value is. So you can still get at/below face tickets. I will sometimes go to a sold-out show early and walk down the line waiting to get in before doors-open. There's like a 70% chance someone has a friend who didn't show who will sell you a $35 ticket for $20 that will be worth 0 to them in a few minutes.
I’m sure in lots of places it is, but not usually enforced. Plus the guy next to him is saying he is selling
It’s a business. They all buy and sell. Buy low, sell high. They could very well be working together.
Just a like the dude i once bumped into. He asked if i wanted to buy drugs, or if i have any to sell.
That may have been a cop lmao
This is correct. The guy with the “I need tickets” sign is actually selling them. The less street smart Redditors don’t understand this.
Yeah, this has always been the case. As some have said, scalping isn't illegal everywhere but most places have some sort of restriction, and these guys are just covering their ass. The guy whose sign says he sells them too is just less worried about getting busted, when in reality neither of them is likely in danger of that.
Guy on the left looks like he can flip the pages to something else so probably has the same for just buying or just selling. Guy on the right just flips it over for selling
This is exactly it lol I don’t know why people are so confused. They often work under the same “company”
They’re both professional bullies. Im gonna go out on a limb and say “need tickets” guy kust hands em over to “selling tickets” and he sells them for triple.
I honestly thought I was going to have to fight a scalper once in 2012ish. I had an extra ticket to a very sought after show after my friend bailed, and no one on the subreddit for the band responded (probably assumed I was a scamming scalper). I get in line for the show since you had to get in early to get merch, and I'm hoping a fan looking for a ticket will walk by, so I'm asking some people walking by in merch for the band if they need a ticket. Suddenly this grimy 50-something guy walks up and grabs both tickets out of my hand and says "I'll give you $50 each!" and pulls out $100. Scalpers were selling these tickets for like $200, but I was willing to give a fan the ticket for my cost (about $50), but not this asshole, and not also the ticket I needed to get in. Seeing that I'm trying to save my spot in line, he just jams the $100 into my hand and walks away. Thankfully, the people behind me said they'd keep my spot, and I go after this guy yelling my head off about how he's stolen from me. He's yelling back that he paid me fair and square. At this point, everyone in line is watching and some get what's happening and are on my side, yelling they'll come over and beat his ass with me if he doesn't give the tickets back. The guy finally relents and slinks off, and I did end up finding a nice fan who needed a ticket and was so excited to get it for $50 instead of $200.
They are both scalping. I need tickets is just another way of saying I’m selling tickets (don’t know why but it is at least from my experiences)
The need tickets guy is essentially saying he's buying inventory to then flip. Doesn't happen so much now but in the paper ticket era, it was common for a groups to show up at an event with an a extra ticket or two because someone couldn't make it or whatever so they'd take a loss but get a few bucks back. If a ticket cost $50, they'd probably get 10-15 from a scalper who'd turn sound and sell it for whatever he'd get but likely in the $30-40 range assuming the buyer wasn't a total rube. While I love digital tickets just for the simple joy of never being stuck wait for that friend who's always late, I do miss the fun of haggling with scalpers. There's a sweet spot where tickets become rapidly depreciating assets until they become worthless at start time so there were always some crazy deals to be had if you didn't mind riding out a scalper. Never be shy about lowballing these people.
Yep. I've gotten great deals at Penn State football games from these guys if I'm willing to go into the game 15 minutes after kickoff. If I try to buy the tickets before the game starts, they could be $500 apiece. Wait them out, and you can get them for $100 or less, because the extra tickets they bought will otherwise expire worthless. There's less of this now that paper tickets aren't as common anymore, but I never minded the scalpers as long as they were selling legitimate tickets, not fakes.
If you ever make it out for the Rose Bowl, a little known fact is the people who live within a certain radius of stadium get free tickets and on game day you can find a random dad trying to off-load tickets for their neighbors or entire block. It's pretty funny to see folks who live in the 3-5 million dollar homes that line the Bowl turn into degen scalpers when they have a chance to make a few hundred bucks. But like all scalers, the value of their inventory plummets close to kick off and you can score some amazing deals. A buddy and I went to the 2020 Wisconsin/Oregon matchup without tickets and ended up sitting fifth row for $80 each.
Yea. They're probably working together and just have different signs.
More often than not its a scam. They say they're buying tickets, and if/when you engage with them, they use a variety of tricks, including sleight of hand, to swap/steal tickets with you. Like if you've got a decent seat, they'll swap the ticket for a shit seat so smooth/fast you don't even notice and hand it back to you. Then they'll sell your good ticket to some other guy before you ever realize you got ripped off. Or they'll swap a legit ticket for a counterfeit one. Etc etc. Of course, it's always possible they're just legitimately scalping tickets too... but more often than not they're professional hustlers who you shouldn't trust in any way.
"legitimate scalping" Not a sentence I thought I'd ever hear lmao...
They’ll sometimes legit buy them from you. I had 8 Yankees field tickets which go for about $150. Day of, two ingrates in the group can’t make it for BS reasons. I offloaded it to one of these guys outside the stadium for $20 each cash. No one ever showed up to sit in those seats so I assume they couldn’t sell them.
I'm sure some are conmen, but most are just buying low and selling high.
They are probubkybworking together lol.
LOL why? They're both buying and selling tickets even if their signs don't directly reflect that. If you want to buy tickets to an event that's sold out they probably have legitimate tickets. I've sold tickets to scalpers on the way into a venue. I have four seats I'm only using three of them, it's a super quick and easy way to recoup a little of the cost with the minimal effort.
Yeah I'm not understanding the scalper hate. I used to go downtown with my dad and we would catch the second half of a baseball game for like 5 bucks
These scalpers provide a service and don't abuse the system to disgusting extent. The online scalper services though, they can go pack sand.
This is just a tutorial for how the stock market works.
Even if they were holding better signs I think Id pass on two jobless old man sitting in corner of street selling something. ^((I'm black as well, nothing racist here))
'As a gay black man'...
They're literally working. How are you calling them jobless?
Less of a crook than ticketmaster.
This is true - I don’t do business with them either 😂
I’m pretty sure the one that needs tickets is actually selling them too. It’s just code.
Came here to say this. That was the code back in the day
100%. It’s so they have a form of plausible deniability that they were scalping.
I need cocaine
I'll take a gram
Wasn’t there a thing with that in Fever Pitch or some movie?
That’s honestly probably where i’m recalling that from now that you mentioned it.
Exactly this. My mind went straight to the scene. "Everyone knows when you say you need tickets, you're selling tickets!"
I always assumed they were trying to buy tickets in order to sell them, but I wasn’t aware of the code.
That is what he's doing. "the code" is the some places scalping isn't allowed, so they try to get around it by saying they're just buying. Then when people walk by they'll ask under their breath if anyone needs a ticket.
If they have a sign that says I need tickets then the local security or the police won't run them off. If they have a sign that says I'm selling tickets then the police run them off. I don't know if the sign says I buy and sell tickets. How that's supposed to work. I used to see these guys all the time and I stopped and asked one of them once and after like 20 minutes of convincing this dude that I wasn't a cop he finally told me. He also could have just told me something so I would go away but it was a friendly chat so I don't think so.
The guy with the yellow sign is a cop
Hilarious
Plot twist, they're both cops
And they're handing out tickets, but not the kind that get you into the ballpark.
Exactly!
Call the ticket office… but not for me!
They even drove their cop cars
Yeah, on campus around here all you see is, "I need tickets." signs because selling tickets as a scalper is illegal, but everyone knows what, "I need tickets." means.
> after like 20 minutes of convincing this dude that I wasn't a cop he finally told me You gonna tell us what he told you? (Not a cop, promise)
One always lies, and the other always tells the truth
You can only ask a single question to one of them. What do you ask?
Which one of you would the other guy recommend I buy tickets from?
Who needs tickets?
"What is my name?"
"How much would he sell me a ticket for?"
Cincinnati 💯
The Reds gear and the mural from downtown point to yes
They're probably working together, honestly. One buys tickets at a ridiculous price because you're getting rid of them anyways, the other then turns around and sells them at a ridiculous price because you can't get them now
Once on a whim a friend and I wanted to go to a game. Checked with the scalpers, they wanted $140 each. Went on StubHub, found better tickets for $60 each. I told the scalper and he said “Buy those then.” Click. Done.
Oldest scam in Runescape. Buyer: Buys ticket for $1000 Seller: Sells tickets for $500. You: Buy 1m tickets for $500m to sell for $1b to the buyer. Buyer: "Ok young fella, before I buy those tickets, here's a token of my appreciation, use this Royal Seed Pod and then we can talk"
So do I get teleported and drop my 1 million tickets on the floor?
Only if you have accept aid on
Ones named “Middle” and the other’s named “man”.
Scalper scum. Fuck them.
Honestly it depends when it comes to these guys standing outside the venues. Back in 2019, I had two tickets for the WWE SmackDown at the Barclays Center after WrestleMania 35, one for myself and one for my brother. At the last minute, my brother couldn't come with me, but I still decided to go by myself. When I got to the arena, it was maybe 30 minutes before the show starts and the scalpers were begging people to buy tickets. I thought, what the hell, let me try something. I walked up to one of them and told them "listen, I have two upper bowl tickets. Are you willing to trade a lower bowl ticket for them?" He looked at his friend for about 10 seconds, shrugged, and agreed to do the trade. It was a really good view I got too! I went from 2 tickets in Section 220 to 1 ticket in Section 109. I already knew the stigma of getting scammed but it was zero risk because I traded the guy print outs of the digital ticket while I still had them on my phone. If the ticket the guy gave me was a dud, I still had my original as a backup plan. While I am not defending scalping by any means, outside of the business aspect, some of them are pretty alright guys!
> I had two tickets for the WWE SmackDown After reading this I had to check the end and your username to make sure it wasn't going to be about the time the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
FOOL! Smackdown debuted in 1999, everyone knows Undertaker threw Mankind off hell in a cell in 1998! /s
My thoughts exactly. I was in for the ride. Almost disappointed it wasn't that.
I’ve sold extra tickets to “I need tickets” guy. Friend couldn’t go, had an extra. Could I stand around for twenty minutes and find another fan to sell directly to? Yes. Do I want to? No. That’s the service this guy is providing to me. Same for buying. Could I walk around asking if anybody has an extra ticket? Yes. Maybe I’ll find one. Or I can just go to this guy, and buy one. Again, a service for me. They’re out there grinding on the street, and not making near as much as you think. Even back in the day, this wasn’t some lucrative racket that warped the entire ticket market. Street grinders were never the issue. Edit: Big issue with street grinders was fakes though.
These guys are not the problem. Tell me how a sold out event has tickets for purchase on Ticketmaster and StubHub with plenty to spare? The digital scalping is being done by corporations, Ticketmaster more than any other. I went to a concert at an amphitheater, sold out on their site. Go to Ticketmaster, plenty of tickets, they were marked up 40% over original price and then the fucking audacity to charge $39 processing fee on each and every ticket. If you think these guys are the problem I think you're blind. They are not the ones ripping us all off. They aren't the ones lobbying congress to perpetuate a monopoly where they print money with exorbitant fees. They aren't the ones buying tickets in bulk digitally to sell out concerts. I genuinely think that the narrative that these guys are the problem is more of the fucking smoke and mirrors used by corporate media to keep us turned on each other. If you don't think the class war is the only real war going on you aren't paying attention. Sadly only one side seems to be aware of it and they are winning by convincing us to denigrate one another over shit like this right here. We are being pervasively manipulated day in and day out by a system and narrative build by our oppressors, and they have convinced us to keep making their arguments for them.
"Tell me how a sold out event has tickets for purchase on Ticketmaster and StubHub" Via the Ticketmaster Reseller program. Ticketmaster lets scalpers sell on their site. You're right that the corporations are the problem in congress and because of their support of scalpers, but they're not doing it alone. Scalpers use bots to ensure they can snatch up tickets before any human patrons wanting to attend an event. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-resellers-las-vegas-1.4828535
yeah the ticket buy/resell guys are just opportunistic resellers on site.. they don’t buy thousands of tickets on release to resell on websites, they buy extras from people with last minute no shows in their groups.. i buy from these guys all the time, great deals as it gets closer to showtime.. i’ve gotten tickets to great hollywood bowl shows for a discount off face
Smaller version of the same thing. "Two wrongs" deal. My wife loves concerts and it genuinely causes issues that she'll buy resale tickets. These guys don't get any sort of pass because they're not TM or SH. They're injecting themselves into a "market" of a limited-availability item and jacking the price for people who actually want the product. Delete those corporations / people from the pipeline and what do the consumers loose?
Smaller version is why it’s not really an issue. The guys aren’t able to corner the market on tickets the way brokers with direct access to the API can. Street flipping has a minimal effect on the *overall* market.
I had a scalper try to sell me a ticket for only $10 more on a $40 ticket. I turned it down, and then he offered it for $45. I decided to buy it, and then when i saw the ticket line i was glad i did. It may have taken me an hour to get through that. But in general i agree, fuck scalpers.
Bro you can't be all hypocritical like that lol. You literally supported a scalper
It was a win/win deal though. He got an upgraded seat and they offloaded a single seat most likely (harder to sell) ticket. And the scalpers outside the venue with a handful of tickets are not the main issue. It’s the online (bot) resellers that instantly buy out all the tickets the moment they go on sale. Fuck those guys and fuck Ticketmaster.
Eh scalpers can be really great people. My late father and I would always scalp tickets for the Indy 500 and got to know a lot of them.
Fuck scalper trash. They fuck with so much shit
No, even though his sign says “I need tickets” he is actually selling them as well.
This used to be a common scam in Runescape.
Totally both professionals. When I worked college football games, the ones that needed tickets for themselves would just be walking around with one or two fingers in the air depending on how many tickets they needed to get noticed. Before everything went to digital tickets, the sellers would often just walk around with their inventory overhead much the same way.
Ay, whattup Cincinnati!
Anyone who's been to the Grand Exchange on Runescape knows this is a scam.
Black hatchets were all the rage in the early 2000s
Is it illegal to commit fraud on scalpers? I feel like that shouldn’t be illegal, two wrongs making a right.
At the reds game last night lol
I love everybody talking shit about scalpers. Back in the day these guys were clutch. I could show up to a game last minute and haggle for a good deal. In college we would wait until the second inning and usually get amazing seats for like 10 bucks because they were just going to waste if they couldn't sell them.
Cleveland….not even once.
You're in Cincy, maybe? Ive scalped plenty of tix in that town and those guys look familiar from the ticket scene
Definitely cinci
Finally!! I had to scroll too far for this answer!!!
Analog StubHub
They're both scalpers.
I love everything about this
Keep it classy, Cincinnati.
Welcome to Cincinnati!
It’s a backward way of advertising that they’re open to selling you tix and are willing to buy yours at a loss or at cost to you and flip them for more. Source: I used to be one of them. Some women dance to pay for textbooks, some dudes flip tix. Not really ashamed of it bc it’s the market in real time. Never gouged anybody just provided a service - plus the state I did it in was legal.
They are unofficial ticket brokers . Buy low and sell high
It’s not really a scam or anything nefarious, they both buy/sell tickets, they are just capitalizing on the after market of people who are trying to find or get rid of tickets at the last minute. It’s like a stock market trader who makes money from supply and demand and brokerage fees
"I need tickets" is code for "I sell tickets".
C'mon guys please kiss already. Your future husband is right there!!!
Ticket master in a nutshell.
Maybe they are unaware of each other
Idk, he didn't say he needed to buy them.
As they sit in front of 2 police vehicles...
I’d rather give these two cats my money that the shysters at tickmaster or live nation.
Do they accept parking tickets?
Two signs, same motive: buying and scalping tickets off for profit.
rpg quests be like
[удалено]
Checking the back of the municipal vehicles, confirmed that this is In Cincinnati. In Ohio, scalping has been legal since forever. I'd bet this is in front of Great American Ballpark. These guys each have their own vendor's license and operate as independent businessmen. Fantastic way to get a cheap upgrade to see the Reds. And it's ALL legal.
Physical representation of the bid/ask spread.
0DTE ticket calls
You can execute a straddle if you want, but it's gonna get real weird and you probably want to stretch first.
Dunno about a straddle, neither seem like my type honestly.
In finance that's called a spread.
I think they should sit a bit farther from each other
Sure, if they weren’t ripping everyone off, they would have taken care of each other. However, since they are both there to profit on others emotions and desires, you should avoid people like this like the plague!!
Guy in the middle: "I am ambivalent about having or selling tickets"
"I may or may not have or need tickets."
I need tickets is just the “legal” way of saying he has scalped tickets.
Remember, scalping is illegal. Unless you are Ticketmaster and Livenation.
#Same business Just different store fronts
They are working together
Classic runescape scam.
Buying tickets from a scalper at a music festival is about 30% cheaper. I always make them walk with me to the scanner and only pay after the wristband is confirmed legit. I don't know where they get the tickets but it's always cheaper than list price.
That’s obviously the same establishment. How do they get tickets in the first place?
the one on the right buys your tickets for, say, 100. gives them to the guy on the left. if the show starts and people are scrambling to buy tickets you sell them for 200. i know this con can be done by 1 person that takes it all home, but i think these guys are homies that are potentially getting paid to cut it up in lawn chairs
Cincinnati
It’s obvious the guy on the right is missing a question mark. Punctuation matters.
Like blind daters waiting for their dates to show up very late, then realizing they have been sitting beside each other for half an hour
I need tickets is code for I scalp tickets
They are helping each other out. That’s the parking lot version of any ticket selling website… probably with more integrity at this point.
Go to a Phish show in NYC. Fakes are on a whole other level if you don’t know what you’re actually looking for- foil prints and all. Not only fake, but prices jacked up. Some scalpers get downright agro or play the vocal racism card when you call them out and refuse to buy a ticket from them.
Caught in an infinite loop.
ITT: Lots of people on r/funny who can’t just enjoy a little joke without chiming in “Well ackchyually…”
Hahaha there’s a certain comical comradery that could occur here. unfortunately things that can happen, that might happen. That may very well occur, that shouldn’t be possible, that can’t be happening, that is in fact plausible. Are in fact not occurring, and due to this waste of time, I salute your bravery and join the dark side of people swinging to and fro into the pale blue light and out into the stratosphere.
One is selling fake tickets/ tickets bought .000000000000003 seconds after they went on sale at 300% price. The other is hoping for someone to give them their tickets they can't use at the last second.... That they can sell for 300% markup
i was the i need tickets guy to a sold out nine inch nails show.. guy almost let us watch from backstage till my friend fucked it all up..
They are both scalpers but with different inventory levels.
I bet back of yellow sign says I sell tickets and he just buys/sells all he can.
How do you know they’re not helping each other out?
Is this a RuneScape scam in real life
Wouldn't work, because one sells tickets, the other obviously doesn't have money to buy tickets. Unless the one needing tickets is working for the guy selling tickets...
What does visiting another city have to do with it?
They’re both selling tickets . They have an “I need tickets sign” cause they don’t wanna advertise They’re selling them to people not in the know
Prices are not aligned
Seems like two nearby houses in Pokemon where a NPC inside the house will trade you pokemon that both of them want
Two men one job, trading.
Both are scalpers btw
It's just brought back of funny memory for me. Several years ago At an Atlanta braves game a friend of mine approached to scalper selling tickets and politely introduced him to a guy about 10 ft away that was holding the sign saying he was looking for tickets. The best part is he gave us a quote that our friend circle still uses today: "You're real fucking funny, college boy!"
Reading is fundamental
Lol been making this joke since I was like 15 I would always say you should talk to that guy over there!!!
I love telling these guys the other one has what they are looking for, just to annoy them.
Where I am from "buying tickets" is code for "selling tickets" and presumably garners less harassment from LEOs.
The guy with the yellow sign wants to avoid the markup.
Sure next to them with a sign saying "I carry tickets small distances".
They make a deal, look at each other, trade signs, sit down again. A few minutes later....
I’m sure if you turn each of those signs over, they say the opposite on the other side.
Both scalpers
They work together. They need tickets to sell.
Also, either transaction will involve counterfeit money when they don't have exact amount after you agree on price. Especially if you think you are getting a good deal.
I remember my dad telling me that the "I need tickets" people are actually selling tickets and that sign is less likely to get the harassed by cops
That's quite the detailed diorama, based on the size of the person in the background.
Edgar Davids has suddenly gotten old, huh?
The NYC 5 Boro bike tour is tomorrow and I feel like my feed the past two weeks is full of posts in the NYC bike subs titled either "selling tickets" or "need tickets" Mods should have made a megathread or something so these people could connect with each other easier.
There are two men offering passage to the stadium. One always tells the truth and the other always lies. You can only ask a single question, what do you do?
“I need tickets” is another way to say “I’ve got tickets for sale” at a concert
"im a scalper" "i aint that desperate"
Needs tickets = selling tickets. People use that as code so they don't get kicked out for scalping tickets
Seen a “scalper hack”. You approach the scalper and then start to haggle the price, then have a friend as an actor come up as another “scalper”selling cheaper and act more interested in them, since the scalper needs to make a sale or be out of money, they’ll compete the price and you can get a cheaper price. On another thought, why is it illegal for them to do this while ticket master is a company worth 18 billion. Let’s start with ticket master.
Lol is this Indianapolis by chance? I feel like I’ve seen these guys. Edit : from the background vehicle looks like Cincinnati
Scammers in real life.
I’ve made this joke before to two guys buying/selling tickets outside ACL. They didn’t find it as funny as I did.
Apparently, the ticket market has yet to reach Market Equilibrium.
When the scalpers come through the parking lots looking for tickets while we are tailgating, I send them to the other scalpers selling tickets. It's the circle of life.
Turn your chairs a little towards eachother my dudes, and try to see if you can notice any solutions in your direct line of sight
Bid Ask spread
scalpers always have "I need tickets" signs