I am the last guy to call upon government to stick it's nose in private business, but something must be done about this.  As a long time fan of live music, i can tell you first hand that online ticketing services are extremely broken and that i wouldn't be surprised to find out that places like Ticketmaster allow scalpers to "cut in" on online sales(i hate to sound like that conspiracy theorist guy). Taken as an example from my favorite band, Phish, who just announced their fall tour.    Now Phish is by no means a Mainstream band, but they continually show up on "top grossing tour bands" lists year after year when they tour. They have a dedicated fan base that will travel hours upon hours to see them play, and i am one of them.  Just in 09-10 i drove a total of 16 hours to see them ( 6 hours to their reunion show in march, 6 hours to philly last fall, and 5 hours this past summer to see them in Hershey PA), and i was ready to drive 7 hours this october.... 
 
People who follow me on Giantbomb probably noticed my status messages about trying to get tickets for their Halloween weekend  Shows in Atlantic City. Allow me to weave you a tale of tragedy and despair. 
 

First i would like to relate something that has been dubbed the "over 15 minute wait shuffle".  What happens is this,  your tickets go on sale at 10, you click the button to confirm your order, fill out your  captcha, and you load  up the "waiting in line" page.  This is exactly what happened to me, i was "in line" by 10:00:30, i was told my wait would be 15 minutes, i started praying...it told me my wait was down to 10 minutes, down to 7, then magically, my wait is back up to 15. Now yes, the times are approximations,and there is no way to truly know how many people hit their order button at precisely the right time, but it still smells fishy to me. Also, its happened to so many people, its hard to imagine that its just being "too slow". I have heard at least 100 stories online of people that had the exact same problem, "its like ticketmaster just decided i wasnt cool enough to get tickets".   My friend had 3 computers going trying to get the same tickets, and i had 2 going, none of us got any tickets. I've heard stories of full rooms of 20 or more people trying to get tickets, and not a single one scoring. What are the chances?  You can say its extremely unlucky but  i personally think something foul is afoot.  Actually i kinda lied, my friend got through on his one computer twice, only to have the site tell him his order failed and to try again. 
 
 2ndly, 3 minutes after the tickets for the weekend  went on sale, they were already up on places like stubhub with price ranges from 300-2000 dollars for a 70 dollar ticket. By my quick tally, there are 478 tickets available on stubhub(not counting other ticket resale site, tickets on ebay, etc)  for the Halloween show, a small portion when you consider the venue holds about 14,000, but still enough that it makes you think "how the fuck do they pull this off?".  If you take that number and multiply it by the 3 day weekend,  thats 1,434 tickets that went to people who have no intent of going to any show the whole weekend, and never did.   Is it that hard to imagine a reality where TM turns a blind eye to scalper-bots and computer farms, and captcha-cheating code, because they dont care where the tickets go, as long as they get service fees? Hell, maybe they are even recieving a kickback from places like stub-hub who thrive on scalpers ability to score seats(since sites like stub hub  add a fee on top, making buyers pay more, and taking a cut from whatever profits each seller makes).
 
Now you might be saying,  "well, its supply and demand, isnt it? if people wouldn't pay those exorbitant prices for the tickets, the scalpers never would try", or maybe you are even thinking "ahh, capitalism at its finest, buy low, sell high",  Well sir, if you think either of those things, you are an asshole.  Allow me to explain my theory, a Ticket to an event is not a "Good" per-say, its a service.  
 
 A ticket is like a contract between the buyer and the event organizer/promoter, a contract that allows you to enter the venue, the purchase of a ticket is your and the organizers signatures. You cant resell a service or a contract, I cant erase my name off the dotted line of a job contract and give it to my friend. Or resell my job to someone else, well, i could, but i ensure you, my employer would never give me another contract.  In plain english, a scalper doesn't have the right to grant me access to a show he's not an organizer of. As an easier example, say i am at a nightclub, and the owner for some unbeknown reason invites me into the VIP room.   I can't turn to my friend and say,  
 
"hey bro, i dont feel like going into the VIP room, but if you pay me 100 dollars i'll let you in".  I simply don't have the right to grant my friend access into the VIP room.  
 
Also , people who say "its capitalism at its finest" are just plain jerks, scalpers make nothing of value, they simply use strong-arm mob tactics, and sneaky programming to create their own demand for tickets that otherwise all the demand would be taken care of by the original sale of the tickets.   If scalpers didnt eat up 400 tickets(probably more) to each show, there would be little to no 2nd market demand for tickets, because most everyone that wanted tickets could get them.  If i was a doctor, i couldn't  get away with walking around town breaking peoples kneecaps with a tire-iron then offering to cast up their leg for 1000 dollars.
 
"But what could you do, scalpers have always existed", this is where it gets tricky, but as a start, places like Ticketmaster could start actually giving a shit, and investigating. If someone is buying 5 orders of 3 tickets on the same credit or debit card, isn't that a little suspicious?  Think about this, the most you could order for one night of the halloween show was 2 tickets per order, but somehow, some people on Stubhub are offering 8 tickets, how does that work? Simply put, if someone is ordering 4 orders of 2 tickets on one card, those orders should be invalid. It's what phish does in their lottery pre-orders, you can't put more than one order in on one card if you do, your order priority is put low, or your orders are straight up canceled, why cant TM do the same? Oh, because no matter how much they talk about how "Scalping is bad" and "We try to stop it" they don't care at all, as long as they continue to rape whoever is buying the tickets with 7-13 dollar services charges, they are making their money.  If the federal government made scalping illegal, sites like stubhub could be shut down, and people couldn't charge a 300-500 percent increase on face value on ebay.  Im not saying you shouldn't be able to fairly resell your tickets to friends or other fans if you cant go for some reason, but there is no way that there should be commercial enterprises based around the principle of holding down music fans and fucking them in the ass.

It will always be a problem. Does stub hub have a way of validating tickets or does someone just post? 
 
No matter what system is put in place, there will always be someone trying to game it.

prolly doesnt help that the worst hell hole company of all is selling for ticketmaster now. yep walmart. so bot scalpers and bitch ass slave mart get plenty of blocks to sell.

I don't like scalpers either. Seeing all these guys outside stadiums and venues before a game looking to buy and sell tickets are a blight, but apparently they make some good money. 

I do agree that the system is broken. I hate using ticketmaster for many, many reasons but they have such a huge monopoly it is impossiable not to.
Didn't know they were teaming up with walmart.. makes sense from a buisness perspective I guess.

Scalpers really piss me off and they were a vocal concern during our Winter Olympics up in Vancouver, where we had some empty seats thanks to scalpers purchasing the tickets and attempting to sell them to local residents and foreigners. Sure it makes sense, tickets are a commodity and they have some high values when they are limited in quantity, but I don't like the idea of scalpers at all.

All you need to do is watch that episode of "Home Improvement" to learn your lesson!

You want ticket scalping to be a felony? What the hell?

People need that cream and sounds like you're just pissed cause you missed your favorite band.

 Unfortunately if the prices are that high, that means are actually buying them at that crazy price so it is supply and demand. What you're saying about a ticket is wrong though, it is not a contract, it's a physical thing. People should and are able to do what they want with them. Like @blacklabeldommsaid, your just pissed off. But understandable.

No, you are wrong.

" All you need to do is watch that episode of "Home Improvement" to learn your lesson! "

You people that choose to defend scalpers ignore the fact that a lot of them use bots and hacking to pretend to be  individual purchasers. You cant game the system to give yourself an unfair advantage.

Scalpers suck, especially at PAX

Yeah man wtf. All these people buying stuff that's in high demand and trying to resell it for a profit. That's messed up, we should throw them in jail.
 
lolwut

I completely agree, thankfully a whole bunch of ticket suppliers in Australia don't allow tickets to be sold on to different names (ticketmaster is definitely not one of these), they can only be sold back to the supplier which are redistributed through ballot. Though this can lead to some difficulties (eg. a friend of mine initially couldn't get into a festival because the person ordering tickets spelled her name wrong when ordering), it means these events have no scalping at all, which I think is worth the burden.

-1 
 
Edit: yeah, I don't agree. There will be enough laws one day to keep 1 out of every 13 people in jail.

While ticket scalping involves high levels of douchebaggery, it's nowhere near felony levels.

I understand your sentiment, but don't agree with your conclusions. Scalping is a result of supply and demand. If there weren't continually people buying tickets at those prices, then sites like stubhub wouldn't exist. Therefore they are meeting a need and benefiting off of it, the country was built in such a manner.  
 
Also, buying an event ticket is no different from buying any other item. For instance when you buy a game, you don't own the game, you are merely given permission to play it. If you sell it to your friend, you give the game disc to him and effectively terminate your own ability to access it. This is called the Right of First Sale. The exact same transaction happens with event tickets; no extra copies are made nor is the source material being changed, therefore it is legal. The areas that prohibit scalping mainly prohibit it on the premises only, as this would be a form of soliciting. This doesn't apply online, which is why it's allowed and there are even specialized sites for it.  
 
I don't like scalpers any more than the next guy, but I don't agree with the conclusion that the act of scalping should be made a felony either. 

Unfortunately the situation is just like the drug problem.  If nobody was willing to pay those super-inflated prices the scalpers/drug lords would go out of business tomorrow.

  Also , people who say "its capitalism at its finest" are just plain jerks, scalpers make nothing of value, they simply use strong-arm mob tactics, and sneaky programming to create their own demand for tickets that otherwise all the demand would be taken care of by the original sale of the tickets.   If scalpers didnt eat up 400 tickets(probably more) to each show, there would be little to no 2nd market demand for tickets, because most everyone that wanted tickets could get them.  If i was a doctor, i couldn't  get away with walking around town breaking peoples kneecaps with a tire-iron then offering to cast up their leg for 1000 dollars.   

Yes.

" All you need to do is watch that episode of "Home Improvement" to learn your lesson! "

" @MrGetBonus:   Its not that, thats fine, if you want to be a scumbag, whatever. But they use unfair tactics to gain an advantage that the average buyer doesn't have. What do we do to Atheletes who use performance enhancing drugs? "

Ugh, I know...I bought Lady GaGa tickets for this girl I'm talking to, and the pair costs me a total of $540. Disgusting.

If someone is scalping, it should be legal to shoot them on the spot and take their tickets. 

Unless they make tickets that require you to give them a photo of you and have it printed on the ticket at purchase so that only that person can use it there is nothing they can do. Last I checked, wasn't it illegal to do so? Or did 90's TV lie to me?

" All you need to do is watch that episode of "Home Improvement" to learn your lesson! "

As my favorite band is Pearl Jam, I have spent more than my share of rage on ticketmaster. In the end it seems to be one of those shit situations with no real answer. If ticketmaster would enforce their stated policies scalping would be seriously cut down on. Also, if people would stop buying tickets from scalpers it would stop. Neither, is very likely. I think what this will all lead to is things like paperless tickets being more widespread. Nine Inch Nails did a paperless tour that I was reading about. You paid.online with a credit card, brought a government issued ID and the card you paid with, and when verified you were escorted in. No paper ticket. No chance to pick up will call seats and sell them on the street. Seems crazy, but I imagine it was effective.

Yup.  Stubhub and other ticket sites need to set up a policy of not allowing someone to post a ticket at a price above what face value is.  Stub hub was made with the purpose of letting those with season tickets or packages get some money off tickets they can't  or know they won't use.  It gets other people into the event and helps them recoup some money that they put into it. Now we got guys just going in there to rip off these tickets and sell them and ridiculous prices.  And it doesn't stop at tickets for events.  
We all know people line up for black friday, and this past year, I lined up to get my parents a new TV and some assholes, and you could tell these guys didnt have a job, they were ragged up and total losers.  They were first in line and the best buy had given out tickets to people looking to buy a specific item and they collected these were trying to sell them to people further down the line.  Assholes.

looks like some of you babbys need to learn about a little something call the free market. supply and demand much?

I have no problem with scalpers if the state/locality is fine with them. I do have a massive problem with ticketmaster. Terrible company, terrible web site, terrible service, horrendous fees. Honestly, those folks will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

" looks like some of you babbys need to learn about a little something call the free market. supply and demand much? "  

The problem isn't the scalpers, the problem is that the demand is too high. So even though there are probably enough tickets to satisfy the number of people wanting them the demand curve still crosses with supply at a price point equilibrium that is much higher than what ticketmaster is selling them at; the fact is that people are willing to pay stupid high prices for tickets and that's why the scalpers are there. Don't want to scalpers to sell tickets at 500% of the face value? THEN DON'T FUCKING BUY THEM AT THAT PRICE. The only way to bring the price down to a point where it makes it pointless for scalpers to even try is to refuse to buy the tickets at prices that are very much higher than the ones that ticketmaster sells them at.
 
The scalpers aren't holding you down and fucking you in the ass. No, rather you are bending over, spreading your ass cheeks apart and saying, "PORT NOW OPEN FOR DOCKING!"

Is this topic purposefully a simile for the used game market, or is this coincidental?
 
@RsistncE:  Yes. Most people seem to ignore the whole "supply/demand" thing when it comes to unethical business tactics, namely those that apply to a "want" vs. a "need".

As someone who has gotten shut out of shows multiple times due to Scalpers,  I completely agree with this. 
 
If Ticket Master used a system that only allowed the purchase of so many tickets (I'm not talking like, 2 ticket limits, but multiple purchases for multiple shows on the same credit card such as the system that is used for the Phish lottery) it would minimize the problem a great deal. Then in accordance, if sites like Stub Hub only allowed people to put tickets up for sale at face value or equal trades, the problem would be fixed. 
 
I don't understand why scalping laws aren't more harsh/strict. Why should these people be allowed to make thousands of dollars on someone else's music and shutting others out from doing something that they otherwise would be able to afford? They simply don't care because no one is LOSING money but the buyers. The bands and the ticket servicing sites still get their fill. 
 
A lot of bands are against scalpers (like Phish) but there's nothing they can really do about it. It's sad.
 
Not all of us have $1,000 to fork over for a concert.

But in other words... scalpers gon' scalp. :(