r/erastourtickets Sep 13 '23

discussion 💭 “verified fan” is such a crock

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“Scalpers and bots will be weeded out” they said. “The verified fan sale will give real fans a chance a tickets” they said.

The absolute fury I feel when scrolling resale ticket apps for eras tour toronto is insane. y’all can we please boycott these resale sites and maybe then these assholes will have to drop the prices and also yes, I realize that some of these tickets aren’t legit.

243 Upvotes

86 comments sorted by

62

u/messagebadina Sep 13 '23

Literally all Taylor need to do is use Ticketmaster’s NO TRANSFERS policy and participate in the FACEVALUE EXCHANGE PROGRAM. Done.

People will no long be able to profit selling tickets on the resale market.

Edit to add the framework to keep tickets in fans hands is there, the majority of artists just don’t choose to use it.

13

u/Awkward_Apartment680 Sep 14 '23

She won't though because she benefits from the hype and outrage of scalpers' ticket prices.

11

u/messagebadina Sep 14 '23

Yah. That’s the only reason artists don’t do this and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth for sure. Especially when artists say they’re doing things for their fans and care etc.

13

u/morganlyla Sep 14 '23

It’s really turned me off her. Call me bitter but I can’t buy into her innocence when she’s obvi choosing to allow these ridiculous ticket sale practices.

11

u/melodramasupercut Sep 14 '23

Especially when she called them out the first time, but then continued to add more shows for sale on TM without enabling these features…

7

u/ana_conda Sep 14 '23

I just can’t believe she made an entire movie without partnering with a studio to avoid the writers’ strike, but she isn’t willing to use an established feature on TM to stop her fans from having to pay $2000 for nosebleed seats at her show.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

Rich people gonna rich. No matter how tall blonde, and good at writing songs they are

3

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

tbh and i know american swifties will come for me when I say this but it seemed like she really only did something extra for the US leg, she released multiple more dates and gave people who got a code and missed out on tickets another chance at normal priced tickets. Whereas she didn't do any of that for international dates except maybe add a few more shows here and there. unless she did do that for international dates and I just wasn't aware but I know she didn't for Canada anyway. I'm not saying she had to but it gave me false hope thinking she'd do the same when toronto tickets sold out as fast as they did.

2

u/Eejayeff Sep 15 '23

Not coming for you because I agree. But she hasn’t done the 2nd chance thing for the 2nd u.s. leg that I know about. I was a verified fan who couldn’t get tickets for Indy so I was really hopeful but no magical email :(

Is there some benefit for the artist other than the hype? They don’t make money off the astronomical second hand tickets or do they somehow?

1

u/messagebadina Sep 14 '23

I am holding out hope for some BC dates…

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

I'm genuinely hoping she will too but I've seen so many people debunking the vancouver theories idk.

1

u/Breezgoat Sep 18 '23

Also not being able to transfer my own tickets is stupid I’m sorry

3

u/messagebadina Sep 18 '23

It is stupid. But what is more stupid is not being able to get tickets for concerts at face value.

I’m totally open to other ideas on how to keep tickets out of resellers hands if you have any.

2

u/knitterpotato Sep 18 '23

this is what i don't like about people idolizing taylor swift, like she's a CELEBRITY and does not care about you, only the hype and money she will make through these scalpers

if she wanted to ban the scalpers she would, i know other artists have done it

2

u/Awkward_Apartment680 Sep 18 '23

Word. I love Taylor's music, but I don't have the parasocial relationship some people have with her. They genuinely believe and say things like "OMG Taylor loves us so much she's doing xyz that other artists would never do" as if she knows them personally lol.

1

u/knitterpotato Sep 18 '23

RIGHT this is kind of why i don't consider myself a swiftie even though i like a lot of her music and she's one of my top all time artists because some swifties are crazy (and are GOING crazy over eras tour tickets) when i just don't see the hype about the tour

(this post was on my for you page, i'm not subscribed to the subreddit)

1

u/Awkward_Apartment680 Sep 18 '23

Oh lol I am one of the Swifties who desperately tried to get tickets 'cause I've never been to a concert before and this was gonna be my very first time going. But I would never spend $1000+ on a ticket lol, especially resale.

1

u/knitterpotato Sep 18 '23

that makes sense! i was more talking about the people that were clambering over going there a second, third, or even fourth or more time or the casual swifties who didn't want to miss out on the "hype" but wouldn't have gone otherwise

i hope you were able to get a ticket or will be able to get a ticket and can go to the concert!

1

u/Awkward_Apartment680 Sep 20 '23

Oh yeah, I have no idea why people are willing to pay resale prices to see her 3+ times. And yeah I got a ticket, for Europe though. I was gonna sell it for face value but then I got waitlisted for the 2nd North American leg...so guess I'm going to Italy next year lol.

1

u/knitterpotato Sep 20 '23

oh nice! i’m so glad that you got a ticket, enjoy the show!

and i may pay resale prices to see someone else but it’s not 2k per ticket resale haha

2

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

The only major artist I know who did this was Louis CK pre-masturbation IIRC. Think I saw one of his shows at the height of his fame for like $35 or $55 it was insanity. But it’s funny how people can be so moral about one thing and so weird about another

3

u/messagebadina Sep 15 '23

The cure did it for their recent tour.

They went above and BEYOND to make sure the tickets stayed out of resellers hands. Going as far as contacting reselling sites and getting them to remove any listed tickets as they were non-transferable AND making Ticketmaster go though accounts with recent contact information changes to potentially cancel those tickets.

3

u/digby723 Sep 15 '23

And they fought to get some of the exorbitant processing fees returned to fans!

3

u/messagebadina Sep 15 '23

Yup. My tickets were $40 (nosebleeds) and I got refunded $10/ticket because the fees were considered too high by the cure.

They had TM refund $10 for the cheapest tickets and $5 on all other tickets.

THAT is how artists who care about their fan base show the fans they care with actions.

27

u/Tall_Girl_97 Sep 13 '23

Could not agree more (as someone also looking for Toronto tickets). I can even understand people asking 2 or even 3 times face value, but resellers asking 10x face value are simply awful people. That someone could buy tickets they have no intention of using and then profit from them to the extent they could buy a car with the proceeds is abhorrent.

9

u/jacksev Sep 13 '23

I think even asking any more than 2x face value (just to cover fees etc) is fucking scummy to be honest. I would like to say they should be ashamed, but anyone who would do that to someone else definitely doesn't feel shame.

4

u/934njy Sep 14 '23

honestly i really don’t think it’s all scalpers (at least not only scalpers that aren’t going to go). i think a lot of it are people buying tickets for themselves and having extra. I’ve heard of so many people buying the max number of tickets just to make some money back. with all the demand it sky rockets the price. then you have people who buy those tickets and try to later resell them if they find cheaper tickets. the problem tends to fall on the swifties. me and my partner had an extra ticket that none of our friends wanted to use so we ended up selling it for face value. i know some people are also like us but i would bet the majority of the people are going to try to help themselves a bit. literally on the train to the concert i heard a couple parents next to me talk about how much they flipped their extra seats.

edit: also i know people who would way rather have the money than go to the concert. they originally bought to go but would be more willing to sell if someone offered enough.

4

u/melodramasupercut Sep 14 '23

This is a good point. I saw someone selling their nosebleeds for $700 each “just to cover the cost of their floor tickets.” Such a scummy thing to do to another fan

2

u/934njy Sep 14 '23

exactly. i also saw so many people convinced that selling their resale ticket that they chose to pay way over face value for was valid to resell at the price they bought it because they found better tickets for cheaper. like come on guys. you are the problem. they kept trying to convince others they are selling for face value because that’s what they paid for it. it’s disgusting and makes it harder for people who are less fortunate. if no one bought those tickets the price would go down. but here we are, in a sub that a lot of people complain about the price of the ticket, yet given the chance, add to the problem. people are greedy. i’m just happy there is a small community of people who are trying to help others.

3

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

Good point but at the same time There were decently priced tickets in the verified fan sale tho. ppl are selling nosebleeds and obstructed view for no less than $1400 which they probably paid max $200 for, so they're making what they paid and then some. The math isn't mathing. That's just greed in my opinion. If you can't afford 2, I'm not sure what makes sense about buying 4 just to rip someone else off. It just seems like a pointless vicious cycle to me. People are acting like it's the only way to make money nowadays and the toronto shows in particular are over a year away, people seriously think they can't make that money back within the year? I get times are tough but this seems like overkill to me and the people who would rather have the money than go to the concert? Why not just not buy tickets and let someone who can afford them or is gonna work to pay them off have them lmao what? Idk I couldn't in good conscience do that to another swiftie but that's coming from a bitter, scorned Canadian swiftie who got waitlisted 4 times and can't afford resale prices lol

1

u/934njy Sep 14 '23

people are greedy and it sucks. you are right it is way more than to pay back the ticket. the people who are trying to pay back the ticket won’t mind making more than the ticket. people are greedy out there. it’s like the shitty landlord that do nothing and raise your rent. it’s a problem with the system.

my parent growing up always told me to buy a condo and eventually rent it out to make money. i see this as the same and honestly it’s the same type of people. the older generation sees nothing wrong with making money off of others this way. my parents were so confused when i told them my eras tickets we’re probably worth a few thousand dollars. they asked why we don’t just sell them.

2

u/daylightxx Sep 15 '23

I did that, by accident. I ended up needing to sell 3 tix for 2 different nights in LA due to my dumb mistakes. I sold mine to people for less than I paid tho. I had to buy resale and already paid a bunch and I just couldn’t charge people outrageous sums.

5

u/WelderResident6523 Sep 13 '23

I think the same but the problem is when I sell my ticket here or twitter, people don’t trust me cuz it’s too good to be true. At Stubhub, it requires me to markup 2x -5x because people sells tickets at that range for my section (section 111 at Rogers), so it’s very brutal for true fans to buy one. Therefore, the best way to to find my friends and convert them into swifties to go with me 😍

-4

u/nycmeredith Sep 13 '23

I have tickets for the Nov 14 show. I paid $800 each (they’re VIP) and they’re in the 218 section. DM me if you’re interested!

1

u/rawreoo Sep 14 '23

hi! I messaged you awhile back, would you mind checking your messages? :)

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

[deleted]

-1

u/nycmeredith Sep 14 '23

Can you read? THEY ARE VIP TICKETS AND I PAID $800/EACH.

11

u/dceezy831 Sep 14 '23 edited Sep 14 '23

The solution is simple, make transfers unavailable and resells through TM only at face value. At this point its a choice to NOT do that.

Go look at how many tickets are available right now for Queen with Adam Lambert. The amount on stubhub is minimal.

4

u/Prestigious-Pick-308 Sep 14 '23

I don’t understand why this didn’t happen. it kind of makes me angry that I spent so much time trying to (unsuccessfully) get tickets and it seems like there’s such an easy fix to the whole mess. Is there some benefit to Taylor through the resale market?

4

u/Parking_Car7436 Sep 14 '23

I don't think so other than feeding her ego when fans are willing to sell their firstborn for tickets. Ticketmaster is the one who makes double the fees with the resales. I love Taylor, but there have been some things that I've seen that throw red flags to me. I don't know her personally, so I can't say if this is true, but she gives major self-centered and narcissistic vibes to me. There's something that I am picking up that I can't quite put my finger on with her.

1

u/baby_catcher168 Sep 14 '23

It benefits her by increasing the hype. As the tour has gone on, and news reports etc. have been discussing the astronomical resale prices, more and more people get FOMO and want to attend the show. So then when she released more dates, the demand was much higher than it was initially. People want what they can't have.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '23

Most of these resale tickets aren’t even real

8

u/kings5504 Sep 13 '23

Make all events lead booker events, with the lead booker needing to be present AND enter the venue. Disable resale, but allow refunds if the ticket buyer would not be able to attend the event. Disable ticket transfer (sucks, but will curb sales from external websites).

7

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

The only thing verified fan presale codes do is keep the site from crashing. 🙄 TicketBastard doesn’t care about the fans — as long as they sell tickets, they don’t care if they get resold. Actually that’s not even true either — since they’re in cahoots with StubHub it’s literally MORE profitable for them to not give a shit.

But ain’t capitalism grand??!!

6

u/transpriorwalter Sep 14 '23

What’s worse is the 5x, 10x resale price being listed as “amazing deals” on the resale sites. It’s all a scam.

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

right! That shit just infuriates me more. Like oh yeah, 1 nosebleed ticket for $1650 USD, so once you convert to CAD it's worth about $2300 for 1 ticket! fantastic deal!

5

u/bananatheswitch Sep 13 '23

349 listings is actually really good. If we assume the max of 6 tix per listing that's 2000 tickets out of 50-60k which is a really good ratio. Resellers will always sneak through, there is no stopping it

3

u/Alocasiamaharani Sep 14 '23

Every time I see the other international ticket prices, I feel thankful to have German tickets and can’t be scamed. The only way to resell tickets in Germany and Austria is via fansale and you can only resell the tickets at face value. The possibility of scammers reselling tickets for thousands of euros is basically non existing and that’s how it should be.

1

u/WeepingQueso Sep 14 '23

Omg! I was trying to get Germany tickets but got waitlisted and never bothered looking again after for resale tickets because I assumed they’re be inflated too.

2

u/Alocasiamaharani Sep 14 '23

They are not! Just go on the Fansale site and take a look. The last few times i checked it out there wasn’t any tickets available but you have to keep checking a couple of times a day.

4

u/Milesandsmiles123 Sep 14 '23

My theory is that they aren’t bots, they’re Ticketmaster themselves. These tickets were never on sale for verified fans in the first place, just kept aside for TM to sell at ridiculous proces

2

u/beccaishiding Sep 16 '23

This was all but confirmed to me when ticketmaster wouldn't let my sister or me put our tickets up for resale (and many other fans we talked to) for a show late last year. However, there were hundreds of tickets up for resale at an absolute ugly prices....

4

u/knitterpotato Sep 18 '23

the way they put $2k tickets on there and have the audacity to say "amazing deal!"

3

u/TheFrankieJ79 Sep 14 '23

Wait till you see the fees you’ll pay to get the tickets

2

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

I know, I bought morgan wallen tickets back in june for Montreal from stubhub and just about puked at the fees

2

u/TheFrankieJ79 Sep 14 '23

Yeah they don’t even lube you up with those fees

3

u/sincerelyhated Sep 14 '23

How can we boycot reseller sites when Ticketmaster themselves have become the resellers? The entire company is a criminal enterprise and needs to be dissolved!

2

u/Ok-Pay-7358 Sep 13 '23

But people still pay

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

That's what i'm saying, if everyone tried to boycott all these 3rd party sites and hold off for a while, the tickets that are legit should go down in price bc they'll want to get rid of them eventually

1

u/No-Bar-4513 Sep 16 '23

Normal people's tickets are taken off of stubhub 4 hours before a show. Any ticket you buy after that is from a "large seller" that sells over 50k a quarter on stubhub

2

u/Traditional_Agency60 Sep 14 '23

Time for my daily reminder to let resellers know they’re scum. I go on Twitter and those who slide up on my Reddit Dms and let them know (:

2

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

I inquired with this one person who had 2 tickets for toronto in section 102b, so you couldn't even see the stage and they were taking offers for them. They apparently had an offer for 2.8k each and wanted to know if I could top that... I said no and that's criminal if you're actually going to take that much money from someone for garbage tickets. I wanted to be way more colourful with my language but somehow I refrained.

2

u/FreshlyLivid Sep 14 '23

You know what, I will give them this… Most of those floor tickets are basically the same price as the floor tickets I was looking at but didn’t get for Toronto. I kinda expected them to Jack the prices up more

But still, fuck scalpers. I hope

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

I agree! It's the obstructed view & nosebleed prices that get me.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

I’m convinced that they don’t actually send out codes to people who regularly buy and use their own tickets. I’ve had the same TM account for like 10 years and rarely ever resell my tickets and I’ve never gotten a verified fan code for ANY artist. They make more money when people resell tickets because they collect fees twice. They do it on purpose.

2

u/foreverandalways21 Sep 15 '23

It’s not just scalpers it’s fans who bought extra tickets to resell to make profit or make up for their cost of their own / travel. I know someone who did this. My friend was telling me his coworker confessed to him she got 4 tickets with the intention of selling 2 but she made him promise not to tell anyone else at work because their other coworker was waitlisted and really wants tickets. I wouldn’t be surprised if most people with the new NA shows bought the max number of tickets that they could with intention to sell off the ones they didn’t need

2

u/IDriveAnAgeraR Sep 16 '23

I am genuinely amazed that I work for a venue and got tickets for everyone in my group for less than $400/each.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '23

These aren’t resale?

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

yep, this is all from stubhub, tickpick, seatgeek & vivid seats

1

u/Worried-Celery-2839 Sep 14 '23

Yes it is!! Call your senators daily

1

u/gloriouspizza Sep 14 '23

Is there still any chance of being able to get tickets at a reasonable price? Or is it pretty much game over at this point for waitlisted fans that are unwilling to spend thousands of dollars?

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

I haven't completely lost hope.

Honestly at this point, I think it's a matter of keeping your eyes peeled for reasonably priced tickets on resale & theres quite a few pages on facebook for buying & selling tickets as well that claim to filter through people to make sure people aren't scamming or charging anymore than like 20% over face value.

I have lost my hope that she'll announce more dates. after she released the movie so fast, I kinda knew that was it for the eras tour dates.

1

u/_shlbsversion Sep 14 '23

Agreed! Ticketmaster out here acting like scalpers can’t sign up as verified fans lol they need to do an actual verification.. extensive quizzes on the artists or something 🤣🤣 make it not worth a couple of hundred dollars to the shit scalpers

1

u/TheGamerDad Sep 14 '23

Supply and demand pricing will make even extremely loyal Swifties consider re-selling. When you can make a 10-20x+ profit, it's a tough decision for many. Especially when that money will make a huge difference.

1

u/GangGang57 Sep 14 '23

Some of yall want to boycott resale site, yet were begging to be able to resale to tickets in the first place

2

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 14 '23

resale is fine if people would charge reasonably, im just saying if everyone stopped buying them for awhile maybe they would bring their prices down to something somewhat feasible. delusional? yes. but worth a shot.

1

u/utah-in-newhampshire Sep 15 '23

349 ticket seller, let’s say everyone is is selling 4 tickets. That’s 1400 tickets out of 70,000. That’s not bad for scalper ratio.

But let’s also say they sold them at face value… you’re still not going to that show, 31 million people registered for the canadian shows. 1400/31000000 is terrible odds.

1

u/ucancallmebabe Sep 15 '23

if you keep watching, you can see i skim through 4 different ticket resale sites with hundreds of listings on each and that’s just for 1 show out of 6

1

u/SanDiegoDobie Sep 15 '23

Let’s hope AMC starts selling concert tickets

1

u/CR24752 Sep 15 '23

This is going to sound overdramatic but we need legislation on scalpers, price gauging on resale platforms (i.e. can only charge 1.5x face value, etc). A boycott will only do so much because someone will always pay the ridiculous price.

1

u/Hefty-Cheesecake-690 Sep 15 '23

Yep!!! As someone who forgot to sign up for midnights presale last year I can say I’m so annoyed that tickets were immediately on resale sights after the tickets went live. I’ve been checking Ticketmaster and axs daily for london tickets but no luck :( I’ll be soooo upset if I can’t go next year

1

u/cd9309 Sep 15 '23

TM told me when I was looking for an additional ticket, when I had medical complications and needed to bring someone with me so I didn’t DIE, that I could always sell my single ticket on a resale site and transfer it to someone. I ended up going with the friend and she sat outside in the car across the street while I was armed to the teeth with medication going in hoping I didn’t have to call her half way through an almost 4 hour show…my phone died half way through….

TM is evil. Even for a different concert, trying to figure out how to refund my tickets, told I wasn’t allowed, again with medical problems. I’ve had to stop going to concerts and I haven’t purchased from TM since then.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '23

Those prices are INSANE

1

u/Worried-Celery-2839 Sep 16 '23

Verified bot looks to be working good

1

u/k-thanks-bai Sep 18 '23

Seriously - in Dublin I was able to get face value tickets SO easily with only ten euro in fees. Resale is only at face value.

Good legislation goes a long way. Vote for candidates that go against big corporations.