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CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

(behind.pretix.eu)
204 points pabs3 | 3 comments | 25 May 25 00:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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frabcus ◴[25 May 25 01:51 UTC] No.44084957[source]▶
The option that strikes me as missing, is making users pay a cost before they are randomly entered in a lottery for the ticket.

So, for example, everyone pays $0.01 on their credit card, or does a holding charge on their credit card, or registers their identity. All in a 5 minute (or 1 day!) window. And then after the window, tickets are randomly distributed amongst every card which so registered.

You could check multiple things - phone and card and Government ID if necessary (lowering the privacy).

This also feels fairer and less stressful - instead of a lottery based on your internet access, or ability to run lots of browsers at once.

This feels harder for scalpers to do to me, as they need more fake identities, but I'd be curious about the actual ratios when trying it. What goes wrong?

Another one I predict is that you can't buy digitally. For examples, the Lewes fireworks display you have to buy tickets in person in a bookshop in Lewes. Doesn't help if you make a digital ticketing system though!

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londons_explore ◴[25 May 25 03:03 UTC] No.44085215[source]▶
I suspect the key thing is that the industry really wants scalpers, but must appear to act against them.
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1. drob518 ◴[25 May 25 22:45 UTC] No.44091940[source]▶
Neither the performers (raises prices for fans artificially) or ticket agencies (leaves money on the table) want scalpers.
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2. harshreality ◴[26 May 25 00:00 UTC] No.44092488[source]▶
Those may be arguments for why (some) performers and (some people at) ticket agencies don't want scalpers, but empirically, for popular performers, both performers and ticket agencies still set prices lower than the market will bear. They could charge more, but they don't.

Eliminating uncertainty about whether a concert will sell out may be the primary reason.

Net ticket prices might be dictated by the performers and their agents, and the ticket agency might not have the ability to raise prices unilaterally, at least not by enough to stop scalpers.

There's another factor, or side-effect, that might be missed in explaining why an artist or their agent won't set prices higher, even when the artist has a history of having concerts sell out and tickets scalped: scalping is a symptom and sign of scarcity, and scarcity drives interest.

They probably want to set prices as high as possible while still having a high probability that tickets will sell out and make concertgoers panic-buy.

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3. EGreg ◴[26 May 25 00:52 UTC] No.44092823[source]▶
Read this: https://community.intercoin.app/t/intercoin-applications-auc...

This also eliminates uncertainty about whether something will be filled. The uncertainty is only on the side of fans that someine will outbid them for a sold-out concert ticket, and they’ll then get the money back