What, you expected a positive response?

You do realise most people detest ticket touts?

As Alan Partridge would say, "Scum. Sub-human scum."

I think that's a sweeping generalisation.

The reliance on the internet and phone lines has somehow convinced people that there is no alternative way to buy tickets.. My point hightlights the fact that if you queue up, you can generally get what you want, in more ways than one.

..and if someone wants something so much, they will get it.

Rubbish. Don't pretend you're providing a service or are some essential part of the supply chain. You're not.

You're a scab. A parasite doing nothing more than ripping people off, people who probably couldn't get tickets only because filthy scabs like you had snapped up massive numbers of tickets in the first place.

Yes, some people will pay well over the odds for an event. But they shouldn't have to so you can make a few pennies.

Don't like the truth? Don't rip people off and brag about it.

...on the other hand its the rule of supply and demand in its purest form.

Think sideways for a minute as you all tend to get rather sensitive when it comes to the thought of gig tickets for your favourite band - lets apply the rule to paperback books, lets assume that there is a release tomorrow of a popular novel in paperback and that its release is restricted to just a few thousand books and only available in Waterstones or Waterstones online.

What would you say now to those who buy ten copies and then sell them on at a premium (and find a market ready and willing to pay double or quadruple the face value), especially if the book can be read online (which most books can if you live in my postal area), would you be quite so critical or would you dismiss the issue as "the market in action".

I don't see it any different. It's basically denying fans the chance to purchase something at the RRP and taking advantage of the fact they are fans and forcing them to pay more than the RRP. Of course they don't have to buy it but where does that leave them? Without the book by their favourite author that they really want to read, that's where.

You don't "force" anyone to buy anything that they don't want, no-one ever bought a ticket (or any other product) from a reseller with a gun pointed at their head especially a product in the entertainment genre where you can pay a fraction of the reseller price (or free) to watch the same product online rather than live - yes its not the same "experience" but THAT is what you pay the premium for and THAT is what your free choice in the matter is all about.

Criticising resellers who are not doing anything illegal (despite what the originators of the tickets may try to enforce) is simply criticising the capitalist way of life, where everything you buy has had a markup, or several markups, applied.

You mean the same pre-sale and priority schemes the touts use?

But in most areas of the economy the markup does actually include something extra. For instance whilst Tesco charges the consumer more for the products they sell than what they pay the supplier they are doing something beneficial to you. They're making those products more easily available to you by bringing them to a shop near to where you live.

With ticket touts/resellers they aren't doing anything extra. The tickets are just as easily available from the supplier (artist/venue/production/whatever) than they are from the ticket touts/resellers. The touts/resellers aren't bringing anything extra and simply making a profit from doing nothing.

If the supplier (artist/venue/whatever) wants to use the supply & demand format to its full extent they could charge more than they currently release the tickets for (as the price is then jacked up by the touts/resellers afterwards). At least then that profit would be going to a person/organisation who's created something in the economy.

Personally I think that tickets for any events/gigs etc shouldn't be allowed to be resold over their face value. It would stop the touts/resellers buying up tickets on spec and open it up to the public more.