Yet another survey claiming “Ticket Touts” are earning “above average”. What a load of tosh. First off, most ticket sellers aren’t employed, they are self employed with all of the implications. It is £28,ooo annually – Before Tax, before expenses, before any personal benefits that say even the lowliest compay employee gets – pension springs to mind! You can take a third off that figure just for income tax and £19,000 is BELOW the average earnings.

Then a list of all of the tickets making a potential profit. No mention at all of the events that tank. £500 Barbra Streisand tickets at £100 anyone? AC/DC in Austria next week at £1? Thought not.

What this “research” by G4S security (purveyors of CCTV systems and secure cash transport – well versed in the entertainment ticketing industry) seems to forget are all of those tickets sold by events or promoters directly into the big Secondary Vendors – First two rows of all Girls Aloud concerts at twice face value springs to mind – and that was before they were advertised to the General Public!

No. This is cobblers commissioned by a couple of event organisers or even the guy at G4S in order to fuel the theory that “touts are scum”. It reminds us of the headline which read “Well known Tout Fleeces his customers” – holding a gun to their head was he? Of course not. Nobody forces people to buy tickets. We also note that “A pair of Paul McCartney tickets sold for £450 – some 235% over face value” – are you sure about this? REALLY sure? What was the face value? Where were the seats? Was the person disabled and forced to buy from the Secondary Market for access reasons (don’t even go there!) because NOBODY caters for this.

The Face Value
This is another myth. What exactly IS the “face value”? Is that the price printed on the ticket or is it the cost of obtaining the ticket? Because both seem to be interchangeable. When you buy a £35 ticket from, lets say – Ticketmaster this price is then plus the “transaction charge” plus postage. Even if you opt to Print at Home” it still attracts a fee?
Many events nowadays have all sorts of schemes enabling early bird type purchase – naturally this attracts a fee. Is this included in this mythical “Face Value”? Somebody really needs to visit this and there needs to be a little more transparency.