Fighting Back Against Scalpers

I was walking to work recently when I noticed a long line of people outside the "House of Blues" in River North early in the morning. Later, when I read an article in "Redeye", I figured out what was going on.

The band "My Chemical Romance" was playing a show for their new album at the House of Blues. This band is very popular now and has a devoted fan base of teenage-goth types.

In order to discourage scalping, they implemented the following 3 step process:

1) you need to line up in front of the House of Blues no earlier than 8am the day of the show; the first 1100 people in line received a wristband
2) then return after 3pm that same day to purchase a ticket. Only individuals with the armband still on would be allowed to purchase a single ticket
3) then enter the show (doors open 6pm) if you are holding a single ticket AND wearing the armband

Wow! This is a pretty bulletproof system. Scalpers would have to stand in line twice to buy a single ticket (a lot of time), and then they'd have to find a way to take the arm band off and then re-attach it to the person that bought their ticket without security figuring it out. Possible, but difficult. Plus, only being able to purchase 1 ticket (maybe) makes the economics of scalping the ticket that much worse.

I think that for a band like this that seems to be very fan-friendly (and not trying to make an arm and a leg off ticket prices - they were only charging $18.49 a ticket when they reasonably could have charged north of $75 given how small the venue is and the fact that they are red-hot right now) this seems like a great way to get the tickets in the hands of their fans and not the highest bidder. Since the band is trying to keep the cost down, it makes sense to cut out the middle man and deal directly with their fans.

I don't think this would apply to many other situations but it seemed to work for them.