Trade Me on Beyoncé scalpers – events promoters need to look at themselves

Trade Me has begun a proof-of-goods crackdown on Beyoncé ticket scalpers - but is also defending resellers right to make a profit.

The American singer’s Auckland concert sold out within 15 minutes yesterday.

But within a couple of hours, more than 100 seats appeared on Trade Me.

The tickets for the October shows at Vector Arena, which cost $99 to $189.90, are being sold for two or three times or more their face-value.

The auction site's crackdown is focussed around its proof-of-goods policy.

Trade Me head of security Jon Duffy tells NBR ONLINE the site's rules require a seller to have goods in their physical possession.

It is not enough for a seller to display a screen grab of an email receipt for a  Beyoncé ticket. Such sellers are having their auctions “quarantined” by Mr Duffy’s team – meaning no new bids can be placed until the seller proves they have received the ticket. The auction is only taken off hold if the seller can send Trade Me a photo of the physical ticket beside a newspaper (to prove the date) within 24 hours.

A selection of the 50-plus auctions for Beyoncé tickets or double passes on Trade Me Saturday afternoon.

But although Beyoncé auctions are being closely monitored, Trade Me has no plans to crack down on scalping per se.

“We provide a legitimate market for people who buy a ticket then can’t go to an event,” Mr Duffy tells NBR.

“It’s not illegal*; it’s what Trade Me’s all about.”

 And yes, in reselling the ticket, sometimes the person makes a profit – making them a scalper, in event parlance.

Trade Me has no plans to revise its policy, which allows for scalping, Mr Duffy says.

The practice inevitably draws angry comments from music and sports fans are believe tickets should only be resold for face value, rather than quick-on-the-draw scalpers being able to exploit scarcity for profit.

But the auction site polled its members and found 81% in favour of competitive bidding for tickets, Mr Duffy says.

More, event promoters should look at their own practices, Mr Duffy says.

“There are  people out there who are scalpers. The event promoters need to think about how they’re selling tickets. If I buy 20 tickets one credit card I could be buying them for others. But if I do it over and over, they’ve got to ask some questions.”

* There is an exception. It’s illegal to scalp tickets to events covered by the Major Events Management Act (2007), which was introduced to prevent Rugby World Cup ticket being resold online for profit. A handful of global sports events are covered under the legislation, labelled the Pork the NZRU Act by NBR given it makes “scalpers scapegoats to excuse the greed and incompetence of the government and the New Zealand Rugby Union.” Read: In defence of World Cup ticket scalpers.