Tickets for the Hannah Montana concert went on sale the morning of Sept. 15. I set up 3 of my computers to be ready to at least secure 2 tickets to ensure that my 8 year old daughter (a huge Hannah fan) gets to go. Ticket prices ranged from $26 - $66.
The site dictates the following stipulations:
Ticket limit is 4 tickets per household.
Please Note: There is a strict ticket limit policy in effect, more than one order per person or household will result in cancellation without notification.
-- No problem... I only want 2.
REFRESH... REFRESH... REFRESH... it's up!
Full Price Tickets: 2 - Any Price
Section: Best Available
Location: Best Available
Click "Look For Tickets"
Input Verification Code
(BTW... "This step helps prevent unfair use of automated programs." - Good stick it to those scalpers and ticket brokers)
Click "Continue"
....searching...searching...
Then at 10:00:20 (Yes, that's 20 seconds past the start time of 10 am), I received the following message:
"There were no tickets available that matched your request"
What!!? How can that be?
Thousands of tickets gone in less than 20 seconds? And when purchasers were limited to a max of 4. Season ticket holders to the Florida Panthers were guaranteed tickets to any other show that comes to the Bank Atlantic Center - maybe they got all of the tickets? Doubt it - there aren't that many season ticket holders. Also, I have a friend who is a season ticket holder and he was told that because of this special show they couldn't honor that promise. Okay, so where did all of the tickets go?
The TicketMaster site displays the following helpful hint:
"Can't find tickets? You can still buy Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus tickets from other fans through TicketExchange!"
Their cheapest:
Sec. 403 (Upper deck), Row 8, Seat 19 - $275 (Yes, that's for only 1 seat!)
Most expensive:
Sec. 5 (Middle floor), Row F, Seat 12 - $785 (Again, for only 1 seat)
Then I found hundreds, no, thousands of tickets posted on every ticket broker site - Ticketliquidator, FrontRowKing, GotTickets, StubHub (owned by eBay), TicketsNow... all of them. Tons of tickets! Lowest price: $150 per ticket for upper deck seats. Up to $12,000 for a private box that holds 20 (what a deal at $600 each person?).
This isn't an isolated case either. My friend went through the same for the show in Kansas City. And now Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has gotten enough complaints from upset parents to start an investigation. CNN picked up the same story for the Nashville show. And it seems pretty much all of the shows have seen the same result.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the anti-scalping legislation [House Combined Bill No. 6003] into law June 7, 2006, making Florida one of 35 states to legalize scalping. "When you have a monopoly, what happens?" asked John K. Stargel, R-Lakeland, who sponsored the bill in the House. "You pay more. I think you've seen what the high end of the prices will be. And now there'll be more people, more tickets available and consumers will have more choices, which I think is a good thing."
Government needs to evaluate how their plan to remove anti-scalping laws would increase competition and reduce prices. News Flash: It's not working!!
Next... I'll tell you how I sold my soul for the happiness of my daughter.
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