I think scalpers and touting organizations are a horrible thing, increasingly so as of late. You have to think about what they do, realistically speaking... They buy as many tickets as they can , sometimes until there are none left available from the original ticket distributors. Then, they are free to jack the prices up, sometimes to clearly unreasonable prices. This just makes it harder for the fans to get their hands on tickets, which is totally fucked.

The story I always tell people is of Radiohead's last American tour, which was summer 2006, if I remember correctly. Tickets were being sold on ticketmaster and on Radiohead's website for roughly forty bucks a pop, regardless of location relative the stage. This was a great deal, considering they played a lot of big venues, including Madison Square Garden. $40 tickets to sit front row at a MSG gig is a big deal, I think. Well, in less than an hour, tickets were sold out to both of the MSG shows plus both of the Boston shows. Knowing that Radiohead are notoriously scalped (they even put a discretion at the top of their ticket-sales page on their website which discourage scalpers, pleading that they reserve tickets for the "real fans") I checked out eBay, and sure enough, there were pages among pages of Radiohead tickets up for sale. The only problem is, the same $40 tickets were now going for absolutely insane prices. I saw first-tier tickets going for $1,500 a piece, and that was before betting had even closed. The cheapest I saw was around $200-$300, which wasn't a manageable price at the time... I don't think tickets should have even reached those prices, considering how affordable they were to begin with.

It's just ridiculous. It really puts a burden on fans and performers, in my opinion.