> Have a look at this, I really hope it's just someone trying to mess up the
> auction...
I remember the buzz about Cream reforming for the Albert Hall dates and ticket prices reaching two thousand pounds per pair on Ebay. I found this thing below interesting. Jack Bruce, bass player with Cream, put out this statement at the time, outlining the stringent and preventive measures that had been put in place to nobble re-selling. The interesting bit is at the end where the blame is not attributed wholly to the touts, but to other fans making a few quid and, most importantly Ebay's lack of monitoring. I found the bit about Cream's management monitoring Ebay and cancelling bookings that were being clearly exploited to be a good idea. If Mozzer's management cared that much there are things that can be done.
Important Notice from Management about
the Sale of CREAM Reunion Tickets:
Cream, who have just announced four reunion concerts at The Royal Albert Hall in May, have encountered similar problems with internet touts recently experienced by U2. Cream’s promoters 3A have made the following statement:
“It is our belief that we have made all possible efforts to make tickets available to the public but at the same time to make it as difficult as possible for touts to get hold of tickets”
The measures the promoters took included restricting sales to a maximum of four tickets per person (the industry norm is 6) and refusing all group bookings.
Other measures included:
* Restricting tickets sales to two authorised outlets: The Royal Albert Hall and Bookings Direct on 0870 143 2208 or online at www.bookingsdirect.com
Restricting sales to phone and internet only, thereby enabling cross referencing procedures to weed out multiple bookings using the same address or credit card.
Monitoring all tickets being offered for sale on Ebay and similar sites and cancelling bookings where tickets are being offered for sale in this way.
*
The promoters believe and have observed that the majority of tickets on sale at exploitative prices have been purchased not by touts but by members of the public with a view to using one pair of tickets and selling the other pair on.
“It is our belief that the real culprits in this situation are internet sites who permit daily auctions with seemingly no checks on whether or not the sellers are authorised to sell them – or even whether they have the tickets in the first place. For example; not one ticket has yet been printed for any of the Cream shows and will not be until the checks mentioned above have been made, yet today there are 66 separate Cream ticket offers on EBay.”
