Alright kids, it’s time to talk seriously about methods to combat ye old scalpers of tickets.  The latest invention, outside of limiting tickets, is to go ‘paperless’.  I put it in quotes because it can never hurt to print out your confirmation e-mail and take it with you.  The premise of paperless ticketing is you show up to your event with the credit card you bought the tickets with and your complete party, approach the entry and they’ll swipe your card and validate your entry. This was what I was sort of expecting at the latest concerts I attended, however, what actually happened was different.

What really happened is you showed up and stood in one line in order to get your tickets, whereupon you showed your ID and tickets and wristbands were given to your entire party (which all had to be present at the same time) and then walked to stand in the line to get in.  So overall, not really much different than the pre-presented idea of what would occur for ticketing at these shows.  However, since I can’t think of a better way to do a pro/con list, you’ll find below the jump my list of pros/cons for this new type of ticketing.

Cons

1.  All members of party must assemble at once to gain entry.  With paper ticketing, if available in advance, tickets could be given to the party and people could show when they wanted to.

a.  Makes even more difficult if there is the two line system, so that it is hard for someone to go early to get a prime spot in line if they must later leave the line in order to get the tickets when party arrives. (Assuming they aren’t near nice people who would let them back in).

2.  There are some honest people that for whatever various reasons end up with an extra ticket(s) and would sell for face value but it is made much, much harder for someone with this system. Especially if the show is on sale months in advance.

3. There is some confusion about which line is the ticket line and which is the entry line, because at at least one of the shows, the entry line was long enough to wrap back around to the ticketing area.

4.  With this system there is no leaving a ticket for a friend at the will-call window, and similarly, there is no changing the pick up name on the ticket if the credit card must be presented.

5.  At one show I’ve attended with this set-up the person’s whose name on the ticket must be with guest when going in to the venue as well.  This was never stated and was confusing when I had to back track to find my friend who couldn’t get in because it was my name on the ticket.  Could be eliminated if entry and ticketing is done in one step.

Pros

1.  This really cuts down on the scalpers as, assuming the credit card has to be scanned at the door or #5 from cons happens, they have to be prepared to gain entry themselves to the event.  Of course, if it’s just a wristband and show of ticket needed to get in, this is negated if the wristband can be easily swapped.

2.  There’s not a bunch of people standing outside asking you every step if you need or have a ticket for sale.

3.  In theory, no one is gaining any extra by staking out the tickets from fans who would glad buy the tickets and use.  So it’s a little less stressful during the on-sale for events if scalpers aren’t scooping up every ticket possible.  (At least, it makes me less angry if I get locked out by other fans than the usual scalper).

4.  You don’t have to worry about not receiving or losing tickets between order time and time of event.

Overall, my 4 experiences in a week with this system were pretty good.  It was a little annoying to have to stand in two lines, however, it’s not really that big of deal.  I’m glad to see that someone is finally trying to improve the system, even if there are some kinks to work out yet.  I wish I had some suggestions on how to work past the kinks listed under the cons above, but really I can’t think of any.  So for trying to help keep down the cost of fans attending events at a reasonable price and system.