ePlaya

Hi
Planning to come from the UK to Burning Man 2017 but the tickets from 2016 confuse me. Why are some tickets $900 and others are $390?
Any help is very much appreciated

You get the same value for money other ticket. The presale prices (990 or 1200 last year) were for those who could afford them. They don't sell out and basically you're guaranteed a ticket if you purchase a more expensive one. The regular price tix sell out in the main sale in a matter of minutes.

That sucks a little bit because the difference is so huge! Would it include a car pass or not? Thank tou so mich for coming back to me!

no, none of the tickets come with a vehicle pass. Those must be purchased seperately. You're welcome

Actually the price difference does the opposite of suck. Every year the cost of the burn increases. Instead of increasing the cost of the ticket BM org came up with the idea of these presale special tickets. Their purpose is to actually cover that increasing cost. Every year they get more expensive.

So it doesn't suck, rich burners pay more money to subsidise the main tickets for the rest of us. There are also tickets at a lower price on separate sale for poorer burners.

Those tickets also in no way grant any special privileges. Every unique snow flake is the fucking same in the dust.

Cheers
Magic

Yes, it's a wonderful mechanism by which richer burners dramatically increase their odds of getting tickets, rather than having to slum it in the general sale where the rest of us fight over the scraps.

I'd be happy enough if they just make the "face value" of the tickets consistent for every ticket sold short of comp'ed or low-income tickets. The premium you pay for presale or Leonardo (or whatever the hell special tickets) they sell should be specifically for the privilege of easier access and getting them early. After all, that value is consumed and useless after the general sale begins. What really rubbed me the wrong way was enabling people to buy the presale tickets and also soak up general sale tickets with the idea that they could just sell off their previous tickets. The presale/premium tickets should not be a hedge against not getting a ticket in the general sale any more than a general sale ticket being a hedge for getting a low-income ticket.

Hello Annacooq,

Welcome to ePlaya the most honest and dependable group of burners!

First read the ticket information on burningman.org.

Second look up your regional by searching for regional on burningman.org. Then contact them and meet them in person.

Third the ticket prices and sale timing is designed to let ticket purchasers manage their own risk.
If you are paying US$900 - 1500+ for RT airfare, plus $1000 in the USA for camping supplies, eating and transport, what do you want to risk to get choice of 390-900-1000+ ticket for losing your airfare on a non-refundable air ticket? Chance of getting a ticket decreases with price. 1000+ is easy. 390 is hard.

Also ticket prices and all the practicalities of how they will be sold can change from year to year so as informative as previous year's procedures are there is no guarantee everything will work the same way next year. Sign up for the Jack Rabbit Speaks to stay in the loop but don't expect to hear anything certain until the new year.

The $900 tickets are usually available at 12:15 PM PST Wednesday, day of sale, on Stubhub.

BBadger wrote:I'd be happy enough if they just make the "face value" of the tickets consistent for every ticket sold short of comp'ed or low-income tickets. The premium you pay for presale or Leonardo (or whatever the hell special tickets) they sell should be specifically for the privilege of easier access and getting them early. After all, that value is consumed and useless after the general sale begins. What really rubbed me the wrong way was enabling people to buy the presale tickets and also soak up general sale tickets with the idea that they could just sell off their previous tickets. The presale/premium tickets should not be a hedge against not getting a ticket in the general sale any more than a general sale ticket being a hedge for getting a low-income ticket.

I'm with you on that.

Are you saying to sell them all at the same price or just print the same price on all of them. (Regardless of how much they cost.) If they print them with the lower price on everything there could be MORE scalping. The unsavory sellers would all claim that they bought them for the higher price.

Ratty wrote:Are you saying to sell them all at the same price or just print the same price on all of them. (Regardless of how much they cost.) If they print them with the lower price on everything there could be MORE scalping. The unsavory sellers would all claim that they bought them for the higher price.

The point would be that the ticket cost $390 and the presale art donation cost some amount more. No one should be able to claim that the ticket is actually worth $990 simply because that's what they paid, as it gets you zero more value than any other $390 ticket.

Ratty wrote:Are you saying to sell them all at the same price or just print the same price on all of them. (Regardless of how much they cost.) If they print them with the lower price on everything there could be MORE scalping. The unsavory sellers would all claim that they bought them for the higher price.

In essence, to my way of thinking at least, the cost of the ticket is $390.00 and any amount paid over that is a donation to support the arts and the event. So, selling the ticket is OK, but trying to renege on the amount they "gave/contributed" as a donation should not be condoned. Let them sell their ticket at the regular price and take a tax write-off for the charitable contribution portion.

Also it's more in line with what the actual (face) value of the ticket is after the initial exclusive access to reserved tickets has been paid for and utilized. It's actually pretty ridiculous that someone should be paying the same price that someone paid to get their ticket early, but not get any of that early access value.

I suppose that that the "exclusive access" is still retained in some way because the premium "face value" prices out many buyers. That shouldn't, however, be an effect that ticket-buyers should be able to exploit because these premium tickets should only be purchased for their intended purpose, not as hedges for those with greater means.

If that "exclusive access" is to be retained, maybe the BORG should just keep selling the premium-priced tickets well up until tickets start shipping to bottom out the scalper market. Whether it's a good thing to keep tickets out of the pool for such reasons might become another outrage-debate on ePlaya, but we could cross bridge when we come to it.

OK. I'm confused. But I don't expect to understand everything in everyone's head. I would like for them to print all the tickets with one price. Or with no price. Would that make more scalpers or less? I don't know.

Ratty, IMO the price printed on the ticket has no affect on resale. Everyone knows what the ticket price is. What matters is how much someone is willing to pay for it. If a ticket is available on craigslist for 10,000 dollars, and someone is willing to pay that price, then it will sell for 10k.

I personally believe the only way to prevent scalping is to attach a name to the ticket. Unfortunately, this would create a whole new host of problems. Anyone who wanted to transfer a ticket would have to do it through Burning Man org, which could create a logistics nightmare for the org.

Burning Man has several different ticket price points and the different price points are printed on the back of each ticket.

I have purchased tickets from BMORG at several different price point and the different prices were clearly printed on the back of each of my tickets.

I called for a tow truck to fix a flat tire this morning. The driver was a burner. He came in the house and chatted for an hour. His camp of Israeli friends do pizzas on the playa. This year he's going to apply for placement. The reason is early entry. One of the necessary groups always gives them some space to set up in the 9 and B area. He was shocked to find out about designated group tickets. A 10 year burner that's still self sufficient and giving. Not scheming to get over on the system. It was a joy to chat and laugh.

Considering that Burning Man has been doing a directed group sale and publishing information about what that is on the ticketing pages for the last few years, you would have thought he or his campmates would have read or heard about it by now. Anyhow, glad to hear you were able to help him connect the dots, he was able to get your flat sorted, and the best was made of the situation.

maladroit wrote:

Ratty wrote:Are you saying to sell them all at the same price or just print the same price on all of them. (Regardless of how much they cost.) If they print them with the lower price on everything there could be MORE scalping. The unsavory sellers would all claim that they bought them for the higher price.

The point would be that the ticket cost $390 and the presale art donation cost some amount more. No one should be able to claim that the ticket is actually worth $990 simply because that's what they paid, as it gets you zero more value than any other $390 ticket.

Well, that's the thing about art.... it's worth is determined solely by what someone is willing to pay for it. I've gotten regular price tickets, I've gotten conclave tickets. I haven't been able to afford the early sales tickets, but if I could, it definitely would be worth it to me. Why? well, I am career military, have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and it's a multi-day drive from where I live to the Playa. A burn takes up pretty much half of my annual leave time, and with deployments, training and family logistics nightmares, I have to plan it as far in advance as I can. The security of having guaranteed tickets early would totally be worth it to me if I had the money.

happydragon wrote:Well, that's the thing about art.... it's worth is determined solely by what someone is willing to pay for it. I've gotten regular price tickets, I've gotten conclave tickets. I haven't been able to afford the early sales tickets, but if I could, it definitely would be worth it to me. Why? well, I am career military, have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and it's a multi-day drive from where I live to the Playa. A burn takes up pretty much half of my annual leave time, and with deployments, training and family logistics nightmares, I have to plan it as far in advance as I can. The security of having guaranteed tickets early would totally be worth it to me if I had the money.

The problem is that you're not distinguishing between the value of the actual ticket, and the value of the access to that ticket. The premium paid for presale tickets is really for guaranteed access. After that access has been "consumed" by obtaining the ticket, the value of the ticket itself -- as an object that gets you into the Burning Man event -- is exactly the same as any other purchased ticket.

Nobody is arguing that access to presale tickets can definitely be worth it. However, that access ceases to have any value once the other tickets are sold.

All these prices are pretty artificial because BMORG requires that tickets are sold at face value regardless of their actual market value, the latter of which is a function of scarcity. Still, if a BM ticket's only real inherent utility is admitting a person into the event, no ticket should be priced higher than any other because of some past benefit that can't be realized now.

More importantly, the presale tickets shouldn't be able to be used as a hedge for people trying to obtain main sale ticket too. That is not their intent. As I said in the other ticket thread, I'd rather have BMORG just keep around some premium priced guaranteed access tickets far later after the main sale if people are desperate enough to pay for them after the presale, rather than enable people to game the system by being able to get back their "face value" price on presale tickets.

Now that the theme is announced, I'm following the suggestion of moving on to ticket complaints. I plan to be greatly disappointed and NOT get my main sale ticket again this year. I haven't had an easy time of it for the last couple. You'll find me here begging my ass off. (A big 'thank you' to the generous eplayans that saved me in the past.) So, if you and you're wife and you're mother and your insurance agent all manage to get tickets, (for you), keep me in mind. I'll be the one talking sweet and complimenting every poster. That's Ratty..........R-A-T-T-Y Thanks in advance.

Ratty wrote:Now . . . . . . poster. That's Ratty..........R-A-T-T-Y Thanks in advance.

It's poetry

Last year I tried to log in and get tickets at the pre sale. I was given a 20 digit alph-numeric login or password.
I couldn't tell on my cell screen if the letter l was an L or if it was a number 1. Turns out the l (L's) were actually the number 1.
The clock was ticking and I was freaking out. I tried 8 different combinations and finally entered.

Damn! I hope this year, they can use a numeral 1 that looks like a 1 and a capital L instead of lower case ..l.

Best of luck on tickets!! ♡ excited already.

June Cleaver wrote:Last year I tried to log in and get tickets at the pre sale. I was given a 20 digit alph-numeric login or password.
I couldn't tell on my cell screen if the letter l was an L or if it was a number 1. Turns out the l (L's) were actually the number 1.
The clock was ticking and I was freaking out. I tried 8 different combinations and finally entered.

Damn! I hope this year, they can use a numeral 1 that looks like a 1 and a capital L instead of lower case ..l.

Best of luck on tickets!! ♡ excited already.

Copy and Paste.

Elderberry wrote:

June Cleaver wrote:Last year I tried to log in and get tickets at the pre sale. I was given a 20 digit alph-numeric login or password.
I couldn't tell on my cell screen if the letter l was an L or if it was a number 1. Turns out the l (L's) were actually the number 1.
The clock was ticking and I was freaking out. I tried 8 different combinations and finally entered.

Damn! I hope this year, they can use a numeral 1 that looks like a 1 and a capital L instead of lower case ..l.

Best of luck on tickets!! ♡ excited already.

Copy and Paste.

Where's the challenge in that? This is supposed to be stressful, right? Personally I would never attempt to order my ticket from a phone. Too much potential (as stated previously) for things to go wrong.

......I mean.....I think EVERYONE should try to buy their tickets on their phones. Their probably faster & easier to use.....

FlyingMonkey wrote:

Elderberry wrote:

June Cleaver wrote:Last year I tried to log in and get tickets at the pre sale. I was given a 20 digit alph-numeric login or password.
I couldn't tell on my cell screen if the letter l was an L or if it was a number 1. Turns out the l (L's) were actually the number 1.
The clock was ticking and I was freaking out. I tried 8 different combinations and finally entered.

Damn! I hope this year, they can use a numeral 1 that looks like a 1 and a capital L instead of lower case ..l.

Best of luck on tickets!! ♡ excited already.

Copy and Paste.

Where's the challenge in that? This is supposed to be stressful, right? Personally I would never attempt to order my ticket from a phone. Too much potential (as stated previously) for things to go wrong.

......I mean.....I think EVERYONE should try to buy their tickets on their phones. Their probably faster & easier to use.....

Hey, I appreciate the input and feedback. It was my first burn, had never encountered the issue previously. Thinking back It was the ticketfly that wouldn't somehow allow the cut and paste.
Unfortunately for me, a computer wasn't available at the time.
Just putting it out there...bc , why not?

BBadger wrote: What really rubbed me the wrong way was enabling people to buy the presale tickets and also soak up general sale tickets with the idea that they could just sell off their previous tickets. The presale/premium tickets should not be a hedge against not getting a ticket in the general sale any more than a general sale ticket being a hedge for getting a low-income ticket.

Totally Agree.