How is it that only presale tickets seem to be available?

[SnakeLee]

Seriously. I think they should make presale tickets something else, like a keycard or something, just so they can't be called a "ticket" on the resale market. The ratio of $800 presale tickets to $390 actual tickets is like 35:1. I think people are just seeing that they're going for $800 and then listing their real ticket at that value, since they can get away with it.

I get that you have to buy them well in advance so things can change and a lot of them are sold to rich people who are not as hardcore about going as others, but they only sold 4,000 of the 66,000 tickets at that price. It just doesn't add up....

[Bemerritt]

Price is printed on the back of the ticket.

I'm sure many people bought a pre-sale with intentions of trying to buy a regular priced ticket later. If they succeeded, sell the $800 dollar ticket. If they failed, well they are still going to Burning Man, just the ticket expense is twice as much.

It will be interesting to see how this works next year, because I could see more people approaching the ticketing disaster in this manner.

[melodiousdirge]

I'm sure many people bought a pre-sale with intentions of trying to buy a regular priced ticket later. If they succeeded, sell the $800 dollar ticket. If they failed, well they are still going to Burning Man, just the ticket expense is twice as much.

It will be interesting to see how this works next year, because I could see more people approaching the ticketing disaster in this manner.

X2

[Sham]

There are lots of thoughts on this situation and some pretty simple solutions. Clearly, it has to be fixed though.

[The CO]

.... the ticketing disaster in this manner.

By "disaster" do you mean scarcity of a commodity?

[remi]

It's because the ticket people are stupid as fuck. They made it so getting a presale ticket doesn't omit you from the other sales.. so people buy a presale ticket, then try every way they can to get another ticket.. and when they do, they sale the pre-sale ticket.

It's set up to help rich people have an extra chance at getting tickets. I have no idea why they allow people who purchased presale tickets to get into the other sales... it's not like someone is going to gift someone else an 800$ ticket. 4 years ago when presale was 420$ and before Christmas it made sense.. now.. I don't know what the ticket people are smoking.. but sounds like good shit.

[melodiousdirge]

It's because the ticket people are stupid as fuck. They made it so getting a presale ticket doesn't omit you from the other sales.. so people buy a presale ticket, then try every way they can to get another ticket.. and when they do, they sale the pre-sale ticket.

It's set up to help rich people have an extra chance at getting tickets. I have no idea why they allow people who purchased presale tickets to get into the other sales... it's not like someone is going to gift someone else an 800$ ticket. 4 years ago when presale was 420$ and before Christmas it made sense.. now.. I don't know what the ticket people are smoking.. but sounds like good shit.

Presale buyers provide an early influx of cash into the coffers. You pay $800 for the luxury of flexibility as well as the early guarantee.

Also I'm not really sure how it "helps rich people". People who qualify as "rich" are the people deciding at their luxury when to go and buying the scalped tickets. Being able to afford an $800 ticket and then "trying everything" to get a regular price ticket in my book says "I plan ahead, but I don't have so much money that I'm not going to try to save a few hundred bucks." I dunno about you peeps but in general the ticket is definitely not the biggest cost to my burn, even at $800.

[jasonwentcrazy]

Last year I was ripped off in a Will Call Transfer and it just sucked so hard. This year I vowed to not chance going through the stress and I made plans to buy the Pre-Sale tickets. I'm not loaded in any real sense of the word and $800 is a lot of loot to me. So was the $650 Exception Ticket I ended up having to purchase at Will Call last year. I also know plenty of people that genuinely need the Low Income tickets and I looked at the idea of paying for the Oprah-Level tickets as some way of contributing towards those tickets. [Whether that's a naive or nice way of thinking doesn't really matter to me.]

So the Pre-Sale tickets were worth not having to deal with the stressful possibility of not getting tickets this year. I saved up money just to be able to afford it and when some plans ended up changing that's why I ended up with extra Pre-Sale tickets.

I'm only just realizing that there were people that used the Pre-Sale option as a sort of ticket insurance and, to me, that's kind shitty. I mean, I do get the reason why they would want to scramble for ticket guarantees but it does make the system itself seem in need of some real changes.

And it sucks being on the selling end of some Pre-Sale tickets this late in the game. I feel crummy asking face value for them.

[pink]

Hey, don't feel crummy about asking for face value. And they'll sell quick on the tickets offered thread.

The year after the lottery, I did the same - I lost in the lottery and found a ticket from a friend within a few days... And it was a presale ticket. So I could have just bought one and saved myself the angst. They were $650 that year. I've been broke the last two years so I'm happy my camp gets some DGS.

[Melonblue]

Sell your ticket for face value. Do not feel bad about it!

my friend just sold his presales after a family emergency that is no longer allowing him and his wife to go to the event. (they're crushed after planning all year)

You now what he got....a hundred emails and texts asking for the tickets to be sold for 390$ cuz "800$ is expensive...and the burner spirit would be to gift the extra cost in exchange for good karma".

40000 reg sale tickets @ 390$
1000 OMG sale tickets @ 390$
20000 directed group sale tickets @ 390$
4000 low income sales tickets @ 190$
4000 presales @ 800$

65000 tickets vs 4000.
Get over it.

Presale's weren't allowed to be entered into STEP. If they could have been you never would have seen them on ePlaya.

[Captain Goddammit]

and the burner spirit would be to gift the extra cost in exchange for good karma".

I can't stand those types. The "burner spirit" is to be the one gifting if you choose, NOT asking for someone else to gift to you!!
Fuckwits.

[turtledsoup]

I am seeing many $800 Presale tickets being resold on Craigslist in SF. I guess it makes sense that if you want the insurance of getting in, then buy a presale.