So where are all the tickets?

[pink]

.

Thank you!

[pink]

I am clinging to the thought that there was some massive fuck up with the system and that next week we will all get a "Whoopsie daisy!" letter and 20,000 tickets will magically be released. Delusional, yes. But it keeps me sane and hopeful.

Heh. I got two emails as well. I thought that was strange and I hoped they hadn't disqualified me as a dup entry.

I got two as well. Maybe we get an extra email to make up for not getting a ticket.

[BBadger]

We have two more months before the open sale even begins for 1/5th of all the tickets, and another three months after that before tickets are even sent out. In the mean time, those scattered tickets can and will find their way into the hands of those who need them through the STEP program.

people who work on big playa art start work many many months in advance. it's pretty odd to devote yourself to a big project when you don't even have a ticket to the event...

Actually I don't find that odd. After all, many people will only start their projects only after they get an art grant, which is at the end of March. I've worked on things from June. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I would expect many large art projects get planned and started prior to tickets even going on sale/lottery.

Even so, in the end, this is the brave new world you have to work in. Start your shit now, plan for buying your tickets the morning the open sale comes up if you don't get a ticket through STEPs. Deal with it. It's radical self-reliance. The world doesn't just stand still because you don't have your ticket now, for an event 6 months away, with ticket options coming up over 4-5 months.

I am totally with you. Something is fishy here. Our camp of 30 only got 3 tickets, and after seeing similar things posted all day I am beginning to doubt the validity of the draw. Numbers like this are near impossible. I got two rejection letters, so did most people I've heard from. What if the tickets awarded were accidentally deducted from the system twice?

They probably sent out one for each ticket you applied for because tickets through the STEP program will probably be awarded individually, not in pairs. Those numbers are also quite possible; maybe your camp was just unlucky?

40,000 tickets / 1.7 tickets per person on average = ~23,500 lucky winners. Hopefully we'll learn about how many total applicants there were. Maybe it was 100,000 (assuming 50,000, and each person signing in an additional account to pad odds).

[lemur]

40,000 tickets / 1.7 tickets per person on average = ~23,500 lucky winners. Hopefully we'll learn about how many total applicants there were. Maybe it was 100,000 (assuming 50,000, and each person signing in an additional account to pad odds).

more like 40,000 people selected randomly to get a ticket in this drawing

and 3,000 in the previous one

and 10,000 in the open sale

and 4,000 in the low income program

and surely thousands trading hands in 'STEP' and other third party methods

woo hoo!! at LEAST 57,000 people get to go to burning man!!

all this doom and gloom makes it sound like theres gonna be nobody there!!

scalpers or hoarders or not.. it aint like people are just looking to eat that money and lose it all

BURNING MAN IS GONNA BE PACKED IN 2012!!

and it is totally gonna rule..

[graidawg]

basically this is the first year that the Borg has a good record of how many people wanted to go, previously it didnt sell out and last year all they got was "its sold out" so people didnt bother asking. now Borg knows that there are many many people who wanted go this year, possibly because of the press last year from it selling out and certainly from the "places" video.
I imagine next year demand will drop again, after all I dont imagine we will get perfect weather again and a lot of the people that tried and failed to get tickets in the lottery just wont bother again next year, so yea this could be the year of the virgin, art will be a lot more spontaneous, maybe some of the sound camps just wont happpen or other theme camps/art projects wont be there, so instead of being able to wander round spectating everyone will have to particpate to make things, well exciting.

i for one, though i dont like the ticket system feel it could make black rock city all new and exciting this year. Not that it wasnt going to be after all i have only been once but for the people that have got into a rut at BM just doing what they did last year, perhaps what they did last year just won't be there

As the wonderful Halcyon would put it do you want the cone or the crap?

[kayalovelife]

I agree that it is strange...because if the lack of tickets were really due to the overpurchasing, wouldn't half of us be yelling "It's okay! I got two extra!!"?
And out of maybe the 40 people I know in our camp, and on facebook, it looks like 5 got tickets. I too am hoping for a whoopsy daisy.

[LadyLynx]

4 in our camp...zero tickets. The odds just don't seem right. Even if demand was doubled, shouldn't half of us have recieved a ticket!? I'm trying to keep my game face on but blasted this is horse pocky.

[alt12]

Borg knows that there are many many people who wanted go this year, possibly because of the press last year from it selling out and certainly from the "places" video.
I imagine next year demand will drop again, after all I dont imagine we will get perfect weather again and a lot of the people that tried and failed to get tickets in the lottery just wont bother again next year?

Couldn't agree more... The best anti-dote to tickets selling-out is shitty weather and a rough year. We've had 2 of the mildest buns that I can remember back-to-back....Giving a lot of the new people the illusion that burning man is or can be easy.... A rough year with intense cold or intense heat they or difficult playa conditions for biking or lots of white-outs and wind gusts tearing up people's camps and there will be less interest the following year....

[BBadger]

I agree that it is strange...because if the lack of tickets were really due to the overpurchasing, wouldn't half of us be yelling "It's okay! I got two extra!!"?
And out of maybe the 40 people I know in our camp, and on facebook, it looks like 5 got tickets. I too am hoping for a whoopsy daisy.

That really depends on how many people registered, how many people gamed the system and to what extent, and how many people of the subset who did receive tickets you actually know. The reports of such few tickets in peoples' hands may simply point to far higher registration levels than most projections.

[lemur]

or the people with extra tickets arent blabbing about it....

the ones without them are like HOLY SHIT MAN, LISTEN TO ME LARRY HARVEY IM SUPER PISSED!!!


self selection biases the polls....


there aint no way to find any patterns in any of this with the scanty information available

[kayalovelife]

or the people with extra tickets arent blabbing about it....

the ones without them are like HOLY SHIT MAN, LISTEN TO ME LARRY HARVEY IM SUPER PISSED!!!


self selection biases the polls....


there aint no way to find any patterns in any of this with the scanty information available

blast.

[dunkk]

Out of 14 people in our camp only 5 are the chosen few with tickets.

[playacarl]

or the people with extra tickets arent blabbing about it....

the ones without them are like HOLY SHIT MAN, LISTEN TO ME LARRY HARVEY IM SUPER PISSED!!!


self selection biases the polls....


there aint no way to find any patterns in any of this with the scanty information available

I just think it's weird that NO ONE on this board and NO ONE i know of got any extra tickets from "gaming" the system. Collectively we know a decent number of people and yet everyone is saying half or less of their camp has tickets.

I mean seriously, between our camp we know at least a decent chunk of the LA community. No one has anywhere near a full camp, or any extra tickets.

As it turns out 4 out of 5 married couples in our camp double registered for tickets. Out of those potential 18 tickets we got 8. Of the 5 singles 1 got tickets.

So far as I can tell these are pretty average numbers. That's not self selection, I'm the only one on this board from camp complaining and I've got tickets.

[lemur]

there are only 530~ posts in the 'did not get tickets' thread..

lots of anecdotes..

the world isnt ending!!

[marcgorcey]

playacarl is right...

Our camp seems to be at about 20% received tickets. I seem to know many more who didn't get tickets than those who did.

That means we're at anywhere from 80,000 to 200,000 tickets that were requested in this lottery. The BORG needs to publish those numbers.

I'm fearing that scalpers and ticket bots grabbed the tickets to sell privately, i.e. at mark-up. They should make the tickets only transferrable via STEP...

[danibel]

They should make the tickets only transferrable via STEP...

While I like the sentiment, this isn't doable after the tickets are shipped in June. A ticket is just a pretty piece of paper at that point. It can be bought or sold and only the buyer or seller know it.

[marcgorcey]

Hmmm... thought I responded ?

Ok - if they make it mandatory to show ID with the name of the ticket owner at the gate, and make it mandatory to register and to sell unused tickets back to STEP then problem solved.

No scalper could work under that system, or am I missing something ?

[hotmess]

In the mean time, those scattered tickets can and will find their way into the hands of those who need them through the STEP program.

I really hope that is the case and STEP turns out to be the Emerald City of tickets!

[lhorthy]

Large numbers of tickets have started showing up on scalper websites like :

Stubhub => 86 tickets in large blocks, 82 over $700, top price $1650.
VividSeats => 38 tickets in large blocks, 30 over $1000, top price $1720.
TicketsNow => 23 tickets over $1000, Many large blocks (8 or more)

Time for BMORG to void the lottery and redo with name on ticket to enter. They can cover the cost of this by using pdf print at home tickets instead of printing fancy counterfeit proof tix.

[pink]

How do we report scalpers? On Fetlife, there is a guy claiming to have 10 extras (down to 7 now), and another woman who says she knows people selling extras for up to $1000 each.

Is there a way for BMORG to pull the tix from anyone known to be scalping them? Revoke the 'contract'?

[Savannah]

If a website doesn't allow people to sell items they don't have on hand (I believe it's called "speculative" ticket selling), then one can bring it to the attention of the website in question, because no one will have physical tickets until June.

Another way to flag effectively might be if the seller is scalping in a state in which scalping is illegal. It varies from state to state.

Some Burners just flag away regardless.

That's very interesting--the idea of "revoking the contract", Pink. I have heard nothing about it, but wouldn't that be entertaining?

[AntiM]

How do we report scalpers? On Fetlife, there is a guy claiming to have 10 extras (down to 7 now), and another woman who says she knows people selling extras for up to $1000 each.

Is there a way for BMORG to pull the tix from anyone known to be scalping them? Revoke the 'contract'?

Yes. I know of two firm cases where they posted the tickets on ebay as individual sellers, not as professional reseller outlets, and the ticket orders were cancelled.

[AntiM]

or the people with extra tickets arent blabbing about it....

the ones without them are like HOLY SHIT MAN, LISTEN TO ME LARRY HARVEY IM SUPER PISSED!!!


self selection biases the polls....


there aint no way to find any patterns in any of this with the scanty information available

I just think it's weird that NO ONE on this board and NO ONE i know of got any extra tickets from "gaming" the system. Collectively we know a decent number of people and yet everyone is saying half or less of their camp has tickets.

I mean seriously, between our camp we know at least a decent chunk of the LA community. No one has anywhere near a full camp, or any extra tickets.

As it turns out 4 out of 5 married couples in our camp double registered for tickets. Out of those potential 18 tickets we got 8. Of the 5 singles 1 got tickets.

So far as I can tell these are pretty average numbers. That's not self selection, I'm the only one on this board from camp complaining and I've got tickets.

I know someone who did. They aren't posting about it, and the tickets will go to their campmates. Those who won aren't saying because those who did not are likely to shred them to pieces.

[fenwick]

So are the folks wishing for a redo by BMorg on the lottery results - willing to pay an extra hundred dollars on top of the current ticket fee - to make up for the labor cost of the ticket agency to do the lottery all over? At this point - best to learn from the mistakes of this year and make improvements for next year.

What about the holiday pre-sale - will that now null and void too? I can think of better ways to make new friends and create less enemies - but hey - you want a mulligan - go for it and good luck.

Careful what you wish for - primary ticket prices are costly enough (and that is just the piece of paper to get you into BRC) and does not include all other expenses.

low tier tickets go from $240 to $340 each. Or next year low teir tickets could cost $240 each along with lessons learned). The number of people whom admit that even low tier took a bite out of budgeting to make ends meet. I so look forward to the new complaint of why BM cost so much in the first place....Not!

Be prepared - Gas at the end of summer could average 6-7 bucks a gallon - if not more - even in Reno.

If gas prices increase rapidly and the time window of that increase is June - be prepared to pay more for bacon, and all other food supplies, along with anything that is transported in a internal combustion engine.

2 of the 4 processes for getting tickets have been completed - 2 more stages to go....

Not happy - start your own event - charge what you think is fair. The playa is public land - contact BLM and look into getting a permit, the logistics and perhaps Burn in June, or the holiday weekend in May. If you go this route - you also have to deal with all the complaining as well......

[danibel]

the campmate with the shade structure decided to go to burma,

It's called Myanmar. Just thought you should know My apartment building is about 90% refugees from there. PS there food stinks to high heaven.

Thanks for correcting me. I knew it had another name, but I just like the sound of Burma.

[somnia1120]

Our camp of 15 core members got 5 tickets. Admittedly, this is even with the 15 of us applying for probably closer to 25 tickets

I think it's very possible that with the likely sellout, there are a lot of people who speculatively bought tickets who aren't your typical scalper types. I know of at least one person who applied for and won tickets who has no intention of going this year (but has gone in the past), and who will likely try to sell the tickets for a profit on craigslist or the like once he has the tickets in hand. (Yes, this pisses the hell out of me when there are lots of people scrambling for tickets.) Just because tickets aren't on the scalper sites yet, doesn't mean they're not in the hands of people who are planning on selling them for a profit.

While this doesn't bode well in my mind for the initial STEP offerings, I'm hoping they'll see that demand isn't insane and the prices these tickets end up going for will at least be close to face value. We just have to be patient

[pink]

How do we report scalpers? On Fetlife, there is a guy claiming to have 10 extras (down to 7 now), and another woman who says she knows people selling extras for up to $1000 each.

Is there a way for BMORG to pull the tix from anyone known to be scalping them? Revoke the 'contract'?

Yes. I know of two firm cases where they posted the tickets on ebay as individual sellers, not as professional reseller outlets, and the ticket orders were cancelled.

Oh hell yeah!

Blackrockcitypimp (who was adamant about gaming the system...everyone in his camp registered for two or more): he's bragging that his whole camp is ticketed and has 6 extra "but they aren't going into resale, they're going to be gifted'.

While I appreciate the gifting ethos, I hate to see someone rewarded for gaming the system. But at least we know of one place where 'all the tickets are'.

[Sail Man]

About 10% of our camp got tickets.

Fuck!

[sunkenstate5683]

Here is a good third party survey: http://isopop.com/2012/02/01/burning-man-ticket-survey/

~2000 responses so far, 68% denied. Add your data!

d

[marcgorcey]

15/50 got tix in our camp