OP purge scalpers from the lot

[munkycmunkydoo]

First I am a noob here, this will be my third post. My previous posts were related to trying to get a ticket last year. I did not, and was ok with it. For me BM always comes with the risk of being dropped from all of the university classes I miss the first day of, by being out on Playa. Admittedly, I am excited to have 4th of JuPlaya and (finally) Burning Man on my calender this year.

I was very lucky, and "won" a ticket in lottery. I am very thankful for this, but reading how impacted big theme camps are, I am also saddened. I would hope that BMorg will try to figure out a way to allocate a portion of March sales to these camps. For the rest of us, a healthy reminder that no one has tickets yet. My one will not ship til June. This means any listings for tickets now are for a possible ticket the vendor may or may not have once June rolls around. This is very important to remember. Some of the inflated prices on StubHub and other scalper dens are folks just listing a price that they exploitatively speculate they could find and resell a ticket for at a profit.

Aftermarket Burning Man ticket buying 101in past years has always been to call and confirm the ticket number, to assure its validity to make sure it isn't fake or otherwise voided. To this end it would seem to me possible with a little effort from all burners (including myself who has a ticket) we could help enforce the informal no scalping policy by flooding would be vendors with requests to confirm the validity of their ticket for sale. Names are not expressly attached to a ticket number per se, but the ticket number is attached to a transaction number that is attached to a name.

As part of the BMorg validation program that netted many counterfeits and voided tix last year, I would add:

1) Push mailing out tickets to as early as March, after final sale. This removes the simple cash flow tactic some scalpers try to use where you as buyer inadvertently facilitate the scalper's purchase of the ticket you are trying buy, and thus competing with you the non scalper.

2)BMorg states that last Name on and last 4 of CC# used for purchase, and Ticket number is required to validate authenticity of ticket. Without all of these BMorg cannot confirm validity of ticket and buyer beware. BMorg can trace back to transaction number as part of the validation process. BMorg could then invalidate whole transactions based on scalping, thus removing not only one, but potentially multiple tickets from scalpers. BMorg issues refund (to scalper) and resells through STEP as available.

3) Names and credit cards associated with scalping or attempted scalping are blocked from purchasing from STEP, or next year.

4) All tickets sold through STEP go through a process of ticket number reassignment. Where the old number is invalidated and a new ticket issued with a new number to the purchaser through BM and STEP. This again creates a way of tracking the ticket number, and even tickets purchased through STEP and then resold could cycle through step 2.

5) Burning Man now receives plenty of Main Stream Media coverage. A hand full of timely press releases (May, June, July, first week in August) focused on the concerns of fake tickets and need to validate through BMorg further draws people away from StubHub to STEP, and reinserts BMorg into the ticket validation process.

Points 2 and 3 have some legal grey area, but MLB teams specifically the Red Sox did this after 2004 to purge season ticket holding scalpers from the rolls.

I would like feedback on this idea beyond, toss off noob or worse. Admittedly this all takes a lot of overhead, primarily human hours, but I am willing to put forth an effort to help out in any way to prevent scalpers and help preserve what makes Burning Man so special. I feel like with a concerted effort on all of our parts we can actually crowd source a way of making Burning Man tickets more hassle than they are worth to a scalper to try and sell.

My only other solution is to pull the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Back Street Boys, and the lot from mothballing for a summer arena tour super extravaganza. That would keep the scalpers busy.

Cheers, and remember no one really has a ticket to Burning Man yet.