Ebay an unscrupulous profit making organisation?

[debaser79]

When I first came across the auction site ebay, I was ecstatic!! Finally an avenue where you could auction off items you no longer wanted or needed, and better still the entire world is your market.

It was fantastic, a place where you could sell just about anything that previously was left in your cupboard, garage shed to either rot away and taken to the dump or flogged off at a garage sale if you could be bothered hosting one, but not only that it was is also a place where you can buy those little items that you jsut cant find anywhere else, an absolute ingenious concept and I must give credit to the creator. But events of late have forced me to reconsider my glowing praise for ebay.

Why is it that once a company/organistion reaches a certain status that they lose their morals? I am talking about Ebay turning a blind eye and allowing members to sell tickets for sporting and musical events for a MAJOR profit. Ebay has given the once frowned upon scalpers a marketplace where they can flog off tickets at phenominal prices. I mean sure we as the consumer should boycott and refuse to purchase the tickets, but there are always going to be people who are silly enough and willing to pay these horrendous prices. But I still believe that ebay should be held accountable for this, if the tickets werent allowed to be listed, the marketplace would no longer exist, simple. Ok i do understand that sometimes you purchase a ticket to an event and just cant attend for whatever reason, fine allow these tickets to be sold on ebay BUT do not allowed them to be sold at a higher price, list them for a buy it now auction for the original value of the ticket. Is this really that hard for ebay to do, or is it the profit that they recieve from such high prices that is making them turn the blind eye?

It's not just event tickets though, recently I was appalled to find "Wildlife Warrior" silicone wristbands being sold for a profit. These wristbands cost $1 to purchase with profits going the the Wildlife Warrior charity, and now ebay is allowing greedy scumbags to sell them for their own personal profit, with some members asking for up to $30 for a $1 CHARITY wristband, and we all know they arent going to forward that money onto the respective charity. How can ebay allow these sort of auctions to run?
How can people be so shallow to make a profit from a charity?

I think ebay really needs to consider what it allows to be listed for auction on their website as in my eyes they are not sending out a very good public image.

[RANDOID]

With regard to tickets, in Victoria at least, there's a law which states that scalping is legal, only if both party's agree to the price...

Not to sure about the specifics, but it got me out of paying $380 to see muse lase time they were here...

Ebay are just vendors. (Like the owner of the trading post) They aren't the people you should be frustrated at, its the greedy bunch who sell such things at extravagant prices...

[~vjay~]

I could care less what prices people are selling tickets and/or charitable items, if someone is stupid enough to pay inflated prices for things, go for it.

Ebay isn't the morality police and I'm sure they aren't wanting to go through all listings with a fine tooth comb to make sure items on sale are at the correct listed prices etc.

Find out if these things are allowed to be listed, if not, contact Ebay yourself to have them check it out, they'll be more likely to do something about it, then again, depends on the legalities of it.

[BiggyRat]

With regard to tickets, in Victoria at least, there's a law which states that scalping is legal, only if both party's agree to the price...Sorry Randoid, that cannot be true. What about the Artist/Performer, whos rights you're abusing? Scalping is between the scalper, and the scalpee. The copyright owner isn't involved at all.That's precisely why it's illegal.

[RANDOID]

Sorry Randoid, that cannot be true. What about the Artist/Performer, whos rights you're abusing? Scalping is between the scalper, and the scalpee. The copyright owner isn't involved at all.That's precisely why it's illegal.Read up biggy.

[BiggyRat]

Read up biggy.I'll stand by it until you prove YOUR statement thanks all the same. :rolleyes:

[RANDOID]

I'll stand by it until you prove YOUR statement thanks all the same. :rolleyes:stand by what, some statement without even any grasp of intellectual property rights... (the artist/performer rights you mentioned).

The performers get their money. its all the same to them...

You show me somewhere that says specifically that ticket scalping is illegal... Things are assumed legal until they are made illegal.

[BiggyRat]

stand by what, some statement without even any grasp of intellectual property rights... (the artist/performer rights you mentioned).

The performers get their money. its all the same to them...Yeah, I'd have no idea about intellectual property rights. I'm only a software developer and author of many user manuals and user guides. :rolleyes:

Scalping is still profiteering.

[headrippa]

Yeah, I'd have no idea about intellectual property rights. I'm only a software developer and author of many user manuals and user guides. :rolleyes:

Scalping is still profiteering.


Care to show us your awesome work then ?


Ebay is all about supply and demand, if you want it that badly you'll pay for it.

Why were you looking for wildlife wristbands in the first place ?? To buy one, if you were thats another $1 that didnt get sent to charity.

[BiggyRat]

Care to show us your awesome work then?If you were in NSW (Sydney specifically) I could, yes. Want a manual? Sent me a return addressed envelope large enough to hold A4 manuals which are about 2cm thick. :rolleyes:

I've done work for NSW Police, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Pacific Power, TransGrid, Delta Electricity, Camerons Envelopes, What's New and many more. I even won an "Excellence" award in 1994 for my program REQTRACK (which strangely enough was a REQuisition TRACKing system who'd have thought?) and is still in use to this day.

[headrippa]

You dont have any of your stuff online ?

[jokiin]

I even won an "Excellence" award in 1994 for my program REQTRACK (which strangely enough was a REQuisition TRACKing system who'd have thought?) and is still in use to this day.

See we've finally caught you out, your work is not awesome at all, it's excellent:eek:

[BiggyRat]

You dont have any of your stuff online ?Nope. They're custom built apps for my clients. No need to make them downloadable. The only program I've ever written which CAN be downloaded is a tiny program called MultiBoot and has been downloaded almost 20,000 times now but is aimed at users of old DOS games. That's downloadable at my website www.lpcdaust.com/downloads.html (http://www.lpcdaust.com/downloads.html) not very exciting though. It's been so successful, I wish I'd charged for it :cry:

[BiggyRat]

See we've finally caught you out, your work is not awesome at all, it's excellent:eek:Sorry :o:dD

[~vjay~]

From what I've read up scalping isn't illegal unless the sellers of the tickets have it written up into their clauses that state upon purchase that tickets must not be sold for a premium ie:

Fair Trading has endorsed the Football Federation Australia’s ‘conditions of sale’ for their tickets that stipulate that they may not without the consent of the Football Federation, be resold at a premium. A breach of this condition could result in admission being denied.

“Football Federation Australia has made it clear that it intends to enforce the ‘conditions of sale’ and is warning that tickets on sold at premium prices may be cancelled.

In the meantime, Ms Beamer said that the Government was considering a number of legislative options to counter profiteering from scalping.
Source (http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/corporate/aboutus/2005/20051019scalpingwarningsoccerworldcupqualifier.htm l)



Scalping is the practice of re-selling tickets for popular sporting or entertainment events at prices that exceed the retail price of the ticket. There is no legislation which specifically prohibits scalping in New South Wales. However, scalping is effectively prohibited within the area surrounding the Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Olympic Park.

Consumers should be aware that there are risks associated with purchasing scalped tickets. Many tickets are originally sold by the promoter on the condition that they may not be on-sold. If you purchase an on-sold ticket, the promoter of the event may have the right to cancel the ticket and refuse you entry. You should also be aware that some scalpers have been known to sell counterfeit tickets, which similarly will prevent you from entering the performance or game.

The Office of Fair Trading continues to liaise with the entertainment and sporting promotion industry to minimise the activities and impact of scalpers.

Source (http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/shopping/shoppingtips/entertainmentindustry.html#Scalping)

I haven't looked into other states codes of conduct in regards to scalpers but they'd be pretty similar I'd assume, which means unless the ticket seller at the point of sale has a clause prohibiting resale you can pretty much do what you want with your unwanted tickets.

If they want to stop the practice it'd be fair to say that they would go after big time ticket buyers who buy in bulk lots and resell at a premium, to go after your average garden variety person who buys a few tickets and needs to resell them because something comes up and they can't attend the event would be pointless.

[dvder]

I could care less what prices people are selling tickets and/or charitable items, if someone is stupid enough to pay inflated prices for things, go for it.

Ebay isn't the morality police and I'm sure they aren't wanting to go through all listings with a fine tooth comb to make sure items on sale are at the correct listed prices etc.


l agree, it's like anything if you buy something cheap and then sell it for a higher price lucky you, l've brought stuff and then didn't want it and then chucked it on ebay and to my suprise it's sold for more than l payed for it..

[afterglow]

~vjay~ is correct. There is no legislation governing scalping in most States, although, as pointed out by the article above, on selling tickets can, in essence, be considered a breach of contract between vendor and purchaser, and may ultimately result in the cancellation of tickets.

[Ozeagle]

The scalping of the concert/event tickets is not technically illegal as far as I am aware, but it is against the T&C of the ticket purchase agreement and the tickets can therefore be cancelled. Of course if the seller is a professional scalper then they don't reveal the ticket numbers or exact seat locations to anyone but the final bidder, so the only people who can be hurt by that rule are the honest and naive people selling tickets they can no longer use.

I'd love to see eBay fix it, but it's not going to happen. In regards to tickets, the agencies really need to employ some of the methods that have emerged in the US, especially naming the tickets. Names on tickets can be changed, but if you start asking for ticket renames on a regular basis you get flagged as a scalper and the account/credit card can be blocked.

Ticketing agencies should also offer to buy back tickets to sold out events at face value. This would mean that every single ticket on the open market could be considered a scalped ticket, and leave them much more freedom to go after scalpers hard.

Once again, it would be nice if eBay would do something about it, but I'm not sure I see it as their responsibility. The ticketing agencies really should clamp down on it. I know it pisses me off when I miss out on tickets to see The Killers only to see 50 tickets up on eBay by the end of the day.

[custos]

For Victoria, the "Sports Event Ticketing (Fair Access) Act 2002" contains provisions where people may be convicted and fined for ticket scalping, and in NSW there was a provision preventing scalping in areas controlled by the Olympic authorities during the Olympics, which has since been repealed. But under the Victorian provisions, I think only certain sporting events are covered by this legislation so selling, e.g., concert tickets on eBay is probably not covered. Also, as vjay said, some tickets have a no-scalping provision as a condition of sale. I don't believe scalping these is a crime however, it would just be a breach of the terms of contract of the sale, and only the ticket issuer could take action in that regard.

Even if scalping were illegal I wonder how that would relate to the selling of tickets on eBay using an auction. You could start the auction at $1 (obviously well less than the cost of the ticket) but its final auction price could be much higher. Is that really scalping? Is it eBay's fault?

[afterglow]

Even if scalping were illegal I wonder how that would relate to the selling of tickets on eBay using an auction. You could start the auction at $1 (obviously well less than the cost of the ticket) but its final auction price could be much higher. Is that really scalping? Is it eBay's fault?

That's an interesting point, Custos. [E]bay Australia doesn't seem to have much to say on the topic here (http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/tickets_info_page.html), although I have heard that they will typically only cancel a ticket auction if the starting price is greater than the initial sale price (however, this is only hearsay; I have no official confirmation of this).