« Bidding on eBay, revealed at last | Main | eBay on Ice »
Tomfoolery on the Cyber Supermarket
by acdickson
My brother sent me this great story about an Australian woman selling fictional cases of Duff Beer on eBay. Seems she made out pretty well, until Johnny Law caught up with her.
Along a similar 'tip', Nathan recently emailed me about selling tickets to an upcoming U2 concert that from a profit margin standpoint would make even AC's top ten list of all-time auction victories.
Nathan wondered if he had violated any anti-scalping laws. Near as I can tell, none that are enforced. Go to any professional sporting event and the scalpers are usually in rock throwing distance from the cops.
In fact, I met a young man who supported himself for years traversing the country supporting himself selling concert tickets on eBay out a VW bus. eBay has shut my auctions down for a variety of ticky-tak violations, so it appears they are all too happy with their cut of online intrastate ticket sales.
Type U2 eBay into google news and you'll get a gaggle of recent news stories. Nathan is not alone. Conservatively, the U2 corporation looks to be missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of eBay inflation. But some people are giving love a bad name, many of the tickets selling on eBay appear to be forged. But as long as you're too legit to quit, Nathan, keep on keeping on.
The big secret for you would be eBay ticket scalpers ... get in the fan clubs. Super fans get a chance to order tickets before the regular fans. Shhh.
