Wanting Your Opinion

eBay bans sale of Live8 Tickets

EBay U.K. has banned the sale of tickets to the London Live 8, a mea-concert to raise awareness of African poverty, followin pressure from musician Bob eldof and an online campain to sabotae the auctions....Tickets for the concert were a hot item on eBay until activists wrecked auctions and eldof blasted ticket sales as profiteerin from misery...Tickets were allocated Monday via an SMS lottery. More than 2 million text messaes were entered, at a cost of 1.5 pounds ($2.70) each, to join the lottery for 133,000 tickets...

"What eBay are doin is profiteerin on the backs of the impoverished," eldof said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

On Tuesday, eBay banned all ticket sales.

"We have listened to eBay's community of users and the messae has been clear -- that they do not want the tickets to be resold on the site," said Dou McCallum, eBay U.K.'s manain director, in a statement. "Once we are made aware of any Live 8 tickets bein resold, they will be taken down."

Initially, eBay had defended the sales and promised to donate listin fees from the ticket auctions to charity.

eldof also said:

The people who are sellin these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalisin on people's misery.

Do you aree with eldof that individual profit should not be made from these tickets or do you believe that each person has the riht to do whatever they want with their winnin ticket, includin sellin it?

Comments

[Dave]

I agree with Bob. The whole point of this is CHARITY. I swear, I'm ashamed to count myself as part of the human race sometimes.

[JCanuck]

Scalpers have always existed, this is just another form of it. I don't agree with him, because those who are selling them obviously aren't too motivated to go and see the concert. Those who are buying them however, are. That would probably end up meaning higher merchandise sales at the concert itself (assuming that they plan on selling t-shirts and so on), the profits of which are presumably going to charity.

[caspar]

Aren't they selling broadcast rights? Aren't they selling post-event DVD's and T-Shirts?

It's a concert! People want to see the show and are willing to pay for it. The show isn't designed for the people who will benefit from the proceeds. It is for the accumulation of those proceeds. Frankly, ticket prices should have been jacked up to meet the demand.

The poor don't need entertainment. They need food, shelter and clothing.

[Cara]

I believe that in most cases a person should be able to do what they want with what they own. However, I would hope that whatever extra money that the person made off of the ticket sale would go to a good cause.

[MrDan]

The point of Live 8 is not to make money for charity, but to raise awareness and put pressure on politicians. This is why the tickets were sold in the way that they were. It's sad that people are only interested in profit. If you don't want the tickets give them away. Using them to make profit is just greedy. People are so selfish!

[Adamant]

I'm with Bob

[ms. mac]

I think that sure, you should be able to sell the ticket but that you really should have far more decency.

I know, I live in my own little dream world where noone cheats.

[Saraliz]

Good grief! If I have something that someone else wants that is not illegal to possess, I should be allowed to sell it. Period. Supply and demand, people. There is and should be no shame in deciding that a possession (be it an antique lamp, action figures, or concert tickets) is of more use as currency than it provides in sentimental value, nostalgia, or an evening of great music. I own it, I can sell it. It might offend the sensibilities of some people, who of course have every right to complain and decry such actions - but that certainly doesn't give people the right to screw around with Ebay - I'm sure that their 'activism' messed with the transactions of people who were selling other things as well. Expressing disapproval of an individual's actions is perfectly acceptable - deciding how and when others are allowed to sell their own possessions to get well-needed cash is not acceptable. My student loan payment is overdue right now because I don't have the money to pay it. If I had anything anyone wanted to buy, I'd sell it, up to and including any tickets for upcoming events. If people were selling their unwanted opera tickets, would anyone be complaining?

[Jean-Luc Picard]

Tickets are tickets. Why should one concert be any different from another? Geldof should remember that 90% of Live Aid cash in 1985 went into the pockets of African dictators, not the people.

[Jennie]

Bob certainly has a right to complain, but I went to the first Live Aid in Philly and the first Farm Aid in Illinois, and both concerts had people selling and buying tickets on the street. What's the difference, someone had to pay the initial ticket price, right? It's rotten to make a profit off of something that's supposed to be charity, yes, but I guess some see it as a concert for their entertainment, and some see it as charity.

[annie]

Well, I was gonna say I hate scalpers, but with Paul McCartney and Rolling Stones tickets going for $350.00 a seat, you're getting screwed either way. With prices like that, I would have to buy 4 tickets, two for me and two to sell at double the face value.
It's ridiculous.

There are some bands that print on their tickets that they may not be sold for more than the face value, but I don't know if that actually works.

[kimbofo]

Mr Dan summed it up perfectly. Live 8 is not a charity event, it's designed to raise awareness of African debt and to put pressure on politicians to cancel that debt. Those tickets are technically free. To sell them and to make a profit is just wrong. Those people should be ashamed of themselves.

[nat]

I despise scalpers, but, like annie above me, I also hate high ticket prices. My distaste for scalpers is far more piqued than my hate of high ticket prices. And these tickets were given away free to the winners of a ticket lottery. The people who were attempting to make a profit on them were scuzzballs.

caspar mentioned the broadcast rights...dvd sales, etc. This is a charitable event, so I'm guessing the organizers will be using funds recouped (minus operational costs) to give to the charity.

There are a variety of opinions here (at the BBC News site.)

http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4595573.stm

[nat]

Oops, I'm wrong. It's NOT a charitable event. I'm fairly certain that Geldof isn't going to take the dough made from dvd sales and broadcast rights to go buy himself a bigger house.

[Mary]

"Miserable wretches"? Yep, that about says it as far as I'm concerned.

[Dan]

Well, all this hoo-ha about eBay has certainly "raised awareness", hasn't it? Job done, I reckon.

[Ally]

I don't see what's wrong with selling them - and it has the added advantage that the point of it is to raise awareness - which the ebay thing certainly has.

[guruvious]

What if you wanted to see the concert but did'nt "win" tickets?

Is there another way?

[ricochet]

It's a free world. People are now selling the used ticket stubs on eBay - work that one out! The biggest scandal is the £7000 goodie bags handed out to the US celebs who performed after stuffing themselves with foie gras. Hypocrisy rules. See you all again in 20 years for another one...ho hum.

[Daniel Vinovitsch]

For all of you out their who are charity and won't be admitted to Mission Fish, there's a new kid on the block called "Ycare". It's new and still empty , and it's up to you to fill with life.

We just started with a prestigios project (see press release below) and welcome anybody who wants to do any good on this planet - no matter how big or how small our project is.

PRESS RELEASE

German auction-site “Ycare” joins World Trade Center Memorial fundraising campaign

The World Trade Center Memorial will be the most costly memorial built to date. The price tag now stands at $740 million. A national advertising campaign has just been launched and, expanding its ambitious fundraising campaign on an international basis, the Foundation has now been joined by “Ycare”, a German online auction-site. The founder of this new philanthropic website, Daniel Vinovitsch, contacted the Memorial Foundation after visiting Ground Zero last year from Germany. He demonstrated how Ycare works and could be put to use in aid of the Memorial Foundation. The result – two Ycare fundraising pages, one in English and one in German, just went online.

“Standing at Ground Zero last year”, says Daniel Vinovitsch, the founder of Ycare, “ I was overwhelmed by mixed emotions of grief and anger. Once again I envisioned the collapse of the Twin Towers, and, once again, I felt an immense deep sorrow in my heart and anger about this unthinkable attack.

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Ycare is an online auction-site similar to eBay. Its mission, however, is to offer not-for-profit and grass-root organizations new opportunities for fundraising while at the same time promoting and advertise their charitable causes. These organizations can showcase their projects by creating their own fundraising pages on Ycare for free. Projects can range from fundraising for the PTA, for medical research, for the homeless, or for a foundation such as the World Trade Memorial Foundation. It doesn’t matter how big or how small a project is. Projects are funded either through online auctions of goods or direct cash donations.

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