Live 8 tickets on eBay - Fair or Foul?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Live 8 tickets are being offered on eBay for sums around the �1000 mark. It's not illegal to sell them but does that make it okay?

[Octavius]

Of course not, but then I am sure somebody will be stupid enough to buy them at that price.

[acw]

So long as they donate the money to a charity of their choice, it's morally fine by me. 

Otherwise, I think it's not something I could square with my own conscience. 

[Octavius]

This is an announcement from eBay:

We wanted to let you know that we will be permitting the sale of LIVE 8 concert tickets on eBay.co.uk. As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the LIVE 8 charity at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of LIVE 8 tickets.

We are allowing the sale of tickets because we believe that people can make up their own minds about what they buy and sell. The reselling of charity concert tickets is not illegal under English law and eBay believes it is a fundamental right for someone to be able to sell something that is theirs whether they paid for it or won it in a competition.

Regards,
The eBay.co.uk Team

[morg_monster]

I reckon that while a donation to charity would be nice, it is fair enough to sell them on.  Sir Bob himself says that the purpose of Live 8 is not to make money, but to raise awareness.  People selling the tickets on EBay and it is making the news and people are debating it - definitely raising awareness!  I think someone with a pair of tickets should be able to do what they want.  If they did give some of the money to charity then that is lovely but it is just 'extra' money. No-one is losing out if they don't.  The G8 summit and the concert itself is more important than donating a few hundred quid to Africa.

[Oneeyedvic]

Totally fair - its called free market!

[londondave]

Everyone wants to make quick hard cash. Not illegal to sell the tickets on but definetely selfish. I would have loved to gone to that gig and did send off 3 texts There are 8 bands I would like to have seen. But I can't complain as I won tix for David Gray the same way for a free gig in Trafalga Sq and put them straight on Ebay with no intention of going (Well he did murder "Say Hello Wave Goodbye")

[Englishbird]

I don't really see what harm it causes. I'm 100% behind live 8 but i also have my own debts to erradicate and if i had two tickets which i could get a grand for - i'd think about selling them.

[chazza]

I dont think its right but at the end of the day, Live 8 isnt for charity, its not about raising money.

Still dont think its right though!

[gerry]

Why wouldn't it be ok?

If you have somebody who is willing to pay a price for the tickets then so be it.As you say it isn't illegal so there is no wrong in it.

[WaldoMcFroog]

eBay have just announced that they're removing all Live 8 tickets from their site.

Frankly, I'm delighted!

[gerry]

Even if ebay stop selling these tickets on their site.The tickets will end up getting sold some other way.

[stevie21]

I'm all for the free market but it seems that people with shadowy morals are getting tickets for free and then selling them to others for hundreds of pounds.
I think that's wrong, especially if they've converted to a ticket tout mindset where they only get the tickets with the intention of selling them at a profit.
Just my 2 bob's worth

[gerry]

I understand what your saying stevie but is it because it's for a charity gig?.

If i get 2 free tickets for a film premire & decide to sell them at a high price.Would you still think the same way?

At the end of the day there is no difference.It's just because the word charity is used of all of a sudden it's a bad thing to do.

[stevie21]

What's you username on ebay, gerry? haha

If you acquired 2 free tickets to a film premiere, knew it would sell out and had no intention of going yourself and instead put them on ebay then I would feel (in principle) the same way although that's less emotive.
As you say, part of my objection is that people are intentionally profiting from an event designed to raise funds for the world's worst off people.

Incidentally, I've previously bought tickets for something that I did intend to go to but eventually sold them on ebay (at a profit) so I have to choose my morals carefully here!
http://www.laughfc.co.uk/stories/story.php?id=727

[WaldoMcFroog]

Gerry,

Surely the reason why so many people objected to people selling Live 8 tickets when normally they don't give a monkeys what happens on eBay is for a one key reason:

Bearing in mind the purpose of the concert, it's a truly sick irony that these profiteers have turned it from a lottery available to all into a game where the people with the most money can play by different rules...

[Oneeyedvic]

I am guessing that most people who have got these tickets for sale entered the competition the same way everyone else did - by text message.

They then get the tickets (or at least notification that they will get the tickets).

They suddenly realise that they can earn a mortgage payment for giving up their ticket. Personally, i would watch it on tv!

 

And to put the money thing into perspective (or number crunching as Private Eye call it)

�49 Million - Amount raised by Red Nose Day 2005

�30 Million - Amount spent on 'spending spree' by Sir Elton John

�12.5 Million - Amount turned down by U2 for letting an advertising company use thier music.

 

Now there is a sick irony........

[WaldoMcFroog]

Vic, how does providing an example of Elton John's spending mitigate the behaviour of the eBayers?

The U2 example is surely not legitimate - are you seriously suggesting that any artist should be obliged to prostitue their work simply because the money could be used for good?

Here's the address of some people who pay volunteers to carry out medical trials: www.trials4us.co.uk

If you fail to take up the oportunity to earn money which could be used for good causes are you not equally guilty?

[camille79]

I don't quite understand the fuss over this.  Bob has been harping on for the last fortnight about Live8 not being about money.  Sure, selling your ticket on ebay when it's a "free" event and someone else could have gone instead sucks, but it's not really damaging the make poverty history message.  The people selling the tickets are most likely ordinary folks who want to make a bit of cash.  The touts who buy up tickets for big events and sell them at extortionate rates are probably not responsible due to the texting system.

The idea that the artists and their reps involved in Live8 would make a personal contribution in acknowledgement of the huge free publicity they were getting was raised last week and seems to have been overlooked/forgotten.  Lets face it, the number of people profitting out of live8 goes far beyond the guys selling their tickets for a couple of hundred notes.....

[bernardo]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with it at all.  If person A has a ticket to something and wants to sell it, and person B wants to buy that ticket, there is a perfect opportunity for a mutually beneficial sale to be made.  It does not in any way harm the poor people in Africa.  I find it outrageous, immoral and disgusting that Bob Geldof described such sales as outrageous, immoral and disgusting.  I find it contemptible that eBay capitulated to his vainglorious and bombastic demands that they should curtail their legitimate free-market activities.

When combined with Geldof's demand for one million people to converge on Edinburgh, and his ludicrous suggestion for thousands of boats to cross the channel in the spirit of Dunkirk, this latest incident has made me lose virtually all respect for the man.  He is a popinjay and a lickspittle of the self-perpetuating celebrity elite, a hierarchicalistic nincompoop, a vainglorious and bombastic dandy, a fool, a nankerous booliak, a [continued on page 8537]

[WaldoMcFroog]

The tickets all apparently stated that they were 'non-transferrable'. Does that make a difference?