The other option if you're after tickets is to buy them via an online auction site like Trade Me. Tickets can cost much more than the official retail price.
Another disadvantage (according to promoters) is you risk buying counterfeit tickets from unscrupulous sellers. But Trade Me's Mike O'Donnell says this is rare and Trade Me is able to assist the buyer seek redress through the Disputes Tribunal.
Tickets sold over Trade Me are covered by a host of laws. According to Mike, people selling counterfeit tickets online face prosecution under the Fair Trading Act, the Sale of Goods Act and the fraud provisions of the Crimes Act.
Mike says that if you're buying tickets on Trade Me you should use the same trust and safety tools you would for other goods: "Look at a person's feedback, check to see they are 'address verified', pay through a secure and traceable mechanism and pick up the item personally. If you can't pick up the tickets, use Safetrader to insure them."
Who's being scalped?
You'll discover many sellers on Trade Me have a reason for reselling their seats: "my mates pulled out" or "my brother overbooked". No one wants to be accused of on-selling tickets to make a profit (scalping). And promoters themselves partly contribute to scalping: the organisers of NZI Sevens, for example, only released 8500 tickets for general sale.
Economics professor John Fountain noted that there would be less demand for scalped tickets if event organisers released all available seats - instead of 24 percent.
Terminating touts
Tickets sold on Trade Me compete with official resellers of package deals. Under the ticket's terms and conditions, organisers may attempt to stop scalpers by threatening to bar scalped ticket holders from the event.
Such terms and conditions are legally valid but difficult to uphold. Chapman Tripp commercial lawyer Gary Hughes explains: "It is hard to accurately identify and weed out the scalped tickets and it raises major practical issues about disputes and confrontation on the doorsteps of an event between security guards and punters."
The government's Major Events Management Act 2007 bans ticket scalping for selected major international events. For instance, it's a criminal offence to scalp tickets to the Rugby World Cup.
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