Four minutes.
That's all it took for tickets to Phish's New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell out on Oct. 29. Poof. Gone.
Fears come to fruition for thousands of hopeful fans. Shut out again.
Yet more shocking is the fact that, just fourteen minutes later, StubHub, the online broker, had already amassed over 100 tickets, ranging from roughly $200 for nosebleeds to $7,000 for floor seats.
Clearly, the scalpers won. Using automated Web bots -- cyborg cheats -- they pilfered hundreds if not thousands of tickets before fans could even click their mouses.
Like professional gamblers studying a betting line, the savvy thieves read the demand and acted accordingly. They knew full well the inherent value of the Dec. 31 ticket. Indeed, to Phish fans, it's considered the Holy Grail.
And although some flocked to Phantasy Tour, an online forum for Phish fanatics, to post profanity laden threads expressing their outrage, many in the community expected this outcome.
Scalping, they agree, is an unstoppable force fueled by immeasurable greed.
The consensus: As long as there are tickets, there will be scalpers.
That's all it took for tickets to Phish's New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell out on Oct. 29. Poof. Gone.
Fears come to fruition for thousands of hopeful fans. Shut out again.
Yet more shocking is the fact that, just fourteen minutes later, StubHub, the online broker, had already amassed over 100 tickets, ranging from roughly $200 for nosebleeds to $7,000 for floor seats.
Clearly, the scalpers won. Using automated Web bots -- cyborg cheats -- they pilfered hundreds if not thousands of tickets before fans could even click their mouses.
Like professional gamblers studying a betting line, the savvy thieves read the demand and acted accordingly. They knew full well the inherent value of the Dec. 31 ticket. Indeed, to Phish fans, it's considered the Holy Grail.
And although some flocked to Phantasy Tour, an online forum for Phish fanatics, to post profanity laden threads expressing their outrage, many in the community expected this outcome.
Scalping, they agree, is an unstoppable force fueled by immeasurable greed.
The consensus: As long as there are tickets, there will be scalpers.
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