SERENITY on eBay....
POSTED BY: Ruxton
UPDATED: Saturday, May 7, 2005 20:44
VIEWED: 7660
PAGE 2 of 4
Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
rayhill (member since April 30, 2005):
You could've talked all day and not said you personally purchased at least 18 tickets more than you needed, meaning that 9 couples in your city were deprived of the opportunity to see the movie because of your gluttony. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution. I predict someone going to the show in rayhill's town will see rayhill standing around outside the theatre, hawking his 'spare' tickets for a quick windfall.
Hey, it's the American way, ain't it? Take advantage of the system and then rape your fellow humans for the sake of profit. 'Free Enterprise'. I reckon we come by the 'Ugly American' tag honestly, at least...
For those who are lucky enough to live in the screening cities, but who were unlucky enough to get in line behind the rayhill-types: I suggest you go to the theatre anyway. There will be tons of tickets available on the dimly-lit street corners just adjacent the theatre.
With any sort of luck, the loyal Browncoats will just stand around the 'capitalists' as they grow increasingly desperate to unload their booty. My fantasy:
1 hour before showtime...
"I got 18 tickets, 18 tickets!".
"How much?", the Browncoat asks, steely eyed.
"Two-fifty each," saith the parasite.
"Mmm-hmm," quoth the Browncoat.
30 minutes before showtime...
"Hey, folks!? I said I got 18 tickets, 18 tickets here!".
The same Browncoat, still steely eyed, asks, "How much?" with the precise same vocal inflection.
"Ummm... Just to get you off my corner, Two hundred each," saith the parasite.
"Mmm-hmm," quoth the Browncoat.
15 minutes before showtime, a large crowd has gathered around the 'enterprising' leech...
"C'mon folks!" he whines, "I got 18 tickets to Serenity! 18 tickets! C'mon, who wants 'em?".
"How much?", intones that same Browncoat, steely eyes now smouldering with something like menace and mirth combined.
"One hundred a pair," saith the parasite, plaintively.
"Mmm-hmm," quoth the Browncoat.
5 minutes before showtime...
"What are you people, a bunch of morons?! I got 18 tickets to see Serenity, 18 tickets right here!".
"How much?", the Browncoat asks, steely eyes smouldering, the hint of a toothy grin on his face.
"Forty-five a pair," saith the parasite, clearly rattled. "My absolute bottom price."
"Mmm-hmm," quoth the Browncoat. Then, "I'll give you one hundred and eighty for the lot. Ten dollars apiece; what you paid for them."
"Done," says the relieved 'supplier'.
As he counts his money (oddly, it's in six bills: a hundred, three twenties and two tens), the not-so-successful profiteer sez, "Who the f*ck are you anyway?"
As he finishes handing the last of the tickets to a young couple, along with $12 for sodas and popcorn, the Browncoat muses, "They'll miss the trailers... Shame." Then he turns his attention back to the opportunist, throws his arm around his shoulder and grins his big, unsettling grin and walks him off into the shadows...
"Friends call me zoid. But you can call me Mr. Wednesday."
(NB: With thanks to Neil Gaiman's "American Gods".)
Sacrificially,
zoid
(Claps loudly)
BRAVO ZOID! BRAVO!
I couldn't agree more.
Sure people can spout this "free enterprise" this and "capitalist system" that, but there is right and wrong, and selling tickets on Ebay and letting them go @ $200 - $400 per ticket is nothing more than taking advantage of a unique situation to make a profit. So what if the bidding starts at $5 or $10, anyone with anything more than a leaky brainpan knows that all the less fortunate browncoats without tickets out there will drive the bidding up well past $100. There is an auction with a buy it now of $299 for crying out loud!
I agree w/ you Zoid, turning a huge profit is wrong. If some browncoats found themselves with extra tickets, there are several message boards where they could be sold for the face value of the ticket or say even twice or thr
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Hey, crazy slippers man! Hope you are doing well.
I respectfully disagree with you. It just isn't very Browncoatish to sell the tickets on E-Bay. Browncoats watch each others back and take care of each other. That's one of the things that make us special.
I was lucky enough to have a fellow Browncoat who had extra tickets and not only let me buy one from him, he set up a place for us to stay in Boston for free!
That, to me, is the spirit of a Browncoat! Thanks Cephme, you are my BDH!!!
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Hey there DietCoke! How ya been?
The point I was trying to make was that most of the people selling tickets do not appear to have bought them with the intent to sell. And I think there's a pretty vast difference between someone who intentionally buys them to resell at a killing (like the guys who are asking $2-400) and just posting it for the purchase price and letting the person who wants it most have it.
I'm much more willing to agree with your "not a very Browncoat thing to do" assessment than the zoid's "evil capitlist wants to rape you" assessment. At least you are admitting that your displeasure with the idea is based on your affinity to the fandom, rather than the general morality of being able to sell a high-demand item at an auction.
Just to clarify, though, am I correct in assuming that you would feel less strongly about this if it were a Tickle Me Elmo right before xmas instead of a Serenity ticket?
[Also, I appologize to Darin for mistaking the zoid's rant for a reply from you. I've been awake for 24+ hours working on a project, and didn't read the username closely enough.]
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The ticket brokers and other unsavory ebay types have been doing this for years with radio call-in concert tix, etc., it's quite easy to sell many and yet hide them from your unexperienced prying eyes...
These brokers have 50 or so ebay accounts, they list one ticket at a time and between the mutiple off-ebay contacts and the actual bids, they cancell an auction and can sell maybe 10-30 off a few auctions alone. Let's not even get into scalping at the actual screening and smaller local classifieds offering these things. I have 2 friends that were even approched when trying to get tix thru legit means the day of sale. As to applauding the peoeple who do so, it's exactly why these guys are being arested and taken out of their multi million dollar homes the few times you see them being busted on the TV news, people see it as smart enterprising action. when there was a fine line that was crossed.
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Why is it always "taking advantage of"? These people are not being forced to bid on the tickets. They can happily stand around in Zoid's fantasy. They are willingly bidding on these tickets. I know if I felt compelled to bid on those tickets, I would happily part with my money and not feel the least bit exploited.
I can understand being upset at not having tickets or being upset that you don't have the extra cash to win these auctions. Though I think the anger is being directed at the wrong people.
I know when I read 20 tickets I was jealous. I would love to be able to take all my friends to the screening. I'm over it though. Everyone will get their chance to see this movie. It's just a matter of time. As long as we aren't at each other's throats I think the time will pass quickly.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rayhill:
Just to clarify, though, am I correct in assuming that you would feel less strongly about this if it were a Tickle Me Elmo right before xmas instead of a Serenity ticket?
Nope, selling a child's toy at exuberant mark up is far more wrong as you are taking advantage of a parent trying to make their child happy.
Far as I'm concerned both are wrong, unethical and indicative of greed.
The fact that it is Serenity tickets does not enter into the equation of it being right or wrong. I am not even in or near one of the 10 screening cities, Atlanta being the closest and a ten hour drive for me. I simply find it distasteful that someone would take advantage of a fan's loyalty and desire to see the movie this way. It is made all the more worse if these people are actually Browncoats.
__________________________________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."
Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/richmondbrowncoats/
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Simple. it's when someone else did not have equal opportunity to procur an item that was "supposedly" offered freely on a public venue, and then profits from that. Again, when others do not see this as anything wrong as such,e.g. the guy selling canned peaches for $1000 during a famine, etc., it's a lesson to be learned somewhere down the line thru experience (hopefully not a painful one). Look at this as one of the hard questions in the test of life... only a few get it correct.
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Well, switching the right/wrong focus a little, if you have two or three hundred you're willing to spend on Serenity, shouldn't you want that money to go to Universal, rather than anyone else? They're the ones who'll greenlight more movies, after all. And they'll do it depending on how much money they make.
I plan to go ten or more times when it opens, and I'll be dragging people along with me every time. That means I'll be contributing between one and two hundred to Serenity, counting my friends as part of mmy contribution. It'll all go into the coffers of the people who can get me more Firefly.
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>I predict someone going to the show in rayhill's town will see rayhill standing around outside the theatre, hawking his 'spare' tickets for a quick windfall.<
not a chance in hell - I promise you. Ray is just very sociable and *really* good at converting Browncoats. I will personally attest that every one of his tix is going to a Browncoat at cost.
miyu
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Agreed: Meet me before the event and suuure, I'll have a ticket for you...And a bridge for sale as well.
Now, then.... I've bought a few smoking pipes on eBay and have observed the selling of a great many of them. I've discovered that some people have way more money than brains, or so it seems. Several times I've seen a bit of briar wood and vulcanite sell for thousands of dollars. Obviously someone wanted the highly collectible pipe way more than the next guy, and spent his money accordingly.
Thing is, with these NEW eBayers, zero feedback, most sellers avoid them like the plague because of the great fear of not getting paid. But if a buyer has many positive references, there's little risk of buying from them and getting ripped off.
Concerning the "morals" of the situation, clearly some sellers of these tickets seem more concerned with money than with helping fans of Firefly. But after all, there's no MANDATE to bid at all or to spend any money whatsoever, which is the bottom line.
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