Thursday 23 September 2010

Gouging - another missed opportunity

The Christchurch Metallica show sold out in 21 minutes.

It was, by reports, awesome. Nothing from St. Anger, minimal from Black album, lots of classics, lots of Death Magnetic. I saw them in '91 in Winnipeg (too much Black album); this sounds like it was a better show.

And now I regret not having gone to find a scalper.

Ticket scalping's been a bit of a puzzle to economists for a while - why don't the artists charge market clearing (gouging) prices and cut out the scalper entirely? I've posted a bit on this here, as well as here here and here.

In other gouging news, the comments thread over on my piece in The Press has been, in short, hilarious. My favourites:
lisa #7 04:51 pm Sep 17 2010
this article is why everyone hates economists
I love that I am personally responsible for everyone hating economists. It may be true in our faculty meetings though.
Kiwi Anarchist #8 09:37 pm Sep 17 2010
...
What happened to The Left in this country? It's time to get off your backsides and start organizing and fighting for yourselves and your hard-won rights before people like Eric Crampton have them taken from you!
Bloody peasant!

4 comments:

  1. I am amused that you are being painted by some as an evil uncaring hater of the poor. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. He doesn't like you. I don't like you either. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve systems.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eric, we now know who to blame if the left (guided by Kiwi Anarchist) gets organized to defend hard-won rights to [fill the blanks].

    Incidentally, I owe you a cup of coffee for the entertainment provided every day. One of these days, in whatever is left of Cafe 101.

    ReplyDelete