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Jason - The reason you see this happen is because a lot of prime tickets (front-centre rows, boxes, etc) are handed out to people who are involved with the production of the gig, the people who work for the band label, journalists, influential media types, etc. Often is the case that they will receive these for free and have absolutely no intention or liking for the band / artist playing and will therefore resell their tickets for profit. These tickets are often not regulated and look just like the ones me and you receive in the post... The last pair of tickets I bought off eBay were from someone who worked in A&R for the label. He had around 10 on sale when I bought... Sports matches in particular are horrifically bad for this practice with entire blocks of the stadium held back just for business types...

The problem is quite simple... eBay touters will only profit when there isn't enough supply to meet the demand. Now... The events team behind Coldplay and the O2 royally screwed fans over here by announcing only ONE SINGLE DATE in London and other capital cities across Europe. I have seen bands like Snow Patrol fill out the O2 with more dates than that... So what gives? Running an EXTREMELY poor set of dates like is just a touts paradise and that's why we've seen the ridiculous amounts the poor fans are having (or in most cases can't afford) to shell out. If London for instance had been given 3-4 dates at least then demand would go down, therefore prices on eBay would go down. When you consider one venue has to cater for potentially the entire South of England in just one day, that was a massive mistake. There must be reasoning behind this... Either that or the O2 clearly aren't interested in the money. It's poor events planning like this that create this terrible scenario where touts are born, wanting to profit from other peoples misfortune. £700 or so for a pair of Coldplay tickets when all the tout needed to do was click a few buttons on Ticketmaster... Who wouldn't do it?? The solution is simple: - Create enough supply for demand. - Make ticket reselling for profit illegal. To make reselling illegal the motion has to go through parliament. For the government to even consider looking at the proposal the petition stated here will need to reach 100,000 signatories. You can of course write to your MP and ask for them to bring this into parliament, however I know this has been brought up before and dismissed (even going to the select committee at one stage for review). I remember a couple of years ago when the Ticketmaster CEO was questioned about touting and gave GetMeIn.com as a reply to the issue (which as we all know is legalised touting). EDIT: You can see Ticketmaster's response to touting back in 2007 on page 79 (ev.28) of the CMS select publication here. There are some interesting case studies they performed with stats on how bad the ticket touting situation was back then... Just imagine the scale of the problem now! Good luck anyway people with fighting the system. I feel bad for all the kids especially who have never seen Coldplay play before who were denied tickets by this shambles.

They should have just posted them as evilelvis said straight after the first sale. Just advertising new dates once again will not only annoy those who have just paid out like £300+ for Friday tickets but give touts another easy shot at more tickets. It's a terrible state the way the economics of our country work nowadays. If they don't release new dates anyway then Coldplay management have seriously just become a joke.

Just signed it. I would seriously recommend you pass this out via email to your friends and get them to sign to. Put the link on FB / Twitter. If it reaches enough signatures then it will be pulled into parliament. No-one likes a tout.

It's been brought into parliament before the issue I believe but scrapped on many occasions. Now the new e-Petition site is up, now could be a good time to have one created...

eBay has 230 postings for Coldplay tix, which hasn't included the new listings for whatever anyone got today...

isn't it strange no-one got tickets. maybe the touts have found amazing new computers with super speed broadbandings with their "hard earned" cash

they've limited to 2 because what a lot of people were doing was buying 4, keeping two and selling the other 2 on eBay for double to give them (effectively) a pair of free tickets.

hmmm so people got tix yesterday with little pain (even though they only hold back severly restricted numbers available to coldplay.com people), yet today there was nothing? I wouldn't be surprised if TM have a small error today...

hmmm something's not right about this sale...

Don't know anyone into them to be honest! I think if I did bring mates they'd only be there for the drinks / atmosphere... rather some real fans had them though.

Ah no... I think they have actually, except for a few dodgy seats for the Girls Aloud concert...

I think standing is, don't think the seated are though... let's check...

I think I'll be there... I bought some standing tickets for my (recently) ex-girlfriend ... :cry: Bought 6 in all so she could bring some mates along but guess that won't be happening now... not even sure I can go... been avoiding all Coldplay music to be honest as it all reminds me of her... SIGH! So anyway... might have some face value tickets if you guys want to get involved in this meetup (should I still go that is).

The next gig I am definately not missing... I'm saving like £50,000 as a reserve pot to pry these people out of their tickets...

What also annoys me (still in rant mode) is how some people are mega lucky to get into all these intimate gigs, like the BBC gig, Warchild... and other people like myself who love Coldplay are never lucky enough to get tickets. Ban all those who won tickets from future events... grrrr.

"Who had a ticket? You or someone else???" Tonsu had one apparantly... My girlfriend would have broke someones neck if she knew someone had tickets they wern't going to use.

"I had a ticket too but wasn't able to go" WTF :veryangry2:

why did this only go out on twitter??! how many more fanclubs / sites do i have to join!?

OMFG how did I miss this!? :(

because they're coming straight from that awards ceremony thingie going on tonight...

Wow this is a late show! 11:10pm Coldplay, 12:20pm Killers?! Any spare tickets still going for tonight? Would love to be there... :(

Coldplay @ O2 Arena Tickets Has anyone received their tickets yet for the gigs at the O2, London?

Maybe... ;) I saw (don't laugh) Justin Timberlake there once and I was blown away by how good the gig was. I think it was the place that made it... very intimate feel from the floor. I had standing tickets and I strolled in literally right before his gig and could EASILY get to the front... absolutely no point though as the view was amazing from where ever you was (on the floor at least, 1st tier seats will also be awesome).

Are you guys all on drugs or something?? The O2 is the better venue by FAR. Some people even say it's one of the best live sound venues in the world... hence why they only get the top artists to play there.