Ticket scalpers appear to have struck again, scooping up lower-priced tickets for upcoming Bruno Mars concerts and relisting them on online for several times the face value.
Mars had initially scheduled one stop in Vancouver, on July 26, but Live Nation added a second show on July 27 on Monday morning.
But the second show did not help fans who were hoping to buy tickets on the lower end of the price range.
When the tickets first went on sale at 10 a.m., some seats were as low as $40, but a quick search on Ticketmaster Monday afternoon revealed the cheapest seats available for the shows were $185 per person.
While some of the tickets were likely purchased by fans, a suspected cause of the cheap seats' disappearance is that they were bought up by resellers, who then post them on sites at a price higher than face value.
On Vivid Seats, tickets started at $83 for July 27, and $103 for July 26. Similar markups were seen on sites including GotTheTix.com, and StubHub.
So-called "bots," or automated computer programs created to buy mass quantities of tickets, are often blamed for snatching up seats before fans get a chance.
And the struggle to get tickets to the July dates is just one of several reported in the last year.
A poll conducted by Insights West this summer found that nearly 30 per cent of Canadian concert-goers who were surveyed said they have failed to get tickets through a primary outlet like Ticketmaster.
The results were even more pronounced in B.C., where 35 per cent of respondents had issues getting tickets. The same poll found that nine-in-10 ticket buyers would support a law that would see scalpers who use bots to scoop up tickets facing severe fines or jail time.
In September, Louis C.K. addressed the issue in a warning to fans looking to score second-hand tickets, after the famed funnyman's two performances at the University of British Columbia sold out within hours.
The comedian cautioned fans against buying tickets from scalpers, warning that tickets sold on sites like Stubhub and Vivid Seats would be invalidated. The move was meant to deter resellers looking to make a fast buck on in-demand tickets by jacking up the prices once the shows are sold out.
Tickets to his shows ranged from $25 to $65 on Ticketmaster, and could not be found on reseller sites. A search Monday morning for the shows, scheduled Dec. 7 and 8, showed two listings on StubHub but the site said "0 tickets left." No tickets were available in Vancouver on Vivid Seats, but there were a few listings on Craigslist including a pair for $500. Several of the Craigslist postings were from people looking to buy or trade for another day.
Just a week before that, Vancouver police warned that fake Drake tickets were being sold online and by scalpers in person, targetting fans who were unable to get tickets through Ticketmaster. Adele fans had a hard time finding any available tickets in July.
Also in July, tickets for The Tragically Hip's Vancouver shows sold out so quickly that the band rearranged the floor plan of the venue to accommodate more seating.
In an effort to crack down on scalpers, Ticketmaster imposed a two-ticket-per-person purchase limit, but resellers and their automated bots still managed to get their hands on seats and prices skyrocketed on alternate sites. Fortunately for fans, ticket prices later dropped as the dates neared.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Scott Roberts
