It makes it nearly impossible for anything that isn't a machine to acquire retail tickets. When 496/500 GA tickets go to a bot, the scarcity and price are artificially inflated.

It's not "artificial" any more than the retail price was artifically low. It's a ticket, any price is artificial.

> it benefits people who want to pay more but would otherwise have to rely on luck to buy the tickets

Where I come from we call these "better seats" or "VIP passes" and they are sold directly through a venue. Not through middlemen that only add value through the scarcity they create.

The people running the show could just sell the tickets using an auction mechanism. It doesn't make sense to let a middle man take a huge cut.

Well it probably does make sense for PR reasons. Nobody wants to be the band/team/event gouging their fans.

>Well it probably does make sense for PR reasons. Nobody wants to be the band/team/event gouging their fans.

Yes and this is why they exist :)

> There is a middle ground of letting legitimate buyers purchase tickets and then selling them on the secondary market if they are unable to attend.

And nothing stops those people from buying a ticket from someone who is no longer able to attend on StubHub. Bands aren't putting on a show so that their wealthiest fans can attend.

>And nothing stops those people from buying a ticket from someone who is no longer able to attend on StubHub.

And the difference between that and scalping to the buyer is ? If you can't bid on the price you're still relying on luck to get it which sucks if you want to pay more. So your argument was that only scalpers benefit - people who can now secure tickets at a markup also benefited.

The difference is that hundreds if not thousands of fans for a large event are not automatically pushed to the more expensive secondary market for no reason other than profit making by a few people.