Latest news with #scalpers
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How murky world of ticket touting is making life a misery for Hong Kong fans
Keith Rumjahn was immensely frustrated after failing to get tickets to recent shows in Hong Kong by American comedian Jimmy O. Yang and British band Coldplay. Tickets were available in the secondary market – but cost at least twice their face value. Trying to book a public basketball court is another great source of irritation for Rumjahn, as he and his friends are only able to secure slots from touts who mark up the charge tenfold, from HK$100 to HK$200 to HK$1,000 to HK$2,000. Rumjahn, the founder of a fitness and sports apps and games company, attempted to counter the scalpers with a self-made automated booking agent but it proved futile. He said scalpers' sophisticated bots – software applications designed to perform automated, repetitive tasks – entered the system within 10 seconds of bookings opening and snapped up all the courts, while his own programme took a few minutes. 'We have a group that plays three times a week and we still buy from the scalpers. I guess that's the only way anyone is getting to play, right?' Rumjahn said. But Rumjahn, who is in his forties, said he refused to support concert ticket touts even though it had become the norm for anyone wanting high-demand experiences to buy from them. 'The whole ticketing system is not very transparent. Getting tickets was impossible,' he said. 'Every single Kai Tak show has been sold out, so obviously there are scalpers. 'I think the culture of making fast money, that flip mentality, in Hong Kong is so deep and people just got accustomed to buying from scalpers.'
CBS News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Maryland Renaissance Festival fans find long waitlists trying to get tickets
Maryland Renaissance Festival fans swarmed to the internet as soon as tickets were available, only to find extremely long wait times. Some festival tickets are popping up on resale sites, including StubHub, at triple the price. Jules Smith, the President of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, told WJZ that while there is an uptick in interest this year, they are also doing everything they can to stop bots and scalpers from tainting the experience. For more information on the Maryland Renaissance Festival, check out this website. Crews are hard at work preparing Revel Grove for the start of the 2025 Maryland Renaissance Festival on August 23. "They do an incredible job," said RenFest fan Angela Rockstar. "From the moment you walk in, you're transported into a totally different world." Festival fans are already trying to get tickets, but they are shocked by the waitlist. Rockstar, who has been going to the Renaissance Festival since she was a child and now brings her own children, told WJZ she has never seen such a long line for tickets. On her TikTok, she said that at one point, more than 28,000 people were ahead of her in line. Rockstar says she's happy the festival is gaining popularity, but there's also concern about scalpers buying up tickets and reselling them on StubHub, where a normally $25 ticket is going for $142. "They should only buy from our site and only accept our tickets," Renaissance Festival President Jules Smith said. "With all the dates available, there's no reason why anybody should pay a higher fee on another site." Smith says the waitlist is how their ticketing system prevents their website from crashing. The system also weeds out bots from the list. Even after Maryland passed an anti-speculative ticketing law in 2024, scalpers are still scheming. "There's a lot of regulation and requirements of the organization, but there's very little scalper enforcement happening," Smith said. Smith says scalpers are mostly working from foreign countries and are difficult to track. The family-run festival does what it can by limiting how many tickets can be bought at a time. He says that to avoid getting scammed with a fake ticket, fans should only buy a ticket from their website. As for the waitlist, Rockstar says she will keep trying because she knows the wait is worth it. "I want them to be a very huge success, and they deserve all the shine," Rockstar said. "They put on such a great show."
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Matt Damon's next film has already SOLD OUT for opening weekend... and it doesn't even come out until 2026
Matt Damon 's upcoming epic The Odyssey has sparked a 'black market' with movie tickets being resold for hundreds of dollars above its retail value, even though the release date is still a year away. With increase in demand to see the movie during opening weekend in 2026, scalpers have been listing the tickets and attempting to resell movie tickets for shocking sticker prices. Now, scalpers are selling movie tickets for upwards of $200 to $300 per ticket, with bid prices going over a whopping $700, even though the film still in the midst of production. Just earlier this week, Damon was seen shooting scenes in Scotland with Tom Holland and Zendaya. In the United States, almost all tickets for screenings in IMAX 70mm film sold out within an hour of going live at midnight, repping about a total of $1.5 million in sales, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since then, fans have been sharing reports of tickets being resold on eBay and other sites between $300 and $400 — and reportedly even going up to $1400 for a group of four tandem seats — compared to an average retail price between $25 and $28, a source told the outlet. With one Dallas screening ticket appeared at 400% above its retail value and another listing reportedly offered two seats to a July 19 screening for $399, there were also reportedly four AMC Lincoln Square tickets that opened bidding at $1,000, per fan reports on social media. On social media, fans started joking that the ticket situation had sparked a 'black market' to sell and buy seats for opening weekend of the highly anticipated film. In reaction to seeing the resell prices, an X user tweeted disappointedly: 'on top of this odyssey imax thing being an annoying idea in general now we have a black market for movie tickets.' Another fan tweeted a side-by-side comparison of a man before and after having aged due to stress and time, writing that was 'how it felt trying to get an imax ticket for the odyssey.' 'Still can't believe someone spent $1000 on 4 tickets for the odyssey on ebay,' another person wrote in shock. Another person added: 'Someone on eBay wanted $1400 for four tickets to The Odyssey in 70MM IMAX lol go f*** yourself.' 'Me watching The Odyssey in row A at Lincoln Square AMC next July because tickets sold out in 30 seconds,' another added alongside a warped view of the movie screen, angled from the very first row. 'Christopher Nolan making The Odyssey an immersive experience by making us wait an entire year after buying our tickets like we are Odysseus spending 10 years trying to find his son,' one X user joked. 'Still can't believe someone spent $1000 on 4 tickets for the odyssey on ebay,' another person wrote in shock Another person added: 'Someone on eBay wanted $1400 for four tickets to The Odyssey in 70MM IMAX lol go f*** yourself.' 'Christopher Nolan making The Odyssey an immersive experience by making us wait an entire year after buying our tickets like we are Odysseus spending 10 years trying to find his son,' one X user joked The Damon- led and Christopher Nolan-directed epic, inspired by Homer's epic, is set to premiere in theaters nationwide in 12 more months. The film stars Damon as Odysseus and Holland as Odysseus' son Telemachus. The classic story from ancient Greek literature follows the king of Ithaca as he undertakes a long and perilous journey home to his wife after the end of the Trojan War. His challenges are many as he spends many years encountering a succession of mythical beings, including the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens, the enchantress Circe and travels to the Underworld. The all-star cast also includes Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Cherlize Theron, Jon Bernthal and Mia Goth. Ticket pre-sales for The Odyssey were accompanied by the release of a minute-long, first look trailer that played ahead of screenings for Jurassic World Rebirth and Superman. Nolan preferred to keep the teaser off the internet in order to preserve the cinematic experience of his new film. The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17, 2026.
Geek Tyrant
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY Sold Out IMAX Screenings… A Year Before Release — GeekTyrant
Christopher Nolan's upcoming epic The Odyssey doesn't hit theaters until July 17, 2026, but the film is already making history, and causing a frenzy, by selling out premium screenings a full year in advance. Earlier this week, fans noticed something strange on ticketing sites: listings for IMAX 70mm screenings in July 2026. At midnight ET on July 17, IMAX confirmed the news, posting that 'the first IMAX 70mm screenings for one year from now' were live. Sixteen theaters in the U.S., six in Canada, two in the U.K., and one in the Czech Republic quietly dropped a handful of showtimes, and they were gone almost instantly. In New York, where there's only one participating theater, seats evaporated in minutes. In Los Angeles, with several options, the sellout took closer to an hour. As of now, everything is booked unless you're okay with the dreaded front row. Why the chaos? These aren't just any screenings. These are the only theaters currently equipped to show The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, the format Nolan shot the entire film on. This marks a first in cinema history, a full feature captured entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras, presented in a towering 1.43:1 aspect ratio for the whole runtime. Regular theaters will still screen the movie, but these 70mm showings are the ultimate way to experience it. Almost immediately, scalpers began listing tickets at absurd prices, and fans who missed out expressed frustration at being locked out so far ahead of release. Here's the reality, though, these are only the first screenings at select theaters. Nolan's still editing the film and doesn't even know the final runtime yet. More showtimes will come, and some theaters could run the movie around the clock on opening weekend if demand stays this high—which seems inevitable. IMAX is also working to expand the number of screens capable of showing the format over the next year. So, if you missed out, don't give your money to the scalpers. More chances are coming. Whoever greenlit this move deserves credit. It was a calculated stunt to generate buzz for the IMAX 70mm experience, and it worked. We're talking about a film still in production, one year out, and it's already sold thousands of tickets, making history as the first movie ever to do so this far in advance.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why It's Finally Time to Embrace Prebuilt Gaming PCs
Pre-built PCs now use name-brand components and have shifted away from low-quality parts to a higher standard. Upgrading a pre-built system is easy, since you can add storage or swap out the RAM or GPU. Pre-built PCs come with better warranties for all original components compared to custom-built systems. Are you looking at buying a pre-built gaming PC, but leery because of the reputation of pre-built systems? While the past they may not have been worth buying, modern pre-built gaming PCs are actually a great choice for your setup—here's why. In the past, I had always told people to avoid pre-built gaming PCs. They were known for using low-quality and cheap parts to save a buck while charging a premium for being 'built for gaming.' When I used to work in PC repair, I can't tell you how many no-name low-cost power supplies I replaced, nor can I even begin to remember how many junky motherboards blew caps after just a year or two of use. This alone was enough to avoid going pre-built—but that's all changed now. A shift in recent years has changed the landscape of pre-built gaming PCs. For a while, you couldn't get graphics cards (or any PC components, for that matter) unless you bought a pre-built system because of scalpers. Companies actually saw this and did something good for a change: built better systems. Yes, pre-built PC prices did go up some, but so did the quality of the systems. Instead of no-name bargain-barrel power supplies, many mid-range gaming PCs now ship with name-brand PSUs. The same can be said for SSDs, graphics cards, motherboards, and RAM. Another thing that happened was a lot of component manufacturers got into the pre-built gaming space. Yes, there are still brands like ORIGIN-PC and MAINGEAR out there, but CORSAIR, NZXT, MSI, and others now have pre-built gaming desktops that are pretty great, all things considered. Rather than skimping out, many companies are now using name-brand and quality components, and everyone benefits from this. Of course, there are still bargain-bin PCs out there that use no-name components, but that's becoming the exception, not the rule. Something you might not realize is that pre-built PCs can be upgraded just like custom-built systems. A custom-built PC and pre-built PC is all built from the same parts—the only thing that changes is who is building it. This means you can swap out the RAM, SSD, graphics card, power supply, or even processor without a problem. While the new components won't be covered under the pre-built PC company's warranty (more on that below), you'll have an upgraded system. One of the biggest ways you can upgrade a pre-built system is by adding more storage. Since many companies are using name-brand and premium motherboards, there are typically a handful of NVMe slots on modern systems, with only one being used up in a typical build from the factory. Another way is by adding more or swapping out RAM entirely. Both the NVMe upgrade and RAM upgrade can add big benefits to your system while being easy and cost-effective to do. However, the biggest thing you can swap out in a pre-built system is also (typically) the biggest component—the graphics card. Yes, in a pre-built system you can definitely swap the GPU out, so long as the power supply can keep up. If the PSU is too underpowered for the new GPU you plan to add? Just upgrade the PSU at the same time. The warranty of a pre-built gaming PC is actually better than that of a custom-built—sort of. Pre-built systems are warrantied top to bottom for the original components that it ships with. Depending on what brand you go with, a warranty claim could result in either a full system swap or a single component swap. Either way, however, the brand will likely offer full system diagnostics to help determine what the issue is. Custom-building your own PC isn't quite so user-friendly in that regard. I have a friend who re-built his gaming PC recently and did a custom build. He just spent almost two weeks diagnosing what the issue was so he could RMA the defective parts. To diagnose the issue, he had to purchase new components to test things one-by-one in order to find out what was broken. This wouldn't have been the case had he went pre-built. So, if you're not super savvy on PC building (or you just want to take the easy way out), there's nothing wrong with buying a pre-built gaming PC these days. While the gaming community might see that as a lesser system, know that it's not lesser in any way. Pre-built gaming PCs are great options these days, and still remain one of the few ways to get brand-new graphics cards on release with any relative ease.
