Posts with tag scalpers

Yes, if you were around on Saturday, you know that the first round of BlizzCon tickets sold out, and sold out fast. Tickets went on sale right around 10am PST (which was 1pm EST), and sold out just about 28 minutes later. If the queue numbers are trustworthy, over 21,000 people (we've heard as high as 25,000 at a time) logged in to buy tickets that day, and from unconfirmed reports around the web, it seems like about 5,000 to 8,000 tickets were sold: most people who got in line around number 5,000 were able to pick a ticket up, and that was a few minutes in already. Some of those people are already selling tickets on eBay as well.

We believe (though aren't sure) that they'll be selling more than 15,000 tickets this year, since that's what they sold last year and they're using even more of the convention space. If that's true, then Blizzard probably went through only about half of the tickets, and will sell the rest during the second session on the 30th. But that's probably not much of a consolation -- given the frenzy around this last Saturday, there'll probably be more people trying for tickets, and given the prices on eBay, possibly more scalpers clogging up the queue. We'll see.

Update: Lots of people point out, rightly so, that I missed something in my guesstimates of how many tickets were sold: you could purchase up to five. My personal guess is that the majority of people bought only one or two, but even if you go with three as the average, 5,000-8,000 people in the queue is actually 15,000-24,000 tickets. Blizzard probably did sell the majority of tickets on Saturday then, not just half. So the process on May 30th will presumably go even faster.

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BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there's some great looking costumes.

The first batch of tickets to this year's BlizzCon in Anaheim sold out less than thirty minutes after they became available on Blizzard's Battle.Net store. While some buyers included sincere conference attendees such as our own Matt Low, the latest crop of goods over at eBay might provide another insight as to why the tickets fizzled so fast. A quick scan of BlizzCon items already include the goody bags from the August event, highlighted by Grunty, the Murloc Marine. Some are also selling tickets outright, with some auctions already going over $800.

It's a testament to the popularity of Blizzard and their games that the first wave of BlizzCon tickets has sold out yet again this year, and damning evidence of the lengths some people will go to make a buck. In this frazzled economy, who can blame them? Grunty, the Murloc Marine, that's who! Grunty doesn't appreciate being put in the black market like some dead fish! At any rate, congratulations to those of you who were able to score tickets (and actually plan on using them). The good news is that the rest of us who clicked too slowly this round can look forward to another wave of tickets on the 30th. The bad news is that those scalpers are going to be waiting to click right along with us.

It's probably not helpful to hundreds (thousands?) of customers who suffered the slings and arrows of BlizzCon ticket purchase, but scalpers are already selling tickets on eBay. Since Blizzard has done quite a bit to try and make the event scalper unfriendly, this is entirely an example of folks attempting to profiteer on an honest effort.

Blizzard's rules for BlizzCon are set up to mitigate scalpers' ability to resale on eBay and other internet venues. The ticket pickup rules, from the official BlizzCon website say:

Tickets and badges must be picked up at the Anaheim Convention Center; Blizzard Entertainment will NOT be mailing the badges out. To pick up your tickets, you will need to provide the credit card used to make the purchase. There are no exceptions to this.

And as one eBay scalper says in his auction, he'll have to deliver the tickets "near" the convention center. So, the buyer should beware. You don't have any assurances your scalper will actually show up, and you could find yourself out a grand or two pretty. Of course, you'd kind of be bringing it on yourself anyway.