RB Tix Falling

[NeilDiamond]

If I were someone who paid $6-10 grand-ish for a couple tickets, motel room, and a high five session with Hawkeye fans under an EZ Up tent I'd be pretty ****** off right now.

I'm a free market guy and I think people should be able to charge $1,000,000 if they want, but you can't deny that Prime and all the other related cronies hyped the hell out of this thing and played Hawkeye fans like a fiddle. If you think those agents are sitting in their offices sick to their stomachs over charging people 1,000% more than what the market settled at you're an idiot. They're loving this cash cow all the way to the bank.

So you're telling me that the MSU Rose Bowl and other high-demad BCS games all settled at the ridiculous prices Prime got at the beginning? Just to be clear, I don't have a dog in this fight and I don't care how or what people spend their money on. But call a spade a spade, there was some panic being taken advantage of here.

We are talking about football tickets here rather than water rations to keep some perspective. However, it is not possible to refute that the opening marketing campaign was set up to encourage quick (and expensive) decisions based on fear. It worked to some degree, but I think there is a negative effect too in that people aren't going to forget who sold them a widget for $1200+ that days later their friends bought for $200.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

If I were someone who paid $6-10 grand-ish for a couple tickets, motel room, and a high five session with Hawkeye fans under an EZ Up tent I'd be pretty ****** off right now.

I'm a free market guy and I think people should be able to charge $1,000,000 if they want, but you can't deny that Prime and all the other related cronies hyped the hell out of this thing and played Hawkeye fans like a fiddle. If you think those agents are sitting in their offices sick to their stomachs over charging people 1,000% more than what the market settled at you're an idiot. They're loving this cash cow all the way to the bank.

So you're telling me that the MSU Rose Bowl and other high-demad BCS games all settled at the ridiculous prices Prime got at the beginning? Just to be clear, I don't have a dog in this fight and I don't care how or what people spend their money on. But call a spade a spade, there was some panic being taken advantage of here.

People were thinking with emotion instead of their head.

 

[GrandpaHawk]

It's called live and learn.I pulled the trigger early and went with Primesport,no regrets however in the future might have to look elsewhere as I didn't think they should of raised their prices on the trip,that should of stayed the same regardless of what tickets were going for.Happy were going and yes it's expensive but don't care,I worked 42yrs. for same company then retired this year so we could do things like this.Go Hawks

 

[Fryowa]

People were thinking with emotion instead of their head.

Oh I get that completely. It's buyer beware and if you got hosed it's because you let yourself get hosed. There are many thousands of people who paid several months mortgage payments for what essentially amounts to someone else purchasing your ticket for you (that you can get for face now) and booking a motel room. If you feel better about doing it that way then live it up.

What I was getting at were the certain few people here who make it sound like Prime and the related organizers of the packages really felt bad that they're raking in so much cash and that it was driven strictly by previous history of other big games. They conveniently forgot that those other games deflated like this one is.

If I were Prime I'd do the exact same thing; the only difference is I wouldn't try to justify it to buyers. And maybe that's why I'm not in the event planning business.

 

[SpiderRico]

I was one who bought tickets early as well and I have no regrets about doing it. I have the disposable income to afford it and since we decided early on that we wanted to incorporate a roadtrip instead of flying, I had a little more pricing flexibility in game tickets than others who couldn't do a roadtrip. Plus I wanted to make sure I had the tickets bought and shipped to my home before we left, which for a lot of tickets, was going to be an issue.

What I think is BS, though, are the "excuses" I continually see brought up here regarding the initial high prices. Things like "Industry veterans said this was the biggest demand they'd seen in the 20+ years they've done this", "There were a lot of fraudulent tickets in prior years", "Ticket inventory may be non-existent soon", etc, etc. These so-called "industry veterans" are the same ones that BENEFIT from a panic buy. So of course they've never seen anything like it....just like every other salesperson has "never seen anything like X before". It was pretty obvious what was going on and I feel badly for those fans that got priced out in the initial surge of prices and made other plans, only to see them come down to face value, but can't make plans now on a short turnaround. Certainly lots of lessons learned this time around.....

 

[JonDMiller]

I'm a free market guy and I think people should be able to charge $1,000,000 if they want, but you can't deny that Prime and all the other related cronies hyped the hell out of this thing and played Hawkeye fans like a fiddle. If you think those agents are sitting in their offices sick to their stomachs over charging people 1,000% more than what the market settled at you're an idiot. They're loving this cash cow all the way to the bank..

As I have said before, if you want a target, aim at The Rose Bowl itself. They sought out a tix marketing partner to keep prices HIGHER, vs the race to the bottom that exists in other games, sports ,etc. But even they can't control the free market...make no mistake, they want prices as high as possible. They are NOT selling tix to game at face to a Prime. They participate in the upshot, and marketplace. Ultimately, the consumer dictates the market.

 

[NeilDiamond]

I was one who bought tickets early as well and I have no regrets about doing it. I have the disposable income to afford it and since we decided early on that we wanted to incorporate a roadtrip instead of flying, I had a little more pricing flexibility in game tickets than others who couldn't do a roadtrip. Plus I wanted to make sure I had the tickets bought and shipped to my home before we left, which for a lot of tickets, was going to be an issue.

What I think is BS, though, are the "excuses" I continually see brought up here regarding the initial high prices. Things like "Industry veterans said this was the biggest demand they'd seen in the 20+ years they've done this", "There were a lot of fraudulent tickets in prior years", "Ticket inventory may be non-existent soon", etc, etc. These so-called "industry veterans" are the same ones that BENEFIT from a panic buy. So of course they've never seen anything like it....just like every other salesperson has "never seen anything like X before". It was pretty obvious what was going on and I feel badly for those fans that got priced out in the initial surge of prices and made other plans, only to see them come down to face value, but can't make plans now on a short turnaround. Certainly lots of lessons learned this time around.....

Not even a little regret? If you bought 4 of Prime's lowest cost tickets that would have been in excess of $4,000 (with "fees"). Can now get 4 tickets for less than $1,000. I know people in this boat and there's a bit of regret there, and some other emotions.

 

[JonDMiller]

What I think is BS, though, are the "excuses" I continually see brought up here regarding the initial high prices. Things like "Industry veterans said this was the biggest demand they'd seen in the 20+ years they've done this", "There were a lot of fraudulent tickets in prior years", "Ticket inventory may be non-existent soon", etc, etc. These so-called "industry veterans" are the same ones that BENEFIT from a panic buy. So of course they've never seen anything like it....just like every other salesperson has "never seen anything like X before". It was pretty obvious what was going on and I feel badly for those fans that got priced out in the initial surge of prices and made other plans, only to see them come down to face value, but can't make plans now on a short turnaround. Certainly lots of lessons learned this time around.....

You can think it's BS all you want. I am repeating to you exactly what I was told by numerous folks, most of them having NO CONNECTION with our trip.

How many trips like this have you helped to organize and market? How much working knowledge of The Rose Bowl packaging and tix sales system do you have? I am guessing none? Read my post above this re: The Rose and their goals.

The website generates income from these trips, yes....but it sure as heck isn't enough to get me to lie or be dishonest. Maybe I am just too damned transparent around here, telling you exactly the things I hear. That's probably my biggest mistake with all of this. Lesson learned.

 

[Clark]

Not even a little regret? If you bought 4 of Prime's lowest cost tickets that would have been in excess of $4,000 (with "fees"). Can now get 4 tickets for less than $1,000. I know people in this boat and there's a bit of regret there, and some other emotions.

I would have the maximum amount of butthurt if I were in that situation. It's tantamount to going out back and lighting a few thousand dollars on fire, without the positive side effect of being warm for a short while.

 

[JonDMiller]

I think this thread has run its course. If you have a problem with me, or how we do things, my email is jdmiller71@gmail.com. Shoot me a line and we can have a discussion. If you want to makes posts about where ticket prices are, by all means, please do so in the Ticket Exchange forum, as that is helpful to Iowa fans still looking for tickets.