Buying tickets for concerts, sports events and theatre is typically a matter of paying the set price for a given seat and show. Aiming to put some control back in consumers' hands, however, a new site just launched last week that makes ticket prices negotiable.
Los Angeles-based Zigabid allows ticket buyers and sellers to interact directly with each other to determine a ticket's price. Working on the premise that tickets are commodities—and should be traded as such—the site's process mirrors a Wall Street-style transaction with a system of offers and counter-offers. Both individual sellers and ticket distributors and brokers can list tickets on the site at no charge. Asking prices, however, are not indicated. Rather, users are given a wealth of real-time data showing fluctuations in a ticket's current trading price, which can then be used to make an offer. Buyers and sellers can go through a back-and-forth process of multiple offers and counter-offers before arriving at a selling price; once that happens, tickets are shipped to buyers overnight, backed by Zigabid's own guarantee. Sellers pay Zigabid a 15 percent connection fee, while buyers pay an additional 10 percent.
Zigabid also sets itself apart by directing a portion of each transaction back to the entertainers. Specifically, when a buyer uses Zigabid to purchase tickets that have been issued by another vendor, 10 percent of the buyer's connection fee goes directly back to the artists or athletes in question—or to the charity of their choice. A community section, meanwhile, lets users post event photos, reviews and comments, while the Z-Rewards incentive program rewards them for participation with points redeemable for discounts towards future purchases.
"Zigabid is the first service to address the inefficiencies of tickets sold in both the primary and secondary market," explains Dan Rubendall, Zigabid's founder. "Our system allows ticket distributors and resellers to strive for fair-market value for their tickets and gives buyers the opportunity to make offers based only on what they believe is the right price at any given time." That's pricing transparency, and it's triumphing once again. Still in beta, Zigabid covers events only in the United States. One to bring to the ticketing market near you? (Related: Ticketing, fair and simple.)
Website: www.zigabid.com
Contact: customer.service@zigabid.com
Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann
Whilst this seems like an interesting idea I think it lacks the fundamental volatility required to sustain long term functionality. Trading is all about 'buying low and selling high' however, due to the nature of the goods at hand I find it implausible to see how this mantra could prevail, purely due to the fact that most sellers - your John Doe's of the world - won't be willing to part with their ticket for less than par value. As such, the market will really only stand good stead for tickets that are rare in nature or unwanted (such as unwanted presents or last minute cancellations). Nonetheless, I struggle to see how these alone could successfully anchor a marketplace, particularly when you factor in the other criterion of successful markets - volume.
Put simply, I think the idea is good but the commodity is wrong. Maybe I'm being too skeptical. Thoughts?