Ticket resellers in the US are facing huge losses on passes for upcoming Travis Scott shows, after demand dipped when a second wave of tickets was released on the primary ticketing sites.
The number of people buying tickets for these shows with the intent of reselling them was seemingly higher than normal because of the intervention of a credit card buyers club. According to 404 Media, a wave of ticket purchases was coordinated by the PFS Buyer Club.
Organisations such as this ask their members to buy up in-demand limited edition items where there are restrictions on how many units each purchaser can buy from an official source. The club then reimburses its members for each purchase, often with an additional commission fee.
PFS has operated almost exclusively in buying up rare coins from the US Mint for the last decade, but has recently moved into secondary ticketing. Using thousands of real people in this way gets around the technical measures employed by primary ticketing platfroms that are designed to stop ticket touting bots from hoovering up large numbers of tickets.
Having recently run a campaign to buy up Olivia Rodrigo tickets, it has emerged that PFS also asked members to buy tickets for Travis Scott’s ‘Circus Maximus’ tour in the US. PFS told members that it would reimburse all money spent on the tickets, as well as paying a $25 commission.
Initially, this seemed like a shrewd move, with the dates - set to begin later this week - selling out. However, when a second wave of tickets was made available, demand was not so high and many dates still have seats available. This leaves resellers with no option but to list their tickets for sale at a loss.
PFS has reportedly reneged on the offer of a $25 commission and told members that it stands to lose over a million dollars on the failed bet - possibly enough to put it out of business entirely.
In some cases, it seems that PFS members are still in possession of the tickets themselves and may lose all of the money they spent on them - amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars for some - on what was supposed to be a risk-free deal.
Scott is, of course, one of the biggest artists in the world. However, the tour is his first outing since the 2021 Astroworld tragedy, which may have some bearing on demand for his live shows.
