Bob Geldof Takes on eBay and Wins
Tickets to Live 8 are supposed to be free, but a dozen of them were going for over $100 US on eBay last week. And that got organizer Bob Geldof mad.
Geldoff, who is bringing together Madonna, Paul McCartney and dozens of other artists for seven concerts in July, called eBay, the auction site, an “electronic pimp” for allowing the resale of the tickets.
“Everyone should go on … and bid ridiculous amounts of money for the tickets already on the site,” he said.
And the people listened.
Tickets to the London show went from about $100 to millions of dollars with the plethora of fake bids.
eBay was reluctant to pull the tickets from the site, but after this stunt, they had little choice.
“We have listened to eBay’s community of users and the message has been clear ? that they do not want the tickets to be sold on the site,” a spokesperson told Reuters. “Once we are made aware of any Live 8 tickets being resold they will be taken down.”
Tickets are still popping up every few hours, but eBay managed to pull them before the auctions end.
Seven shows will be held at the beginning of July in different countries. Six have been announced, with a Canadian location to be announced Thursday.
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