Bruce Springsteen Concert Tickets Still Available At Less-Than-Retail Prices

Dear Bruce,

I’m writing to you as a longtime fan. I’ve been to about 60 shows, going back over 35 years. I can’t begin to tell you how important your music has been to me. As a proud son of New Jersey, I’m grateful for the respect you’ve brought to our state for your art, and for the way you’ve lived your life.

For a number of those years, I’ve been bothered by the dramatic announcements by your advisers that the latest on-sale has sold out in “five seconds” or whatever, when the fact is that those shows are not sold out at all. There are thousands of tickets being held back. The effect of this, for the less savvy or inexperienced concertgoer, is to drive people into the arms of scalpers in the near term, because they’re afraid that if they don’t pay the exorbitant prices they’ll miss out. The fact is that if they would wait, they would find that thousands of tickets suddenly appear out of nowhere shortly before the show from official sources, not to mention the additional thousands that are offered on eBay, or various message boards, at face value, or less. (more…)