Scalpers out to make a killing from New year

Ardijah is one of the bands down to play at the festival which has a limit of 10,000 tickets. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Music fans are set to fork out thousands for a New Year's Eve concert as ticket scalpers cash in on their enthusiasm.

The 10,000 tickets for Coromandel Gold, featuring a Kiwi line-up of Shapeshifter, Tiki Taane, Kora and Katchafire, sold out on September 13 - three weeks after they went on sale - leaving many wannabe festival-goers empty-handed.

Sellers were asking for up to $3000 for three tickets for the $88 Whitianga concert on online auction site Trade Me this week, while single tickets were priced at $1300 with a buy now price of $1400.

And it is expected fans will pay up.

Yesterday bids had reached $655 for a pair and $1000 for four.

And tickets for the venue campground, which has a capacity of 2500, sold out on September 10. A pair of tickets worth $15 each had an asking price of $200 yesterday.

Ticket-seekers have left angry messages on the site condemning the scalpers.

Underneath a sale for three, which had an asking price of $3000, people wrote obscenities and called the vendor a "dirty scalper".

One person joked that they could hire Kora to play at their house for the same price as a ticket.

Pages have been set up on social networking site Facebook by people pleading for tickets but not wanting to pay the scalper prices.

On one page, called Coromandel Gold Tickets Wanted!, Jessica Desmond wrote: "Did you see the guy on trade me selling 2 and the price is currently 2,800!!!! Might as well sell em and go to Thailand for new years!"

Crystal Johnson wrote: "Im soo desperate to go man, I had the money to buy the tickets but I thought nah il wait til next tues, it wont sell out in 3 days, what do ya know! SOLD OUT GRR."

Mike Hazelton said: "I think some people are MEAN for buying tickets to sell and just make money on Trade Me, let the real fans buy them at the real price, times are tough but make money elsewhere!!!!!!"

And Josh Verran joked that he would sell his kidneys and liver for tickets.

Trade Me trust and safety manager Chris Budge said it was not illegal to sell the tickets but buyers should be wary of fake tickets.

"They should be aware and safeguard themselves. They should check the sellers' feedback and make sure they are being trustworthy so they are not being scammed."

Event director Mark Wright, of Homegrown Events, said he had discussed the scalpers with Trade Me.

"If somebody wants to buy them for a stupid amount of money than that's their right to do that.

"Personally, I'm not a fan of it at all. I get pretty pissed off."

However he said not much could be done to stop scalping.

"We've had a lot of people with really hard luck stories. But every person that I sell a ticket to now ... it would devalue the experience of the person by cramming people in."

He said people were given plenty of warning about how many tickets were left because he had updated the event website every day.