Ticket Stubs

[ForeverAutumn]

I’ve noticed a recent trend of ticketless ticketing. This is a process where you buy your tickets on a credit card but do not receive a physical ticket. You must arrive at the show with the credit card you used to purchase the tickets along with photo ID, and then you and your guests will be allowed into the venue. The purpose is to try to thwart the secondary market and scalpers. Although I like the idea in theory, it poses a problem for me.

Since I was old enough to go to concerts, I have been collecting my ticket stubs. I have 30 years of stubs in a stack at home. I intend to take these stubs to a friend who owns an art gallery and he will mount and frame them for me. My little ticket stub collection is about to become an important piece of memorabilia. My concert history proudly displayed.

I was hoping that once this current stage of the project was completed that it would be ongoing. Perhaps every ten years or so I would have enough stubs to fill a new frame. But if this trend of ticketless ticketing catches on, that won’t happen.

I’ve always thought of the ticket stub as a souvenir. I’ve never bought programs and rarely bought t-shirts, mostly because the stub was the only souvenir that I felt needed from an event. It was the proof that I was there!

[GMichael]

Maybe you will receive a stub on arrival. Did you ask?

[BarryL]

I’ve always thought of the ticket stub as a souvenir. I’ve never bought programs and rarely bought t-shirts, mostly because the stub was the only souvenir that I felt needed from an event. It was the proof that I was there!

After paying for the ticket stub souvenir, who can afford a t-shirt?

I guess trading of ticket stubs isn't very popular.

[Finch Platte]

The Jeff Beck Live At Stubb's is a great DVD. Highly recommended.

[TheHills44060]

Yep i went to basketball game a few weeks ago and got the tickets online for the first time. All i had to do at the gate was provide my credit card then they scanned it and printed out my 2 tickets. I'm surprised you didn't get some sort of ticket to prove you belonged at the venue. If you had gotten picked up by security there would have been no proof that you didn't hop the fence per say.

[Mr MidFi]

There's another problem with online "ticketless" booking that I encountered last year. I put ticketless in quotes because it's actually standard practice to print out your own ticket at home on standard printer paper. And that's exactly what I and thousands of others did when we bought tickets to Lollapalooza '09.

But when I arrived on the first afternoon of the festival, it was drizzling. And in case you don't know, most home-printer toners & inks are highly water-soluble. I had the foresight to keep my $200 "ticket" in a zip-lock bag, which I opened only when it was time to scan the barcode at the gate. But about a quarter of the people around me at that moment were being denied access and were shunted over to a waiting area for problem cases... because all it takes is one well-placed raindrop to kill an inkjet barcode.

So that might be another reason for true ticketless booking. My driver's license and/or credit card won't melt away when exposed to the elements.

[Swish]

...but haven't run into the situation you described. I also didn't start collecting them until about 10 or so years ago, so many of the great shows I attended in the past (Weather Report, The Who, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Miles Davis) are not represented, and it really ticks me off that I didn't bother back then. Oh well, I still have the memories (sigh).

[Swish]

Yep i went to basketball game a few weeks ago and got the tickets online for the first time. All i had to do at the gate was provide my credit card then they scanned it and printed out my 2 tickets. I'm surprised you didn't get some sort of ticket to prove you belonged at the venue. If you had gotten picked up by security there would have been no proof that you didn't hop the fence per say.

...Cleveland, or at least nearby, is Jar, but he rarely visits here these days. I just haven't see you posting on RR so I was curious.