gsm1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/4090774.stm

Geldof is hacked off at seeing Live 8 tickets being placed on ebay and wants people to sabotage them by making ridiculous bids.

Not saying that I agree with it but if it wasn't for these types there would have been a lot less text bids in the first place.
I suspect many of the sellers will now claim they are going to donate the money to Live 8.

Chip

Got no problem with it really. If I'd won tickets I'd probably have done the same. It's a free market after all.

Chip

OllyK

It does make me wonder why so many events get uppety at people selling on tickets. The tickets have been obtained legally, at full market price so they have had their cut, why shouldn't you be able to sell your ticket on if you want to if there is a market for them?

Again why should Geldof care - it's all publicity for his stunt and that's what Live8 is all about anyway

OllyK

And it looks like people are putting in silly bids
http://search.ebay.co.uk/live-8-tick...jsZ1QQfromZR40

SiDHEaD

I thought the ticket sales (via texting) were to cover costs of the event. Therefore nobody is being done out of anything. Moan moan bladdy moan.

SiDHEaD

I hope the people making stupid bids get banned from Ebay. Otherwise it must be fine to do this to all auctions I fancy disrupting.

OllyK

It looks like new bogus accounts are being set up to bid. Some people are getting wise and pre-approving bids.

Freak

oh good

something else for bob to moan about

pillock

Jap2Scrap

I always thought Geldof was a bit of a ***, then I saw him on Jonathan Ross on Friday night and was left in no doubt.

Dazzler

Come on, it was always going to happen. People are always going to make a quick buck out of something like this.

Gandalf should have come up with a better method for selling these.

OllyK

That's kind of the point, they weren't sold as such, you paid an inflated text with funds going to cover the cost of staging the concerts, the money isn't going to Africa, it's all about raising awareness.

I suspect BG is loving every minute of this e-bay lark, it just gets him yet more air time. He probably even put the first few up there himself, I certainly would have done.

Tiggs

Whole thing is a joke.....plenty of places more stuffed than Africa 40 years ago that sorted themsleves out.....they may as well wipe out the debt of some habitual credit card abuser in Slough!

In "debt" terms Africa will be back at DFS within a year sorting out a nice new sofa!

Freak

' electronic prostitutes' he reckons

what a ***

gsm1

Almost every sale for tickets I've seen on ebay is now at 1 million plus due to fake bidders.
What about the people selling the wristbands - why doesn't anyone complain about them? What is wrong with people that they will pay stupid money to some gimp on ebay for a poxy piece of rubber.

Hanslow

Aren't the bids legally binding if it's an official auction? Could you get the ebay authorities to pursue any unpaid bids?

SJ_Skyline

You have given me an idea - DIY charity bands, you sell an elastic band and a biro to enable the buyer to create their own personal charity band

This time next year I'll be an ebay miwyonaire!

gsm1

Ebay don't have to pursue anyone, it's up to the seller to try and get payment. Regardless, they are mostly fake bidders with dodgy details.

Richard_P

I don't see the big deal, people always see opportunities to make money and take them, if theres a market then they will sell.

In much the same way a car dealer buys your car dirt cheap then sticks it on his forecourt and sells it for a lot more money. I don't see why concert promoters make such an issue out of it.

JoeyDeacon

I entered the competition to win Live 8 tickets with the sole intention of selling them on ebay if I won. If I had known how much they were going for I would have sent in a load more entries.

Considering there are currently 450 pairs of tickets for sale I guess a lot of people were thinking exactly the same thing as me.

Personally I have no desire to stand in a park with 150,000 members of the great unwashed.

unclebuck

150,000 PC bellends you mean.

Markus

OK Bob, if you care so much about bloody Africa, then sell everything you posses, convert it all to aid, then go down there and supply them all. THEN you can bleat on about poverty and debt and starving kids. Until then, shut up. Don't try and guilt trip people into donating/attending the concert.

People were starving africa before Live Aid, they'll still be starving in Africa after Live 8, and 9, and 10, and so on and so on.

It's life, it's cruel, mean and hard, but there you have it. There are reasons why Africa is so poor, and why there are starving people. It might be due to government/warlords/whatever misappropriating funds for weapons and civil wars, it might be due to their being too many people for the local ecology to support. Both/either of these would lead to the country needing financial support from other countries, and at some point, repayment needs to be made.

Again it's sad, but it's life. Why should one country get a "free" ride when others do not? If I'm right, and I might be, I think the UK had to pay back the yanks for their help in WWII. If that's the case then I don't see us concerts for us, to clear our debt.

Ah, but we're not a third world starving nation, with a population that cannot feed itself but can reproduce rather well. Maybe a cull or sterilization programme (or both) might help things out? But that's inhumane in today's world, isn't it. We can't do that, so I guess we'll have to put up with all the moaners like Bob, and all the adverts about "help a starving child".

As you can probably tell, I don't have much sympathy, and I'm probably a cruel and twisted person, but if I *did* care about this thing so much, then I'd sell everything and live as a pauper to try and help them, but alas I'm not a hasbeen rock star, so my plight at trying to help the starving masses would go unheard.

scoobydooooo

and don't forget the almighty self publicity machine bob geldof what a bleedin plonker , good cause although not close enough to home and we did try once before to help , as was in the news about a country who had a £30 million pound reduction of their debt so their elpresidente went and bought a £30 million private jet !!

Listy

Cards on the table folks I personally sent 5 texts in the hope of getting tickets with absolutely no intention of going at all.

It was all about some profit I'm afraid, supply and demand coupled with people desperate to to part with wadds of cash

Be a shame to disapoint I reckon (If I'd got any of course, which I didn't I might add)

Never mind maybe next time

carl

If the Live Aid/Live8 thing had never happened, do you think Bob Geldof would be able to perform on stage with the likes of Madonna, Paul McCartney, U2, etc. (on talent alone)?

rr_ww

Just watched ITV news.

MD of eBay was going to be interogated.
Presenter : So eBay are cashing in on charity why dont you remove the adverts
MD : Yes we have done
Presenter : So you're saying you'll remove them?
MD : Yes.

Presenter was spoiling for a fight, but got well and truley pissed on

djuk

Markus - Absolutely spot on, well done that man

Tiggs

what will be interesting is to jump forward 50-100 years.....if we assume the enviroment doesnt pick up (safe bet to say it will always be a bit hot in some parts of Africa), the population isnt controlled and Aids continues wont there be a situation where 100% of the population (of certain areas) are infected and living in an enviroment unable to sustain human life at that level?

good job humans werent around with the dinosaurs....we'd have T Rex concerts to keep the things feed millions of years after nature made things a bit "anti-dino"

Listy

Can you believe that idiot Geldof has just been on CH4 news encouraging hackers to "get into e-bays system and take them down"

Nice guy eh......... what a great example he's setting.... To$$er

djuk

Because a little site like ebay would never have thought of taking measures to prevent this already

Markus

I'd like to see what would have happened had people hacked e-bay at Geldof's behest to prevent ticket sales. I'm sure that he could be sued for incinting people to hack, plus of course, e-bay, and members who could not sell goods, due to it being down, due to him telling people to hack, would quite possibly be able to get a nice little lawsuit agains the the pillock.