Born Pink Jakarta - The World of Scalpers
This is the second part of the Born Pink Jakarta Concert Ticket series. You can read the first part here <Part 1: Ticket War & Drama>.
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First thing I did after I found out about the unfortunate turn of events was asking my friends if they know anybody who’s selling VIP tickets. Buying it from somebody I know or a second/third degree friend wasthe most ideal scenario for me since it’ll reduce the chance of getting scammed. Plus if my friends can vouch for the person who owns the ticket, I know where to look for them if something goes wrong.
But again, no dice.
I think people who I know who owns a VIP ticket was planning to use it for themselves instead of reselling it. So, it led me to the next option, buying one from a scalper.
Let me start this part by saying that when it come to searching for stuff, my sister is probably at the same level as those who works at intelligence agencies. Like, seriously, she’s crazy good and crazy fast. And I’m not talking about just finding information. She actually can find good quality information.
Anyways, all the listings that I ended up following up were found by her on Twitter and Instagram. My cousin helped me checked their contact numbers to see if the account looks legit or suspicious. And so we went to work to find a VIP ticket for me the next couple of days. Here are a couple of things that we learned during that time:
There are lots of open bid for VIP tickets and the minimum bid mostly starts at IDR5,000,000 (≈$300) per ticket (the original retail price is at IDR3,800,000 ≈$252).
Selling 2 VIP tickets seated side by side. Current bid is at IDR5,500,000 (≈$363).
This is just a personal preference, but every time I received short replies like the ones I received from this seller on a business account (or business related chats), it’s a big turn off for me. Anybody else like me? So it’s a pass on this one.
Current bid at IDR 5,000,000 (≈$330).
My sister asked Seller #2 if the ticket is still available and if IDR5,500,000 is enough to bid on. Seller #2 said last bid was at IDR5,000,000, but they’ll sell it for IDR4,900,000 (≈$323). The eagerness here was a lil’ suspicious. We checked their IG account and they have 5 former usernames (Hmmm 🤔). I ended up following up this lead and texted the contact person. But then they told me they closed the bid at my sister’s offer and immediately sent me an order form. 😲 I haven’t even asked them about the seat number and T&C of payment for the ticket just yet. 😅 In the end, I passed on this one too because they seemed too eager?
Current bid at IDR 7,000,000 (≈$462).
We made an offer of IDR10,000,000 (≈$659) for 2 VIP tickets and Seller #3 replied said the last offer/bid that they got was at IDR7,000,000 (≈$462) for 1 ticket. I passed on this one because it sounded like this is going to be a high bid and it’s over my budget.
So after following up on those leads (plus some others that we found), I didn’t really feel comfortable taking the bidding route for a couple of reasons:
Most of these accounts use the close bid system that made it impossible for me to find out if the current bid is actually true. How do I know that there’s actually another person who made the bid and not just the admin trying to up the price? So yeah, no.
The Twitter/IG account and contact numbers of these accounts lack information that can convince me if these are legit accounts. We did use Get Contact to get a feel if the number is a burner number or not.
Disclaimer: Some (if not all) of these accounts may well actually be legit, but I’m sharing my thought process in narrowing down these options since nobody I know can vouch for these accounts.
Because of that, we started to focus our effort on the fixed price tickets (a.k.a “Ready Stock Tickets”). That way, it’s easier to know the final amount I’m spending and I can skip the stressful bidding process (like, I have other stuff to do too, you know, other than hunting for these tickets. Adult responsibilities and all that).
From our research, we found that fixed price VIP tickets mostly start at IDR6,000,000/ticket (≈$398). After the tickets are sold out at Tiket.com, it makes perfect sense that the ticket price/service fee will be much higher than the order placed before the sales were open to public through ticket war services (jastipers). A couple of reasons (Note: I’m talking about legit sellers & tickets here):
The probability of you getting the ticket is 100%.
With ticket war services, there’s still a big probability that you won’t get a ticket because the service they’re offering is to go to ticket war on your behalf. So, if they’re not lucky during the war, then you won’t get your tickets (the initial deposit you paid them usually will be refunded but not the service fee). With “Ready Stock Ticket”, IF the ticket is REALLY ready and in stock, then the chance of you buying a ticket and actually get the said ticket is at 100%.The ticket is already issued with the seat number on it.
We know that the seats for VIP and Platinum tickets are assigned immediately after you completed your payment. And sure, CAT 2 - CAT 4 got their seat number way later, but it’s still before the concert. So if you do your due diligence, you can find out for sure which seat you’re buying while if you buy the tickets before or during the general sales, the seat assigned to you is at random. Of course this won’t be much of an issue if you’re just trying to get a ticket (getting one is hard enough, you don’t get to be picky about the seat number, really, unless you’re willing to pay more of course).
Also, having gone through all these, I totally get why scalpers exist. For people with little luck like me, getting the tickets that I want through proper channels was an extremely stressful process (really), especially for one of the biggest K-pop concert in Indonesia’s recent history. (I participated in ticket wars in the US during Big Bang & 2NE1 era and in Hong Kong for UI & 2NE1 and they weren’t as brutal as Blackpink’s. Not even close. Time has really changed I guess.)
Honestly, I’m more than willing to pay more (within reasons of course) just to avoid all this stress. So yes, I’m all for scalpers as long as they’re legit, honest and not trying to rob people blind 😆 (double digit resell ticket price is way over my budget, but for those who can afford it, go for it I guess).
Anyways, moving on to the next sellers...
Selling VIP ticket at IDR4,500,000/ticket (≈$297). Seat no: Row AB.
Payment terms: 50% Down Payment.
This one’s the second lowest price out of all the ones we found. But then, the low price also got us a lil’ suspicious given the high demand for the VIP tickets out there. Plus the 50% DP seemed a bit steep. So,I decided to follow my “If it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true” motto on this one and passed on the offer.
Selling VIP ticket at IDR7,000,000/ticket (≈$277).
Payment terms: 50% Down Payment.
Seller #5 is selling 4 VIP tickets, seated side by side. ‘A’ actually found this lead and followed up on it. Turned out, Seller #5 is a middleman and not the original ticket owner. Seller #5 said that the ticket owner that seems ‘more trusted’ than others but when ‘A’ asked what did they mean by ‘more trusted’, even they weren’t sure how one is ‘more trusted’ than others. 😅
How it works with Seller #5 is we pay the ticket price to them (Seller #5) and then their team will meet with the ticket owner team to do COD (Cash on Delivery). So if the ticket owner is trying to scam us, at least our money is safe with Seller #5 and the worst thing that could happen is we ended up not going to the concert (But still. For me, as a Blink, it’s not only about the money. You can always find money again but missing that whole experience after all these years of waiting is just sad 😭).
And Seller #5’s reasoning on why we have to put a down payment is because of the case of hit and run from customers (apparently, there are customers out there who left sellers hanging). Let’s say the seller is legit and honest and they hold the ticket for the customer. But then the customer found a better deal and ditched this offer. In this case, the seller is the one with who will suffer a loss because they would have to find another buyer.
I ended up passing up on this offer too just because I wasn’t comfortable putting a down/full payment to them as a middleman. Yes, they said that my money will be safe with them if the seller is a scammer, (excuse my overthinking paranoid mind) but what if THEY (Seller #5) are the ones who’ll take my money instead? You know what I mean?
Selling 2 VIP tickets at IDR4,200,000/ticket (≈$277). Seat no: Row LXX, side by side.
Payment terms: Face to face, cash, on venue on the date. No down payment required.
This was the lowest price listing that we found on Twitter. I have a feeling that the seller is a foreigner, thus the COD (Cash On Delivery) on the date requirement (and the broken English). For some reason, I also have an inkling that this person might be a masternim who’s selling their extra tickets. (Masternims usually buy multiple tickets to a concert to select the best seat and/or as a backup for re-entry in case they get caught and thrown out of the venue.)
My sister followed up on the lead and asked if they have a Whatsapp number that we can contact because we have more questions. Then Seller #6 replied with (what I think was) the most savage and unbothered answer we received during this whole journey. They said, “I don’t have much time to convincing as long as you buy from me and you won’t to let down it’s Okay to make deal and reserve it.”
As tempting as this offer was, given the price and it requires no down payment at all, COD on the day is way too risky for me. I’m not much of a risk taker if you haven’t already noticed by now, so I passed on this one too.
Selling 2 VIP tickets at (A) IDR6,850,000/ticket (≈$452) & (B) IDR7,500,000 (≈$495). Seat no. A: Row AJ,
Payment terms: COD on physical ticket exchange venue, no down payment required. Pickup on the day, 30% down payment required.
Seller #7 was selling 2 VIP tickets with two different pricing since one seating is nearer the stage than the other, which makes total sense. Pick-up on the day requires 30% DP but pick-up on the March 5th (at the physical ticket exchange venue) requires no down payment and just COD.
To be continued on <Part 3: Seller #7>.
And to those who made it ‘til here, thank you for reading! 😊
