Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the luckiest of them all?
Think about a hot tech IPO you want to invest in but you can’t. Think about the new iPhone model you want to buy but in veil. Think about a cross-border ticket you have been trying to get in the last two months but failed.
Now multiply that by 10 and you would understand the frustration of Mirror fans, many of whom spent the whole day on their multiple devices but still could not get the concert tickets they want.
It might be an understatement to say half of Hongkongers below my age were frustrated for not getting a pair of tickets for the popular local boy band’s concert, which offered 37,700 tickets for the 12 performances in summer.
Even before the sale, everybody knew it would be hard to get these tickets. The asking price of these tickets was said to have shot over HK$400,000 each, compared against the original price at between HK$480 to HK$1,280.
Well it might be a selling gimmick to talk up the crazy price but I do have a few friends who tried alternative ways such as spending a six-figure sum with their credit cards or buying an insurance product from the band’s affiliated life insurance company to make sure they would get Mirror tickets.
Still, most people tried their luck with the online ticket sale, which marked the first time for the city’s largest venue Hong Kong Coliseum to adopt a real-name ticket system.
Adding to the frustration, the ticket sale was super slow possibly because it takes more time under the real-name registration process. The sale process lasted 11 hours till 9pm, which presented even longer torture for their fans.
Only a few lucky ones I spotted on the social media ended up getting tickets, indicating that it is after all not a fake sale.
It is unsure how ticket scalping would work under the real-name system, which targets at stopping people from making profits by trading tickets. Presumably, the name transfer can still be done but perhaps on a much smaller scale.
Well, it is not the end of the day. Watch out for more creative promotional campaigns in the run-up to the concert.
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