Get in line

We love the way some people get rich. Sometimes it's a guy who comes up with an idea for something to sell, something that everyone wants all of a sudden, and they drop everything and hop in the Biscayne and race down to Val-U-Mart and get a pet rock or green frying pan or Apple watch. 

And the people who sell these products, and the owners of Val-U-Mart, become rich. And your life is all the richer for the enjoyment of the pet rock or the slippery green pan or the watch that does what the phone in your pocket does, just six inches away.

Of course, the problems come in when someone gets in the middle of the food chain. Normally, the producer sells his product to the retailer and that's how they make their money. 

But, let's say someone goes to the store the very minute they open and buy up all the pet rocks. You rush to the store to get yours, only to be told that they are all sold out, but you can get one online, no problem. So you go online and buy your 1975 novelty item for 19.75 times the store price. The person who bought up the supply is scalping you!

That's why fans of Adele, the singer from England, are rolling in the deep these days. Right after tickets for her North American tour went on sale to the public, they were immediately bought up, causing an emotional Skyfall for thousands of fans who wanted a seat. 

Originally, I believed this to be a picture of people getting

in line for Adele tickets.  Turns out, these are people

who went to a concert hall to hear music,

 and Maroon 5 showed up and

 began playing.

Everybody loves Adele, so the demand for tickets to hear her singing her songs is high. And back in the day, when you wanted to attend a particular concert, you would line up and sleep outside of the department store so as to be first in line when they opened and started selling tickets to see Sam The Sham and The Pharoahs or The McCoys.  Now, ticket scalpers electronically purchase all the seats the instant they go on sale and they are only too glad to sell them to you at a fantastic markup.  

Adele and some other artists concerned about making tickets available to all fairly and at reasonable cost deal with a website called Songkick, which is set up to help do that just that. Smart performers should all want to do whatever they can to stop greedy re-selling agencies from making a mint off someone else's talent and popularity.