She made a rookie mistake and did not sign up on the ticketing website ahead of time. This delayed her purchase attempt by six minutes, during which the tickets sold out.
Emptyhanded, Ms Fok turned to online marketplace Carousell to advertise that she was looking to buy a ticket to the then one-night-only concert.
The 20-year-old university student was willing to pay up to S$40 above the face value of the most expensive ticket, originally priced at S$288.
But she found herself consistently fielding offers above her budget, one going as high as S$800. This angered her, she told CNA.
“(They’re) not genuine fans that are buying the tickets, but rather buying to sell them, and then at such a high price,” said Ms Fok.
Ticket scalpers – who snap up tickets, often in bulk, then resell them for profit on the secondary market – are back in business since large events and international acts resumed after the pandemic.
K-pop is not the only fandom affected. Last year, tickets to the annual flagship tournament of Dota 2, The International, reportedly went for as much as S$9,999 a pair, or almost 10 times the original price.
While scalping instinctively feels unfair, there are significant downsides to legislating against it, experts told CNA. But information disclosures and new sales methods are areas for Singapore to look into, they suggested
S:CNA
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