The building had 50, and the record company and group had tickets. Soon after speaking with Mike, I got an anonymous call from someone who said he worked at a store with a Ticketmaster operation but wouldn't identify himself further. The money is generally worth the risk, he said. The people who already have the tickets get in line, draw their random ticket, switch them, and then they're first in line. As Doug indicates, the randomization procedures the stores use to stop people from camping out in line overnight have become the new challenge to scalpers.
Stores also use wristbands.
The stores are supposed to attach the wristbands to each fan's wrist to ensure that each customer gets only one. Mike took issue with my column about the wristband sale of Grateful Dead tickets at the Merchandise Mart Carson Pirie Scott early last August. He said that my story implied that Carson's personnel were in on the scam and that that's not true. Doug explained how the wristband scam works. You just give the scalper the first 100 wristbands.