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Satsuki and Mei's House Ticket Scalping Continues
posted on by Christopher Macdonald
Ticket scalping continues to worry Expo 2005 organizers as tickets sell out quickly
Countless tickets for highly popular "Satsuki and Mei's home" at the world fair in Aichi that have been reserved in advance are surfacing at online auctions. The World Fair Committee in concerned about the abuse, but have not yet found any valid means to address it.
"Satsuki and Mei's home" is a replica of the home of the heroins of popular anime My Neighbor Totoro. While the tickets are free, only 800 people per day are allowed to enter with special reservation tickets, compared to roughly 4000 people a day for most other pavilions at Japan Expo 2005.
Reservations for March and April tickets were accepted on the 1st of this month and within 5 hours all 29,600 tickets were reserved. On the same evening tickets showed up on online auction sites. According to the World Fair Committee, they found 384 tickets auctioned online since then, selling for an average of 3000yen (US$28) , some tickets going up to 10.000 yen (US$96).
The committee requested that the auction company to remove the auctions in question. The auction site declined, stating that they could not verify that the tickets were being scalped at inflated prices, an act that is forbidden.
Currently the committee is in talks with Aichi officials to have the acquisition of tickets with the purpose of resale handled as a violation of Japanese law.
Since Expo 2005 does not require the registration of the person's name and address when the tickets are picked up, it is impossible for them to confirm that the person attending the exhibit is the one who made the reservation.
In the meantime, the committee is requesting that people not participate in the online auctions.
"Satsuki and Mei's home" is a replica of the home of the heroins of popular anime My Neighbor Totoro. While the tickets are free, only 800 people per day are allowed to enter with special reservation tickets, compared to roughly 4000 people a day for most other pavilions at Japan Expo 2005.
Reservations for March and April tickets were accepted on the 1st of this month and within 5 hours all 29,600 tickets were reserved. On the same evening tickets showed up on online auction sites. According to the World Fair Committee, they found 384 tickets auctioned online since then, selling for an average of 3000yen (US$28) , some tickets going up to 10.000 yen (US$96).
The committee requested that the auction company to remove the auctions in question. The auction site declined, stating that they could not verify that the tickets were being scalped at inflated prices, an act that is forbidden.
Currently the committee is in talks with Aichi officials to have the acquisition of tickets with the purpose of resale handled as a violation of Japanese law.
Since Expo 2005 does not require the registration of the person's name and address when the tickets are picked up, it is impossible for them to confirm that the person attending the exhibit is the one who made the reservation.
In the meantime, the committee is requesting that people not participate in the online auctions.
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