So, it turns out that before I'd even suggested in yesterday's CMU Daily that you all head to eBay to bid for tickets to that very-quickly-sold-out Concert For Diana, the auction site had already banned the sale of the tickets via its website, presumably predicting media outrage at people profiting from an event designed to commemorate the late Princess.
After garnering considerable bad press after they took some time to respond to ranting by Bob Geldof regarding the sale of Live 8 tickets on the auction site last year, eBay were quick off the mark yesterday morning after official sources of tickets for the concert sold out in just twenty minutes. A spokesman for the company said: "In view of the unique and commemorative nature of the Concert For Diana event and as a mark of respect for the memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, eBay has decided to not allow the re-sale of tickets to this event on the site".
Other auction sites continued to make tickets available, though at least one other subsequently stopped the bidding taking place on its website. My Ticket Market initially hoped to justify allowing the auctions to go ahead by promising to pass any profits on to London based youth charity Centrepoint, but bosses at the charity turned down their offer. Centrepoint boss Anthony Lawton told the BBC: "It's absolutely not in the spirit of this concert. We are not going to give succour to the idea of a secondary market and people making money out of the tickets". My Ticket Market promptly cancelled bidding on Diana tickets once the charity had confirmed its standpoint.
Of course the live industry has for a while been trying to tackle the growth of online ticket touts who sell tickets for sell out events at considerable profit via eBay and other websites. Despite support from many politicians for the campaign against such online ticket touting, with the exception of high profile and emotive events like this one, eBay et al have been generally unwilling to stop the auction of tickets meaning the only way to stop it is to introduce tough ticket ID systems like those employed by the Glastonbury Festival or, possibly, the use of new mobile ticketing systems.