If you’ve been following our gleeful/aghast coverage of the Hannah Montana ticket implosion, this USA Today story will be old news, but hidden at the end is the most epic/ridiculous example yet of a parent going to inane lengths (and spending inane amounts of money!) to score tix for their kids, a Nebraska woman who “labored both online and off to buy multiple sets of tickets in two different cities, selling and swapping until she finally landed good seats for the show of her choice. And spent four figures in the process.” Because easily procured cheap seats make kiddies cry. MORE »

As the infamously sold out Hannah Montana tour continues leaving its trail of broken hearts and tear-stained Disney merchandise across the country, it has attracted the attention of Richmond Federal Reserve, which thinks ticket prices for the tour weren’t high enough to begin with, at least if the prices parents were willing to pay in the secondary market are any indication. The Fed then raises an interesting question: Should the entire big-money concert market just work like eBay? MORE »

StubHub is a fan-run ticket clearinghouse where many of those phantom Hannah Montana tickets have since shown up after selling out at the concert venues themselves, and with StubHub’s vendors making a killing as prices reach upwards of $400 per, many cultural commentator types (and brokers with dollar signs in their eyes) have opined over the last few weeks that this mad Internet scramble for seats at any price lower than blood or organ tissue is here to stay, not just for Montana but for any large-scale concert. But if you can’t hang with the new way, don’t worry because “despite quick sell-outs, good news remains, as plenty of seats are being offered on StubHub’s ticket marketplace by those who were able to buy, some for as low as $65,” provided you follow StubHub’s simple suggestions: MORE »

What’s the next step when you can’t get your kids tickets to the upcoming Hannah Montana show thanks to venal scalpers and unconscionable brokers using the evil of the Internet to make the shows instant sell-outs, only to resell them at prices steep enough to put nice middle-class folks into the poor house: 1.) Say “no” and take them to an inexpensive evening at Chuck E. Cheese instead? 2.) Make them read a damn book? 3.) Sell them into child slavery? 4.) Call the Attorney General! MORE »

So apparently that scalper/broker-fueled Hannah Montana concert sell-out in Florida was not an isolated incident. The Houston Chronicle reports that tickets are disappearing within seconds across the country thanks to…unscrupulous Internet types! (We’re just no good, people.) With the draconian touring schedule that Disney has imposed upon thankfully-just-over-the-Child-Labor-Law-cutoff Miley Cyrus, repeat gigs in the same town are apparently impossible, and adults have been forced to make potentially life-changing decisions in order to keep their spoiled spawn happy. One of many (literally) sad tales from America’s parents is after the jump: MORE »