Music fans who tried to buy tickets to see Harry Styles or Coldplay at Cardiff's Principality Stadium were left horrified when they saw the official vendor was selling them for four times their original price.
Regular gig-goers are often used to seeing touts trying to sell tickets at ludicrous prices - but normally expect Ticketmaster prices to be lower and not to increase in cost.
But while standing tickets for Coldplay originally went for £104.50, a glance at Ticketmaster now shows the exact same ticket on sale for £419.95. And when tickets for Harry Styles went on sale to those with pre-sale access on Thursday, September 1, prices soon started to skyrocket at the same rate - with tickets for "Jonny's Place," the standing area nearest the stage, going from an already-pricey £155.50 to £342.
READ MORE: Harry Styles adds new date to Cardiff 2023 'Love on Tour' as thousands buy presale tickets
Molly Bailey lives in the Valleys and tried buying tickets for Harry Styles' Cardiff shows. She and her partner had budgeted £300 for two tickets and were still left disappointed. You can get more events news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
She said: "I managed to find two Jonny's Place tickets on the £155 listing but when it took me to my basket it bumped them up to £342 per ticket. I just clicked off and was left really disappointed.
"I miss the days of £70 concert tickets! Ticketmaster is now including a 'buy now, pay later' scheme which is so dangerous especially when bumping the tickets above their face value. I feel Ticketmaster have an unfair monopoly over the ticket selling market."
Some seated tickets are still available at more reasonable prices for the Harry Styles shows now that they've gone on general sale. But fans weren't helped by the fact that neither the prices of the tickets, nor the number of tickets being held for general sale, were made available more than a couple of hours in advance - so the morning of the pre-sale was a scramble to find any tickets at any price.
Clive Taylor had a similar experience looking for Coldplay tickets, only being able to find ones priced at £419.95. He said: "Personally, I think it's scandalous. At those prices a lot of fans will be put off buying. I for one, won’t be paying at that price."
Ticketmaster refers to this as 'dynamic' pricing. It's worth pointing out that this is totally different from the 'Platinum' seats available, which are at the more expensive end of the spectrum from the start - 'dynamic' pricing means two fans will end up paying totally different prices for the exact same category of ticket.
When you go to buy a ticket priced in this way, a statement reads: "These tickets vary in price driven by demand from fans, similar to airline tickets and hotel rooms. By using this dynamic pricing, we give fans an opportunity to safely buy official tickets for the events they love right up to the date of the show."
One Harry Styles fan named May was planning to travel from Ireland to Cardiff to see one of her favourite artists in concert. She had set herself a maximum budget of €200 but ultimately it wasn't enough. She said: "I did not have the money nor could I justify the prices. I love Harry with all my heart and I've been a fan since 2010 but I can not see the sense of paying that much.
"I can only imagine how heartbreaking it would be for younger fans or anyone with a stricter budget. Tickets should be nowhere near as expensive as this."
Ticketmaster was contacted on two occasions to explain the rationale behind the system, and asked whether the policy was working for fans. At the time of publication it had not responded.
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