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The DarkLord Days of recent years have devolved into a litany of disappointed beer fans either leaving without bottles of Three Floyd's prized Russian Imperial Stout, or being so desperate for it that they purchase bottles from some of Northwest Indiana's brightest trade school dropouts for at least three times the $15 selling price set by the brewery. The golden ticket sale announced by the brewery was a step in the right direction to give those who truly wanted the beer an opportunity to buy it. Still, it was only a matter of time before golden tickets started popping up on Craigslist and online auctions.
Three Floyds sent out Golden tickets last week and Monday. The Reader notes that's already happening. Tickets are being offered for sale on Craigslist for up to ten times the face value. A bidding on DLD tickets on ebay currently has a high bid of $14,999.44.
Coupled with some confusion from casual fans of DarkLord Day over the true purpose of the golden tickets, the brewery placed its own ad on Craigslist reminding people that they don't support scalping. Another post on the Three Floyds blog goes further:
"We don’t pretend we can tell you what to do with your personal property. Once that ticket is in your hands it’s obviously yours to do whatever you want with it. However, going out of your way to personally profit from this situation is at best scummy and worst just plain douchey."
One might suspect Three Floyds of trying to have it both ways: they recognize the scalping issue still exists, but saying it's out of their hands as a tacit way to sell the sizzle of the festival. Furthermore, the golden tickets only assure its holders of the opportunity to buy DarkLord. There is a possibility — however slight — that you could be holding a golden ticket and still not be able to buy any DarkLord. As of post time, Three Floyds hasn't set a bottle purchase limit per ticket. A brewery employee told us that limit will be set once they finish bottling DarkLord in about a week and the number will be posted to both the DarkLord Day website and brewery blog. So even the scalpers are getting ahead of themselves.
The festival itself is still free. Additionally, if you miss out on the chance to buy DarkLord, there's still other beers to buy, including the highly anticipated Popskull, brewed in collaboration with Dogfish Head.
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Funny.
This brewery makes great beer--outstanding beer, in fact--but stories like this only provide further proof of many people's out-of-control consumerism, even in the middle of a recession/almost depression--and further proof that the majority of humanity seems stupid beyond redemption.
It's just beer, not the holy grail or a chance to bathe in the Fountain of Eternal Youth (nor, for that matter, a barrel of Dutch tulips).
No kidding!!
Where does one draw the line between doing your part to boos the economy and cross over into idiocy?
Not sure.
Then again, I grew up in modest conditions and never understand rampant consumerism, or why so many people--especially those in the lower and middle classes--celebrate their loyalty to products and brands.
But, as I said, great beer, just not great enough for this type of activity (no beer, or product, or brand, really is). Good for the brewery, I guess. Vast fortunes still are made from the mindless behavior of consumers.
It's always been a pet peeve of mine...people who wear logos on their clothing.
I've always felt that if I'm going to clutter up my clothes with a brand logo, THEY'RE going to pay ME...not the other way around.
And yes...I grew up the same way. I still remember my grandfather who paid cash for everything....his house, his car (and he was a plumber). My mom was thrift before thrift was 'in'.
I'm not as thrifty as they are, but it's a good example. I don't spend past my means.
What was the line from McCawber in David Copperfield? "Make 20p a year, spend 19 something a year, and life is good....." something along those lines. Good advice then, good advice now.
But spending this kind of money on something that you're going to piss out 3 hours later is beyond my comprehension. You're right though..it's good for their business.
Thanks for striking back at this wonderful example of consumerism!
I am so sure that 3 Floyds are amassing VAST FORTUNES from the purchasing behavior of a couple hundred people. You know what? They care about what they make and deserve to profit from it. Realistically they are not even charging close to market value.
Uh, no one questioned their "right", or whatever you want to call it, to make a profit. I only questioned the mindset that would lead someone to pay so much for beer.
As well, the vast fortune comment was general, not specific.
Understand?
Or shall I type slower next time?
In any case, thanks for a rant that was even less meaningful and worthwhile than mine. That's quite an accomplishment.
"Rights" did not enter into this discussion, just a conversation about what some think is appropriate behavior for people of a certain SES.
You have a point about consumerism but to me it has no place in this particular discussion. Funny, this doesn't feel like a rant!
$15grand? Who ARE these people???
It's convenient of Chicagoist to ignore the other sets for sale on ebay that have buy it now options of ~$200/ticket.
And Chuck, your interpretation of "opportunity" is interesting.
"There is a possibility — however slight — that you could be holding a golden ticket and still not be able to buy any DarkLord."
No. Unless 3 Floyds is utterly inept at arithmetic this is unlikely. They only need to produce enough bottles so that even if everyone purchases the limit, there will not be a shortfall. They will bottle overages to sell on premesis as well, but this all easy peasy to figure out.
Take that $15 or whatever, go buy a few 6ers of Half Acre, sit on porch and enjoy the beautiful day instead.
I was lucky enough to get snag 4 ticktes for my wife and myself. The tickets I received note that you are "guaranteed" to be able to purchase dark lord if you arrive at the brewery between 11am and 4pm. However, the tickets say "Bottle Limit Set on Day of Event." The website FAQ section also says: "Anyone with a ticket will be able to buy their guaranteed allotment of Dark Lord bottles between 11AM and 6PM."
I know they reserve the right to reject tickets, even at the dark lord day event itself. Besides that, though, where did you get the information that a golden ticket might only give you an "opportunity" to purchase dark lord, Chuck?
Did I miss something? This is beer, right? Are we actually talking about someone paying $15,000 for beer?
This is why the terrorists hate us.
Just to point out, the $15,000 eBay option is people fucking with the seller for being a douchebag by trying to profit off of the tickets. It's not actually someone who is willing to pay 15 grand to go to DLD.
The $200 prices are legit, though. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody somewhere pulled the trigger on that.
The logical next step for next year is to have the tickets be linked to your name so that you have to present ID to use your ticket, but the logistics of that would likely be really hard to implement based on past DLD experience.
It's all a bit ludicrous, really. 3 Floyds should brew more of the beer, up the price (it's already high, but demand is still outstripping supply...), and make it a proper seasonal release, as opposed to this OMG MUST BUY A BOTTLE ON THIS DAY ONLY crap.
No big deal to me, though, I suppose. I don't care for stouts. Pass me an Alpha King.
Chuck you aren't reading closely enough. The ticket says right on it, "The holder of this ticket is guaranteed purchase of Dark Lord on the 25th day of April 2009.