How could he NOT see this coming?!


Geldof Angry That Live 8 Tickets on EBay Tue Jun 14, 9:59 AM ET



LONDON - Sought-after tickets for a London concert to raise the profile of poverty in Africa are being sold for inflated prices on the Internet before even being issued — and concert organizer Bob Geldof is not happy.


The musician urged a boycott of eBay, accusing the online auction site of "sick profiteering" for listing the Live 8 tickets.

More than 2 million people applied by text message for the 150,000 tickets to the July 2 concert in London's Hyde Park in what The Guinness Book of World Records said was the largest text-message lottery in history.

Tickets began appearing on eBay shortly after recipients began learning by text that they had been successful.

More than 100 pairs of tickets have been listed so far and some have already attracted bids of up to $1,800.

"I am sick with this. It is a disgrace," Geldof said.

"It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on Web sites are miserable wretches who are capitalizing on people's misery.

"I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed."

A spokeswoman for eBay said reselling charity concert tickets is not illegal under British law.

"As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organizers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live 8 tickets," she said.

"We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell. A ticket to the Live 8 concert is no different from a prize won in a raffle run by another charity and what the winner chooses to do with it is up to them."

The $5.4 million raised by the ticket lottery will go toward the Prince's Trust, a youth charity established by Prince Charles and to Help A London Child, which campaigns to improve children's mental health, as well as on materials for the concert.

Live 8 agreed to donate to the Prince's Trust in return for the cancellation of Party in the Park, the Prince's Trust's annual concert in Hyde Park.

Ebay have already withdrawn the tix.