'I am sick with this. It is a disgrace. It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people's misery. I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed.' -- Bob Geldof

'There's nothing illegal about what they're doing unfortunately but there is something wrong with it and everyone in this entire country knows why it's wrong. It is not acceptable is that a giant electronic company that makes billions upon billions then morally says we will just hand over our take to a charity. It is filthy money made on the back of the poorest people on the planet. Stick it where it belongs.' -- Bob Geldof

'We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what the can buy and sell.' -- eBay

'I wholeheartedly share the concert organisers' deep annoyance that some of these tickets appear to be changing hands for many thousands of pounds.' -- James Purnell, Culture Minister

'We have listened to eBay's community of users and the message has been clear. They do not want the tickets to be sold. Once we are made aware of any Live 8 tickets being resold, they will be taken down.' -- eBay

Within hours of the tickets for the Hyde Park concert being released they were being sold on eBay. A concert to raise awareness of poverty and scumbags were already making money off the back of it.

At first, eBay, when asked to remove the tickets for sale, initially refused, earning themselves the name of 'pimps', but within hours they were forced to back down, but the damage had already been done to what little reputation eBay had left.

eBay is rapidly becoming the place for crooks to shift their dodgy goods. Dodgy goods are no longer shifted in pubs, off the back of a lorry, or down the car boot market, they are shifted on eBay. And as buyers find to their cost, eBay has no legal responsibility to act to either recover the money or compensate the buyer.

eBay should have acted immediately to remove the Live 8 Tickets from sale, barred those selling and buying the tickets from eBay, and eBay make a substantial donation to the Band Aid Trust, of at least 100 times the bid price for the tickets. Not as eBay did, drag their feet, threatened to ban those who were screwing the auction by making bids of millions of dollars, then offered to donate their cut, which Geldof told then quite rightly where to stick it.

eBay has an annual turnover of £1.8 billion, last year they made a profit of £430 million.

Another has-been politician has jumped on the bandwagon of lets put the boot in on Geldof. The latest to jump on the bandwagon to fan a fading political career, is former Liberal Party leader David Steel. This is the man who applauded past communists leaders in Ester Europe.

Reference

eBay prevents Live 8 ticket sales, BBC news on-line, 15 June 2005
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4090774.stm

Geldof blasts 'sick' eBay sales, BBC news on-line, 14 June 2005
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4090774.stm

Live 8 eBay high bidders banned, BBC news on-line, 15 June 2005
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4095464.stm

Cahil Milmo, eBay bans sale of Live8 Tickets after 'electronic pimp' accusation', The Independent 15 June 2005

Steel fears for Geldof 'ego trip', BBC news on-line, 13 June 2005
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4088878.stm