Bidding A Billion For RATM

An Australian fan put in a bid of $1 billion for two tickets to Rage Against The Machine’s shows downunder in January, but it was not due to excitement at the band’s return after 11 years.

It was instead an attempt to sabotage scalpers. The band’s two shows – at the 12,400-capacity Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 22 and the 4,890-capacity Melbourne Festival Hall on January 30 – sold out in seconds.

Within minutes, they appeared on the online auction house eBay, with $111 tickets going for five times the face value.

Enraged fans who had queued outside ticket offices for 12 hours retaliated by opening bogus accounts and putting in false bids.

Things calmed down when the tour’s promoter, Lees and West, later announced that Rage Against The Machine will also be one of the headliners of the company’s six-city Big Day Out festival January 18th to February 3rd, which sells 250,000 tickets.

The billion-dollar bogus bid was taken down by eBay.