Club Arnage

Well fellow Arnagers,

Having not received the camping tickets I ask for I popped on to that other 'for profit' site to find Houx Annexe tickets up for auction for the princely sum of £75. Disgusting!
Anyone who makes a profit on these sought after tickets needs a lesson in fellowship for the event.
The ebay name is xxxxxxx-Lotus.
I do hope the person isn't a member of the Lotus Club, they should know better. All I can hope is that next year that person doesnt get their tickets and has to pay a whopper of a price on ebay.
Last year I had 4 Houx annexe tickets and sold them for no profit on this site, the ethos was to get other fellow enthusiasts to the event without ripping them off.

Enough ranting, enough said.

Verne.

 I guess we should post reviews about this seller saying that he is overpricing!

                      Live and let live

          We live in a free market economy

Not in this forum we don't  ;D

We've had this debate many times (and many times it's been quite heated)

The rules of this forum are simple, no profiteering. But that is on this forum! Other sites such as a well known auction site allow it. If someone therefore sells on there then they are not breaking the rules of this forum.

My view is that it's not necessarily the sellers that are responsible for this secondary market but more that it is the people who buy them at the ridiculous prices.

If people refused to pay the inflated prices then there would be no market and it would stop. I can't see it happening though when the ACO seem to run a lottery as to who will get tickets each year and more and more seem to being distributed by the ticket agencies who sell them at a vast profit as well.

Interestingly other items for sale include the giveaways from previous years.  Must have a look through the loft and see what can be found ;D

i totally agree, if some1 wants to put something on there to sell then its the buyers fault for encourging them

Being from Australia, I won't get to to many 24 hrs in my life time, so when the ACO stick me in Bleu (with seemingly every other person on the internet), I know I'm not going there.

So I find an agency who have the pass which I want available, but I have to get 2 GA from them as well which adds up to 170 GBP (or $400 aussie dollars).

At least if I pay an over inflated price on you know what, then I can get my General Enclosure tickets at the gate and save considerably.

I do check this and other web forums daily in the hope that what I am after will come up, but if it doesn't I will get them via auction. If thats encouraging them, then I'm open to other Idea's.

By the way if anyone does have a spare Karting Nord pass, then let me know and we can negotiate.

Regards
Reesy

Hi Reesy - welcome to CA.

Nothing wrong with Bleu - personally I prefer it to KN.

Don't forget that all the campsites (with the exception of Beausejour) will be full to the brim. 

However, if you want to change, you've got 3 options:
- Go with ticket agency at inflated prices
- Go eBay with inflated prices
- Watch this site - there will be (or there usually is) some tickets available at most sites as people drop out for various reasons. 

Best of luck

Del

Hi Reesy,

Whereabouts in Aus do you call home?  My Dad is in Queensland and loving it. (We're Kiwi's - just to warn you).

Well done for making the trip.  You won't regret it.  Just remember to turn up at the 'Poo Bar' on Sat night.  ;o)

Bleu - never been there but it is just across the road from Maison Blanche so you're close to the off track action.  :o)

D

Nothing wrong at all with bleu - I shall be there again myself this year!  ;D

Fran

Considering I may only get to one LM in my life time (I certainly hope not), I want some where where the camp site is as close as possible to the track. I am taking my wife and for some reason she will probably try to sleep during the race a little, so it would be good to be able sit near the track and not be a large distance from the tent. If I was a regular and the novelty of watching the cars had warn off just a fraction then I would have no problem with bleu.

I live in sydney btw. and yeah I know it will be well worth it. I normally set up my pc and TV (live timing) in my living room and listen each year. During 2005 we decided that we just have to go.

Also looking forward to Australia V Brazil just an hour after the race ends.

Poo Bar? Tell me more?

Hi Reesy, and welcome to CA.

To help you put it into perspective, Bleu Nord is at the most a 5 minute walk to the nearest part of the track and probably only 15 minutes to the start/finish line without any traffic. Obviously at the start on race things things are far busier but still no more than 30 minutes through the crowds!

Maison Blanche is just across the road frommBleu and where a lot of the CA regulars will be and I'm sure that I speak for everyone when I say you'll be wlecome to call in for a beer!!  I'm sure you'll do the same if we ever get to the Bathurst???  ;D

Unfortunately, our Aussie regular, and fellow Tropicoma inventor, can't make it this year (he's in Brisbane), and as Doris says, there are unfortunately a few Kiwis around <R&DFC> but I'm sure you'll have a great time. Please make sure you look up "Team JPC" on maison Blanche. We'll throw a shrimp on the barbie for you!!!  :)

As an aside Reesy, Karting Nord, whilst inside the track, is these days full of Danish groups (thousands of them) and not the most hospitible of sites for individuals. I'd recommend you either stick with Bleu, try for Maison Blanche, or try for Houx Annexe, and thank your lucky stars that as a first timer you haven't been allocated Beausejour like most others!!!!

Thanks for the tips. I'll have a think about it.

Will definately drop by for a beer. And if they ever get the Bathurst 24 hr back up and running then your more than welcome to drop by our place on the hill.

The other thing to bear in Mind Ressy, and I'm sure others will correct me, Is that teh general viewing areas of the circuit are more easily accessible from the campsites/laybys outside of the circuit (i.e. Masion Blanche, Tertre Rouge etc, than the inside ones. Although they are "outside" the circuit, they are still right by the track.

Here is a link to a viewing ares map that show this:

http://www.swr2002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/maps/viewingmap.jpg

Oh, and the "poo" bar is the Shampoo, or Champagne Bar. There is a Club Arnage gathering at 21.00 on the Saturday night, a great chance to meet other Club Arnagers, and enjoy a drink. Bottles of Mumm are sold there for about 40 Euros IIRC Most people buy Champagne or Sparkling Wine at the Hypermarket and take their own in a coolbox!

Nothing wrong at all with bleu - I shall be there again myself this year!  ;D

Fran

..that`s only where Fran`s tent is, she is most of the time on MB in our Golden Triangle Swim Resort  ;D

I'd guess that bleu is not much of a longer walk to the circuit than some of the far reaches of MB??

and Reesy if you're wife intends to sleep then bleu is further away from the noise and is (I'm guessing here) a little more refined than MB (present company excepted of course!!). 

It's a bit hypocritical of me of course because I don't want to be on Bleu but I think as an option it is significantly better than BSJ for getting to and from the circuit.

Would agree with JP, having stayed on Karting Nord, it is not the best for individuals or couples. As well as the Danish tour groups it attracts sound systems, the German one I was next to in 2003 was on from Wednesday lunchtime to Monday morning non stop 24 hours a day. >:( >:(
Although next to the track large sections are corralled off by groups arriving early or semi corporate groups.
Have been using Bleu Sud for the last 2 years and it is a good compromise especially if you or your wife need to sleep during the race, I would say that on race night you could only sleep on KN or MB if you are totally p*ssed.
We would be on Sud this year but have been allocated Bleu Nord, this we think should be similar to sud, and possibly even a shorter walk to the track entrance.
Hope this is helpful.

And if i am not there in person i leave my soggy bathers as a reminder!.... i hope you are going to bring your women's shorts again this year gab!!  ;D

If you can't beat them, join them

The Bloody ACO have gone and done it again, and messed my ticket order right up, it's just so frustrating, my whole weekend could be spoiled rotten.
I asked for about 20 Maison Blanche Camping, a sprinkling of Tetre Rouge and a dozen grandstand tickets. I've been a member of their lot since I can't remember when, although that could be this morning, and look what's happened! The buggers have sent me 8 tickets to see Cats, three tickets in row F of the Sidney Opera House for a recital of Carmina Burana by the New South Wales Scout Troup and Brownies, 5 General Entry tickets to some 'loveable old  trout' with an address in Chatham, and a Media pass to the new cyclotron in Berne Switzerland where some professor is planning to invent a new protoype by accelerating a Morgan up to near light speed and smashing it into an R8 going the other way.
Does anyone know how far it is from Chatham to the pit straight, and are there any bars on the way?
H

Camping Bleu Nord for you as well BigH ;D   It seems to be popular - maybe Camping Bleu will be the new Maison Blanche??     Fingers crossed we've traded our way off Bleu. 

Holy sh*t!! It's Strated Again! When will it Strop?
Just exactly how far Nord is Camping Nord then Piglet, is it as far as Camping It Up? And is Chatham on the way?
Actually, I reckon we could do with a fractured ice shelf and country sized floes down at the Old Bush & Maison Blanche, we need something to keep the beer chilled and the flatlanders quenched. I'm sure I saw, and may indeed have been part of, several beached pods looking for assistance from the coastguard, or Smerkies Recovery Service (SRS). It was a hot weekend for SRS and no kidding, there were lost children, hysterical mothers and jobbies rattling round perspex pipes like dislodged bobsleigh pilots down the luge, all waiting to be rescued, repatriated or shot, depending on their circumstances and our moderators mood. By the way, I hear he has access to 20 complimentary MB tickets, and the first people to ring him nearest to exactly 2:00 am (GMT) will win a prize worth having.
H
 

Hmmm BigH - I've run your post through Bablefish and am non the
wiser as to of what you speak???  ;D

I think you're stuffed on the MB front, Paddy and the rest of Holland are tenth on the MB waitlist.  Robbo and SPS are 15th (I think) - my dear john letter didn't even tell me where I am on the list which presumably means they are  concerned for my mental health and fear for my sanity if they told me my position on the list ;D

I have (thanks to the wonderful people on CA) secured one MB ticket and we'll carry the stuff from the rest of the bloody cars if needs be!!

Camping Blue Nord appears to be behind Parking Bleu - so just over the road from the Temple of Maison Blanche - probably not too bad, our colleagues at beermountain give it an OK review.   Obviously not the high class establishment that is MB but you know, class will always out  ;D

There's a theory that we ought to be ordering GA tickets with camping passes as the ACO probably think we're all flogging them off on the unmentionable web site  ::)

I have been selling quite a bit of stuff, ranging from the baseball caps you get with a newspaper to a handful of old tickets from the 80's, which went for a suprising amount of money. Pretty much run out of stuff now though.

Its worthwhile and helps pay for the next years tickets.

I think this one takes the biscuit. I thought selling the free posters was bad.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8754756241&ru=http://search.ebay.co.uk:80/8754756241_W0QQfltZ9QQfromZR8QQfviZ1

What a marvellous idea, it will help Doris reach her £5k target, do you know who laurenjf0 is Stu? ;D

Whatever next, and there's a bid on it.

Wouldn't a 2006 pass raise more money?

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!  (http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/24.gif)

Outstanding!!!!  ;D

ROTFLMAO ??  I had to look it up.  Me too

Its at £1.20 now.  We only need sell three thousand more and Doris makes her target

Spot on, a true collectors item  :o

 who's this b***tard sheettrimmer, I want to know ;D

How funny will it be if the winner turns up at this years casino night and tries to get in?

We have to find out who it is.  The seller also has a Ford Car radio, two stools and a Volvo warning triangle.  All the signs of being a sad muppet.

Anyway, if the VIP pass makes a fiver, we'll all have to start looking for JPC memorabilia.  I'll have to find the Team JPC Christmas card just for Doris. 

Oh and there's a no. plate V1 JPC going for £700.  Look good on the van

If it does well, you could be on to a fortune Mark. Thats if you still have any left.

I believe that as long as there isn't a drastic shortage in the world ink cartridge market there's an almost limitless supply!

Yes but not with 2 bar stools a ford radio and two warninig triangles, but come to think of it we had every thing else.
Brian

Maybe we should auction a 2006 invite for the charity. Free Tropicoma all night for the highest bidder!!  :)

JP, why not it may do better than last years one, it may even match the Houx annexe pass that went for £185 earlier today. :-\

Brilliant!   ;D

JPC - Getting a 2006 invite up for auction is the least you can do considering you won't be attending on Saturday.

Your wish is my command!!!!  ;D

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6599656577

Because it is for Doris's charity I will start the bidding

You're a star!   :-*

C'mon guys, Doris shaves her locks off on Saturday, you should be ashamed this piece of memorabilia is going for a song.  It's a very worthy cause, this won't even cover the cost of a good hat to keep her head warm. 8)

http://tinyurl.com/8zkol

Somebody has now upped the stakes , MB ticket now on E B*y

Well at least they have started at £1 and left it to market forces - not like those that put in £100 starting bids!

Sold for 87 pounds.

To your good self I think, Knetter101,Am I right?

Yes! I am not in favour of buying the tickets through this site, but we are still running short on tickets for MB and better safe than sorry. If we have to wait for the ACO to cough up the tickets, we'd be all dead and burried.

I know what you mean Knetter, it wasn't a bad price though, not much over the odds.

It would have been over the odds if I had been bidding aswell. I spoke with Knetter about how high he was going so as we make sure we do not inflate each others prices. Beside he got there first. I may apply for my tickets through the ACO next year using a French Postal address.

P.S. I am not moving over there (yet anyway)!!

Neither am I    :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Del

The price went up from 50 to 87 in about 25 minutes. But in the last 10 secs I squeezed my bid in and luckely I won. If Rick would have had the amount he wanted to spend for it, I would have not been able and willing to match it, but he could not get the funds together.

Like I said before Rick, if we have any luck in securing more tickets than we need, you are the first to know about it. Paddy absolutely agreed on this as well. We'll keep you posted.

Knetter, I hope this makes you feel better.  I spent £100 on an MB pass 10 years ago, through Motor Racing Rippoffs International.  In those days thay had spare tickets in April.  The thing on the left was going to Maison Blanche come hell or high water (Mostly high water - it pissed down on the way back, enough to submerge the entire exhaust at one point).  Driving an open car is fun till you hit 30 cm of water (thats a foot in old money)

If they're £87 in February, how much will they be in May?

Good luck on more MB passes.

Thanks,

We have 6 confirmed know. If those are all we are going to get, we just have to fight of the ACO again like last year when we only had 4 tickets and 9 cars!! I love those guys at the gate, give 'm some pot and they will do everything you want!! ;)

The best way to ensure you get what you want and not pay over the odds is to use one of the 'sniping' systems.

Google 'ebay sniping' and you should get some options.

I am not sure the price will go up much more in may, last year the prices fell in the weeks leading up to june as supply outstripped demand.

Good luck in finding what your after.

We'll follow you in then!!  Got one pass, still in need of one more!   ;D

I've just picked up a MB pass on "that site" for £105 "buy it now". 

TBH I'm really pi$$ed off with myself for having done it but at least the guy had put a semi decent price on it - there is another one on there that is up to £175 with 2 days to go!!!   I think I struck lucky that nobody had spotted the buy it now one.

It now looks like we might be having three cars instead of two so we're still short of a pass!! 

Piglet, I did actually see both of those tickets! 105 is not to bad considering the other one going up to 175. For your third car I would just get a parking blue tickets for 18 euro's and walk the stuff over to MB, you will have plenty space for an extra tent. We have actually secured 12 passes for MB now, unfortunately we will need all of them because of our setup!

Maybe we still get another 5 trough the ACO, but I am not counting on it. If we do, we will post them here for face value first, but we might add GA tickets with those for a little bit more money than they cost at the gate, because we got them through a ticket agency and they are more expensive there.

Thanks Knetter, I think you're right on the third pass - as long as we can get two cars in the situation isn't too bad. 

I gave up holding out much hope that something would turn up at face value and I can't bear the trauma of sorting it all out with only one pass in June  >:(

It still really pi$$es me off that they guy flogging the one at £175 says he's got a number of passes to sell.  It's no wonder the ACO are cracking down on who they issue passes to.  I really hope that they are looking at Ebay and trying to get to grips with some of the people who are causing the problems. 

I agree with you to a certain extent Piglet, but unfortunately the eBay market will always remain while people buy tickets at inflated prices from there. If people didn't pay the prices they would have to sell them at face value or less and hopefully wouldn't buy them the following year.

I think the only way the ACO could clamp down would be to only allow collection on site of the tickets maybe, or only sell to subscribers and then set a rule that you have to show a membership card as well as your ticket to gain entry.

Part of the problem is induced by the ACO as they ahve proven to be unreliable in providing tickets to thsoe who booked them (i.e. you and I) so chances are I will probably order more than I may need for next year, and place the order two ro three times through different people in our group in the hope that one of us is successful.

At least the guy who's one is currently going for £175 started his price at 99p. The one you bought was fixed at £105 I believe and another guy just sold one at £150 fixed so has put another one up at £150 starting price or £160 buy it now.

Looks like your early one was a bargain Roy!!!

It's not just Le Mans this happens at of course! My parents tried to buy me a ticket for an England 6 Nations game for my birthday and the cheapest they could find was £350.

In Holland the A1GP-fever has struck. The camping next to the Zandvoort circuit (http://a1.hetisgeregeld.nl/site/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26) is selling tickets for € 20,- a square metre.

That is equivilant to €700,- per Maison Blanche ticket directly from the ACO. I wonder what that would do on eBay... :-\

I see someone on ebay has just sold their 2 tickets for Houx at a disgustingly overpriced £152.50 and wait for it £178.04...........hmmmmmm oh yeah their id is Porsche0017 wonder if they are in the owners club. I suggest that they donate some of their rich profits to a suitable charity.

The guy put the tickets on a public auction at a starting price of £40. Nothing "disgusting" about that.  His 3rd ticket fetched £62. It's the guys who bid who make the price. That's called supply and demand.
Blame the ACO whose failure to run a fair booking system feeds the market.   They are quite happy to allocate large quantities of tickets to clubs and agencies, giving them priority over their own members. Until that changes there will always be a secondary market.
They promised an on-line booking system for this year. So far 5 deadlines have come and gone and now there's  no set date and no on-line system.

I seem to remember a similar delay last year. I believe it was just after the 24 Hours Moto that the online booking went live. My guess is the same will happen this year.

Maybe, but it was promised for mid-February this year. Don't hold your breath.

I won't (afterall, we're talking about the ACO)........ ::)

Is it an idea to hold a competition about the most ridiculest prices found on internet?

I'll start off with this one>> CLICK! (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LE-MANS-CAMPING-PERMIT-PASS-MAISON-BLANCHE-CAMPSITE-06_W0QQitemZ6623172070QQcategoryZ10054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Interestingly, there is someone selling a ticket on *bay using the Club Arnage 2006 photo from this forum... the silver car on the home page!!!

Cheeky bugger!!

I'll write him a stiff note.

Chased thats link with horror. I got 3 passes fopr that.

Anyway what abvlout this one :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6623075254&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX

21 hours to go, £21 ??

I wish i knew how this person made 2 x 93 Euros and some expenses = £300 !!!

http://tinyurl.com/r7oze

Double Bubble!

MB isn't a bad grandstand, but there are no seatbacks, and its too far from the pits/start/finish.  £150 dream on.

Now £82 for a MB camping pass is good value.  Still twice face value

I have a bluey if you want it Reesy. Face value (of course) plus postage.
Cheers
Zippy

Hi,

Just decided to add my comments on this matter. ::)

In good faith I offered my space Camping Blue North ticket on this forum for 3 weeks, at face value..I had no takers.

Rather than loose money I put it onto 'that' bidding site as an auction (not a greedy Buy It Now at inflated price) and sold it at a couple of quid over face value.

 :)I am very pleased to have sold it, but if I did get much more than face value then great..I gave club members first chance.

I am sure that some people are selling via auction just to profit but those of us that are not should not be tarred with the same brush...

Anyway..I'm coming back this year after 10 year gap, and bringing my 5 year old....can't wait :)......Wendy

It seems that e*** isnt a guarantee of profit -  although a MB ticket has just gone for £215, other tickets are selling below face value or failing to meet reserve price!

I wonder if someone has been reading CA forums and actually believes MB is dead posh!

 :D

Could it be that both MB and Houx are now becoming respectable as both sites have our illustrious moderators controlling what goes on....LOL