Hmmm, interesting comments H, and I have to say, ones that I can sympathise with.
Having had a quick look at the forum stats
http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=;action=stats, at the bottom, new members do seem to be consistently between 6 and a dozen per month.
Looking at those new members
http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=;action=mlall;start=540 and
http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=;action=mlall;start=570, a good deal of those posts (between 1 and 5ish) do seem to be along the lines of "Desparate request, the ACO have no camping tickets / grandstands / sense of humour / compassion for their fellow man etc".
Thus, it's fair to say, the majority of newbie posts between October and May are along these lines.
Do these people leave it to the last minute every year (if they go to LM every year) and hence these posts?
Furthermore, is it fair to say the ACO are unhelpfull to their pleas for tickets, or do they not realise it's prudent to book WAY in advance?
My group book a whole wad of tickets direct from the ACO (this year 10 camping, 20 admission, 8 grandstand) and we appreciate the need to book early.
So do the ACO respond more favourably to those who are punctual and book a greater quantity of tickets? After all, it must be easier for the ticket ladies to deal with 500 people wanting 10 tickets each than 5000 people wanting 1 ticket.
So, do the newbies request 1 or 2 tickets 12 months in advance, only to be let down at the eleventh hour - and should they hence have to sniff around the auction sites and scalpers?
Therefore, if the aforementioned should think "sh*t, it's March, I need a LM ticket", it's only reasonable to expect them to pay a premium.
But, if they requested tickets 12 months before and the ACO shafted them, then that's a bit of a b'stard.
In summing up (your honour), I think I've posed a whole load more questions here than giving an opinion. If I was asked to come down off the fence, I would say "If you've left it this late, you have to pay" but hopefully people will learn a valuable lesson for 2005.