Helsingin Sanomat is reporting:

Tickets for two METALLICA concerts to be held in the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki next June went on sale on Monday morning.

Demand was massive as anticipated, and the ticket sales agency Lippupalvelu announced that all 26,000 seats had been sold in around 40 minutes, though people who queued up at Lippupalvelu outlets got tickets some time after this point.

There were the usual hard-luck stories among those trying to get tickets either over the Net or by phone, as lines jammed and servers crashed under the sheer weight of interest.

Those who were desperate to go to the two gigs - but had not been quite desperate or far-sighted enough to secure a route via pre-sale arrangements for fans - soon found that the tickets were resurfacing on an online auction house at rather elevated prices.

Indeed the first sales on huuto.net had begun even days before the tickets went on sale to the general public, presumably arranged by people who had availed themselves of the pre-sale. Many sellers claimed they had "extras" because both they and their friends had been successful in getting tickets.

The list price of the seats was EUR 59.00 or EUR 69.00, but auction prices and reserves were appreciably higher.

They were pushed still higher by an influx of disgruntled punters who apparently set up accounts for the purpose and deliberately bid ridiculous sums.

In some cases the bids were on "Buy-It-Now-At-This-Price" items, whereupon the auction automatically closed but the vendor could be fairly certain he or she would not sell the tickets or get any money.

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