CORTIS' Seoul Anniversary Show Pre-Sale Sparks Scalping Outrage

Pre-sales for CORTIS' <PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN> Tour stop in Seoul have officially begun and while many fans rejoiced in excitement over obtaining tickets a large majority noticed an ongoing issue. There were a large number of overseas resellers who had scalped most of the tickets in what was meant to be a domestic sale.

On July 22 at 8 p.m. KST domestic membership pre-sale for the group's anniversary show in Seoul opened on Korean distributor Melon Ticket. The requirements to participate in this pre-sale were simple, have a COER membership and officially legally reside within South Korea. These types of pre-sales have begun taking place for various shows within South Korea due to the large number of not just resellers but due to the influx of concert tourism as well.

This newly set system is one that was set in place to give some sort of priority to the local residents however, it seems a loop was found for a mass amount of resellers to have gotten their hands on the scarcely available tickets. Not just that, they now have been listed on various reselling websites for over double the price.

The tickets who originally are a maximum of 153k KRW ($100) are now being resold for almost 1M KRW ($680) which prompted an X user to say, "we cannot be this greedy to treat this first anniv party like a business to profit from instead of letting actual fans celebrate and experience it.. now i'm not gonna be surprised if we have empty seats in there cause this greed will ruin everything"

More fans also took to social media to express their disappointment with these proxy services and resellers, while others felt confused as to how it was possible that these overseas resellers could have gotten access and most of the tickets as well. An X user wrote, "I hate this because it is always same obsessed sasaengs that don't even listen to boys music just obsessed with looks who will be there frozen with cameras and phones whole time, while normal fans don’t get a chance..."

With two rounds of ticket sales still remaining, including the global membership pre-sale and the general sale open to all fans, many hope more genuine fans will still have an opportunity to secure seats. At the same time, attention has shifted toward whether the same resale issues will continue throughout the remaining sales.

Beyond CORTIS' anniversary concert, the situation has reignited broader questions about how professional resellers continue to bypass increasingly strict ticketing systems and whether current safeguards are enough. As agencies and ticketing platforms introduce measures designed to prioritize genuine fans, many are now asking what additional steps can be taken to better identify large-scale resellers and ensure those tickets end up with the people they were intended for.