Pop star economics: What your kids dont know about Justin Bieber

If Justin Bieber was your daughter's boyfriend, you would not have to worry about getting her great seats to his next show. However, since your daughter is most likely not his girlfriend (you're not reading this are you Mrs. Gomez?), then you are very likely one of the millions of people who did not get tickets to hear The Biebs sing Boyfriend during his sold-out Believe tour.

Of course, in a few years from now, your tween will emphatically declare she is so over Justin Bieber and will be embarrassed by any reminders of her former fandom (hint:keep those posters for blackmail purposes later). Whether or not you were able to snag tickets to the Believe tour while your daughter is still at the height of her Bieber fever may just be her first lesson in pop star economics.

[More: We're loonie for dollar stores! How dollar stores add up to big business]

Supply and demand

The Biebs has 29.5 million Twitter followers (waitoh, 30, there it is!). In theory, if all those fans wanted to attend one of his concerts, he could sell out a 20,000 seat show, 1,475 times. In other words, he could sell out a show every single night for four years straight. Of course, he's not crazy enough to do that. So you can see that demand clearly outstrips supply.

The first rule of economics is that the more demand exceeds supply, the higher the price rises. The few people who did manage to score tickets - and are willing to part with them - are now selling them for double, even triple, what they paid. Any parents you see on Craigslist or Kijiji looking to buy Justin Bieber tickets for their kid's 9th birthday and "willing to pay face value" will have a better chance securing a ride on Santa's sleigh next month.

So when your daughte! r claims it's not fair that her friend's parents were willing to shell out $800 to buy Bieber tickets and you're not you can remind her, that actually, it is fair a fair market price based on what people are willing to pay.

[More: More than just a pretty face: Celebrities with a social edge]

Although that fact will be of absolutely no consolation to her, this would be your moment to coax her into improving her math and science scores so she can become a neurosurgeon and thereby afford as many pop star concert tickets as she wishes for her kids one day.

The secondary market

Scalpers have come a long way from your days of scoring last-minute nosebleed seats to the INXS concert. The street corner element still exists, but most have been replaced by computer savvy professional "ticket brokers", legitimate sites such as StubHub, and casual one-off "beer money brokers" and "soccer moms".

When tickets to a pop star concert go on sale, only a fraction of the seats are actually available for you to buy. Industry experts suggest that an average 10% of tickets are sold in advance to the pop star's fan club. And a huge chunk gets sold to American Express card holders (that