But that's unrelated to market efficiency. People in this thread are trying to define "seller not getting what they want" or "particular type of consumer not getting what they want" into market inefficiency, and it doesn't work like that.
I'm not an economist. Perhaps I'm wrong, but in this case please make the case in terms of a definition you can cite.
(In practical terms, they seller could reach that aim by giving people a cashback at a random time during the event for those who turned up - for example swapping a single ticket for a cashback at the end of the show as people were leaving the gates. The reason venues don't like scalpers is that they don't like price discovery because of reasons like these: (1) they want to be able to make a killing on late tickets, even if it's only for a few events per year and (2) they want to be able to sell tickets to poor people through some mechanisms at one price, and tickets to richer people through different mechanisms at another price, such as through coupon clipping or discount books or through ticket offices in poor areas, (3) they don't want tickets won through competitions being given away. That way they get to charge wealthier people a higher price than time-rich people who are typically poorer. That's inefficiency.)
Transactions can involve more than just a single flow of cash in exchange for stuff. Economists can and do look at satisfaction as part of market efficiency which explains why people pay for status symbols. Someone buying a diamond for above resale price is not necessarily simply wasting money for zero gain.
PS: Consider rather than a ticket scalper you had a group of bandits charging a toll to cross a bridge. They are not adding value to the experience of crossing a bridge and they are not helping the people who made the bride. So while arguably they increase GDP it's not a net gain for society.
The bridge crossing example doesn't contain a factor equivalent to the risk that the scalpers take on when they buy the tickets, or the fee they pay to the people running the event.
But that's unrelated to market efficiency. People in this thread are trying to define "seller not getting what they want" or "particular type of consumer not getting what they want" into market inefficiency, and it doesn't work like that.
I'm not an economist. Perhaps I'm wrong, but in this case please make the case in terms of a definition you can cite.
(In practical terms, they seller could reach that aim by giving people a cashback at a random time during the event for those who turned up - for example swapping a single ticket for a cashback at the end of the show as people were leaving the gates. The reason venues don't like scalpers is that they don't like price discovery because of reasons like these: (1) they want to be able to make a killing on late tickets, even if it's only for a few events per year and (2) they want to be able to sell tickets to poor people through some mechanisms at one price, and tickets to richer people through different mechanisms at another price, such as through coupon clipping or discount books or through ticket offices in poor areas, (3) they don't want tickets won through competitions being given away. That way they get to charge wealthier people a higher price than time-rich people who are typically poorer. That's inefficiency.)