Concert and sports tickets disappearing as memorabilia and collectables

When I was a kid, people liked collecting matchbooks. In those days smoking was prevalent in bars, restaurants and hotels and a lot of those establishments would leave baskets of matchbooks at the checkout counter for people to take.
Now with smoking banned in most such businesses, matches have been replaced by mints at the checkout counter or reception desk.
Another collecting trend likely going by the wayside is saving concert and sports tickets as mementos. That’s because thick glossy souvenir paper tickets are giving way to cheap print-your-own tickets or e-tickets.
The benefits to event companies from the shift are obvious. The self-printed and e-tickets have bar codes that can be scanned at the gate, preventing fraud from counterfeit tickets.
But such tickets have no collector value since they’re typically unattractive and can be easily photocopied.
I still have tickets to some concerts that I went to the 1980s and ’90s. But young people today probably aren’t keeping their tickets. Instead, they’re more likely to use cellphone photos of the events as their mementos.

Photos: “Just the Ticket: Ticket Stub Organizer” by Peter Pauper Press sold on Amazon.com.

See also:

Is It The Death of the Concert Ticket?! infographic by Authority Tickets.

The Death of the Concert Ticket (The Presurfer; June 3, 2012)