Is Geldof realizing he could have charged more to begin with?

As you'll see when you read the piece below, Bob Geldof is very, very mad:

Sought-after tickets for a London concert to raise the profile of poverty in Africa are being sold for inflated prices on the Internet before even being issued — and concert organizer Bob Geldof is not happy. The musician urged a boycott of eBay, accusing the online auction site of 'sick profiteering' for listing the Live 8 tickets. *** More than 100 pairs of tickets have been listed so far and some have already attracted bids of up to $1,800. "I am sick with this. It is a disgrace," Geldof said. "It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on Web sites are miserable wretches who are capitalizing on people's misery.

It's hard to tell if he's miffed that capitalism is healthily at work, or if he's irritated now that he realizes he could have asked for more money originally. The people at eBay UK have a much clearer view of the situation:

A spokeswoman for eBay said reselling charity concert tickets is not illegal under British law. "As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organizers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live 8 tickets," she said. "We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell. A ticket to the Live 8 concert is no different from a prize won in a raffle run by another charity and what the winner chooses to do with it is up to them.

Poor St. Bob. It's so hard for a rarified soul to live in a harsh capitalist environment. UPDATE: "Internet auction site eBay ended a sale of free Live 8 tickets on Tuesday after Bob Geldof, the organizer of the awareness-raising concerts, labeled the site an "electronic pimp" and urged people to swamp it." Amazing how weak-kneed capitalists are.