system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are ticket scalpers able to buy thousands of tickets before i can even purchase one?

I tried to buy tickets to an event recently and all the tickets sold out in less then a minute. How is this possible?
gpt
There's a lot of articles on the web about this. 

The answer? Bots. 

Coders are programming things to buy tickets as soon as they become available. This really is a microcosm of a "call to arms" we see in insurance ads, etc because one person started doing it and created an unfair advantage. 

This has escalated so much that any competitive online space (reservations for top restaurants) have bots created by coders trolling to pick up any time slot / offering and multiple ones at that; they can just later cancel orders or reservations they dont want or give it to friends.