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It was a really noble effort on their part. They were arguably one of the biggest bands in the world at that time and sadly they failed to make any impact on this issue.

Since then Ticketmaster has only grown more powerful.

It's interesting to read this article in from that time in NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/15/arts/pearl-jam-bows-to-tic...

Somewhat more recently comedian Louis CK attempted it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/26/louis-ck-ticketmast...

I can't find a good copy of his conclusions from that experiment in my searches right now, but I remember his emails from around that time were not always the happiest.

He is still selling direct to fans on his site and from the looks of this he has taken this a step further by actively invalidating resold tickets;

https://louisck.net/tour-dates

Ironically enough, when you click "buy tickets" it takes you to Ticketmaster.
Louis CK was successful in 2012, although he admitted it meant playing smaller obscure theaters.
I bought tickets to his tour when he did that, it was as good a ticket buying experience as there could be, and even included a download of the show. It was disappointing to hear that he has since stopped doing his own ticket sales.

Previous comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11837453

I bought tickets to the San Diego show on the Vitalogy tour from ETM. They went out of business in 2000: http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/20/business/fi-42758