On Ticket Scalping

Filed in archive Buying Stuff on October 4, 2007

Flexo has a good post on ticket scalping, a subject I have thought about a lot but never blogged. To follow up on his thoughts, here are mine.

It sucks to want to see a show or sports event and be shut out. It sucks even more if you then see that there are loads of tickets being sold for three, four, five, fifteen times their face value by a ticket broker. It sucks, but is it wrong? Are you getting the shaft, or are you just a poor loser who wasn't willing to do what it takes to get a ticket?

The question comes down to how tickets end up in the hands of ticket brokers. Are venues somehow giving them first dibs, or are brokers using underhanded techniques to be first in line or get more tickets than their share? In most cases, I think the answer is no. They may be using more sophisticated techniques, like multiple buyers in physical lines and multiple purchasers working the computers and phones, but that's not underhanded.

You have to think about a ticket brokerage as a business. The scalper is taking a chance on buying tickets, calculating whether the tickets can be re-sold at a higher price, and how many tickets to go after. If they misjudge the market, they can end up with tickets they sell at below face value or simply never get paid for. So, while there is an incentive for them to buy up tickets to hot concerts/sporting events, they're taking a risk, and thus they can't and won't usually buy up every seat available. On the other hand, for a sure thing, they'll happily get as many people as they can in line to snap up tickets, and others will be shut out.

Bottom line: tickets are a supply and demand item. Sometimes the demand is high, and you as a ticket buyer have to decide how bad you want it. In my book, the venues would be smart to auction off the best seats to a concert and keep the money for themselves instead of seeing it go to a broker, but either way you as a consumer will pay more for those seats. Fact is, you're lucky you even get a shot at front row seats at a reasonable price. They could be jacked up from the get-go if promoters wanted to go this route.

In short, paying through the nose for tickets to someone or something you really want to see, sucks. But that's life, kid. It sucks to have to pay a zillion dollars to live on the beach or to go for a ride to the space station or to buy an iPhone before the price cut. It's your money and you have to decide every day what something is worth to you and whether you're willing to pay the price. If you're not willing, you can be disappointed, but don't try to blame someone else.