Posted on 12/10/2009 4:00:22 PM PST by all the best
Dozens of people among the throngs of jubilant fans hold crudely made cardboard signs featuring the words "I Need Tickets." Strangely, these people who, to an outsider, appear to be in desperate need of tickets for the big game, hold numerous tickets high above their head so everyone can see. These people are the noble ticket scalpers.
They are a people scorned by athletic organizations, lawmakers, and many fans. What are they doing to merit such ill will and legal persecution? Are they truly unscrupulous, greedy parasites who dupe fans and injure the athletic organizations?
The United States does not have a federal prohibition on ticket scalping, but many states and even more municipalities have restrictions or outright prohibitions. This is very unfortunate for everyone attending events in such areas because the ticket scalpers are real public servants. The laws, to the degree that they are enforced, are actually responsible for the majority of the unfavorable things attributed to the practice of scalping.
Scalpers provide a myriad of services and benefits to a surprisingly large, and seemingly disconnected, group of individuals, businesses, and organizations. Surely, they deserve praise rather than scorn and persecution.
One of the first beneficiaries of the Scalper's services are the athletic organizations themselves. This may seem surprising, since many event organizers go to great lengths to discourage fans from purchasing from scalpers. Scalpers enable the teams to presell tickets much more effectively. This is because scalpers are willing to purchase tickets in advance in the hope of being able to hold them for some period, and then resell them for a profit.
In contrast, many people are unsure, at the time of presale, if they will be able to take off from work or other obligations. This uncertainty leads people to abstain from purchasing until they...
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
Tickets to an event are a 'commodity', and as such the scalper is taking a speculative investment risk that their purchased commodity will pay off ... sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't (and I can relate examples too) ... the venue and performer already have those tix sold, so they are getting their $$$ either way.
There is no rational reason for prohibitive anti-scalping laws ... none whatsoever.
-- MM
As one who has, not many years past, spent many many hours at sporting and other events, holding forth a different “ticket”, i have found scalpers to be unique and very hardworking people, and even defending our work. I am sorry that it is illegal, and cannot support doing illegal stuff, though it certainly is capitalism. If it is not legalized i hope they can get out of it, but many of them have records for relatively minor offenses which makes it hard for them to get regular jobs.
It's like if you want to pollute, you buy an emissions permit. If, like tickets to a particular event, the total emissions permits are limited or "capped", some unscrupulous individuals would buy pollutions permits they have no intent of using on the hope of reselling or "trading" them at a higher price to make a profit.
Any honest government would move to discourage such mendacious activity.
haha...you should read about the crooks at the Vancouver Olympics...
>I am sorry that it is illegal, and cannot support doing illegal stuff, though it certainly is capitalism.
Legal and illegal are quickly becoming irrelevant, and this is why: if the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and it means nothing, then all subordinate laws mean less than nothing.
Ummm... That's called free enterprise or capitalism. What's wrong with that? It sounds like your post is saying one should only buy what one needs- no excess buying should be allowed.
Apples and Oranges comparison, one has nothing to do with the other. And besides, you said "honest government", so right there your comparison becomes fallible.
-- MM
I understand the controversy over it, and the comments on the blog somewhat talk about that, that property can be contracted, or comparing it to the airline industry.
BTW the “tickets” I was offering were gospel tracts. No reselling them!
Christmas tree sellers do the same thing.
Buy what they don’t need.
Trees have an expiration date.
Hope to sell at a profit.
Not illegal in Indiana!
Agree with you.
I sold concert tickets for over a year here in Edinburgh. Made beaucoup money at it. I bought a lot of Edinburgh Tattoo tickets that year as well and when I sold them, most of my customers were either concierges at the nice hotels in the city or guests of those hotels (who arranged over the internet with me via Ebay or local internet community boards).
The way it seemed to me, these people were businessmen who maybe didn't know 6 months in advance that they would wind up in Edinburgh. Then they found themselves there during the festival and figured they'd like to go to the Tattoo. But if you wait until the festival starts to try and get Tattoo tickets you can forget it. I was providing a pretty good service to these people- buying the tickets in advance and holding them until nearer the time of the event. They were willing enough to pay an elevated price that reflected the demand for the item versus its scarcity. They seemed pretty happy with this arrangement.
Let's say you and two friends got tickets for a sh!t hot band you wanted to see like 4 months before the gig. Then 2 weeks before the gig you started going out with a new girlfriend who had no ticket. Back when you bought the tickets, 3 seemed like enough but now it seems a travesty to go without your girlfriend and the tickets are sold-out. Scalpers offer a way to take your girlie along with you. I can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is with that. I definitely see it as a service to the public.
And your point is ??? That the scalpers are asking outrageous prices in advance of the event? What is new or shocking about that? This is how supply and demand works.
Maybe you should read about how scalpers took a bath at the Beijing Olympics both in advance and at the door .......
Salt of the earth.
My new retirement plan is to smuggle cigarettes, incandescent light bulbs, fois gras, transfats and whatever else the federal, state or local governments have decided to ban or attempt to tax out of existence
No, that the guy who bribed the SLC Organizing Committee has the USOC allotment of tickets...
It takes two to tango. And the article you linked to regarding Vancouver illustrates this explicitly. It isn't just an opportunist 'scalper' at work here, but also complicit Olympic officials making deals on the side for Sponsors, VIP's, the well heeled, etc ... again, nothing new here, it's been going on for ages and always will.
Where you may have a small point on this article is how the Organizers *promised* "affordable, fan-friendly games" ... and all I can say to that is: blah blah blah ... how many times have we heard *THAT* nonsense before? Ticket allocation for events is and always has been 'corrupt' at worst and 'unfair' at best, at least in the eyes of those who feel that they've been 'victimized' by it, which they really haven't been.
As far as Hotels are concerned? Why shouldn't they try to maximize their profit level for hot events? Heck, they probably lose plenty during 'slow season' where there isn't anything happening in town. If someone wants a room during the Olympics and there is a high demand, then it should be priced accordingly ... on the other side, if someone wants a room two weeks *after* the Olympics it may be hundreds of dollars less, also priced according to supply and demand. Would the latter 'two weeks after event' guest demand that he pay the higher rack rate price of two weeks before? Didn't think so.
We've become a culture of whining complainers, thinking that life has to be 'fair' to us at all times in everything. While that is a nice expecation, it has absolutely nothing to do with reality.
As an anti-anecdote about the 'complaints' regarding Olympic Hotel Packages, here is one of mine:
Paul McCartney 2002, Madison Square Garden NYC -- I want to go to this show and I want to take my girlfriend. I want a hotel in the city and I want good seats to the show. I don't want to have to rack thru all the logistics of doing this on my own, so I call some "travel arranger" company which does it all -- for a price -- and they do so, for some 4 times the face value of the tickets(!) I don't care about price, I just want what I want and money is no object.
It turns out that the hotel is some little crummy hole in the wall worth about $100/night, but the McCartney tix are first rate seat location. So the question goes out: Did I get "scalped" ??? No, in my mind I got exactly what I expected --- great seats to the Paul McCartney concert. So who is a 'victim' here ???
-- MM
Let the markets work!
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