Has anyone noticed how angry scalpers get when you point out that the guy on the opposite corner of the intersection needs two tickets which, by pure coincidence, he has?

Mr. Coffee Nerves: As much as ticket brokers/scalpers deserve to be consigned to the "Extra Spiky Rhino Penises Suite where the TV only gets 'Small Wonder' reruns" corner of Hell Acres I can't hate them as much as I hate the fact that teams are scalping their own tickets by offering "Special Tailgate Packages" where a $75 ticket to a "sold out" event becomes a $275 ticket that entitles the purchaser to wait on line for an hour for a "free" beer and hot dog.

You can thank Ticketmaster for this. They've been skimming tickets to TicketsNow for years for that multi-hundred percent markup.

Went to the Rams vs Ravens game a couple weeks ago with a Field Pass/All Access that one of my friends had gotten from his connected girlfriend, when scalpers asked us if we needed tickets, we smiled and showed them our passes, which they subsequently started offering upwards of $1500 for, individually. We immediately switched to their tone of voice and went into the "sheeeeeit, bro, that's less than I paid for these, you're taking food off of my kids' table tonight selling it for that. You gotta gimme at least double that."

They were not amused.

And so now they're doing it just as a public service?

One of my mom's friends from way back is a scalper from Montreal. She lets him sleep on her couch when he comes down to Toronto for major events.

He's a slimeball.


/csb

Ugh concerts are the worst. All the tickets are gone within the first hour and then you have to go through a 3rd party and pay 150% markup. Those people should be hung from the town square

Last time I sold tickets it was for 5 bucks less than face, I got them for free the guy I sold them to seemed confused.

inclemency: One of my mom's friends from way back is a scalper from Montreal. She lets him sleep on her couch when he comes down to Toronto for major events.

He's a slimeball.


/csb

There are ALOT of "your Mom" jokes in there.

JC

JoeCowboy: inclemency: One of my mom's friends from way back is a scalper from Montreal. She lets him sleep on her couch when he comes down to Toronto for major events.

He's a slimeball.


/csb

There are ALOT of "your Mom" jokes in there.

JC

I figured they were too obvious and I know they're just friends (now anyways, who knows about 20 years ago... I don't care to inquire.)

R.A.Danny: That's kind of the idea. Look at what repealing prohibition did to illicit alcohol sales.

This shouldn't of made me laugh.

tiny ass-violin for the "brokers", now if that ain't a completely worthless segment of society...

/ok, most of the city itself is a worthless segment of society, sadly...

bulldg4life: Has anyone noticed how angry scalpers get when you point out that the guy on the opposite corner of the intersection needs two tickets which, by pure coincidence, he has?

Opposite corner? When we went to a Reds game they were standing next to each other. (First MLB game visiting a friend). I looked at them both, said. "You have tickets, he has tickets. Problem solved!".

"Aww no man, see he wants $20 more for them than I have. How about you give me $20 and we'll be good."

It's days like that I wish I had counterfeit $20s.
-
My only other scalping experience was trying to get 2 college basketball tickets for a big game at home. I spent 3 weeks in India last fall. Scalpers have nothing on Indian merchants.

"How much."
- "$50 each."
"Um, Face value for them is $50 total"
- "Ok, ok, how about $60 total".
"Look, I can go sit on my ass in the bar and watch this for free. First quarter is over and in another 15 minutes those will worth less than half that. In another hour you're going to be holding on to an expensive pair of souvenirs. So you can stand out in the cold begging for an extra few $ or take what I give you and go home. $40 final offer."
- "Oh, I can't do that."
Rolled up the window and started driving away.
- "Wait wait. Fine".

The best part was the old usher that was like "Aw, you guys didn't get seats together. Let me see what I can do." And put us in the "Rich Alumni Donor" section 3 rows behind the bench.

Also, at a large Big 10 school where the demographics are mostly white Indiana farm kids. Where da White Scalpers At?

From TFA:
"Chicago is the best," said Green. "If the Cubs ever make it to the Series, it would pay my mortgage for 100 years."

1. Keep dreaming.
2. Your mortgage needs paid for 100 years? The housing crunch hit St. Louis hard I guess.
3. Still would not be long enough to see the Cubs make it back to another Series.
4. Only a scumbag scalper would ever utter the words "Chicago is the best"
5. Pujols juices.

I have no problem using StubHub, I got a killer seat for the Phish show at the Hollywood Bowl for $150 that was going for $250 for that section on the lot the night of the show.

I also have been on the other side of the coin, Neil Young at the Nokia Theater next to Staples. My friend and I thought we were clever, we'd each buy an extra and sell it to pay for our seats. D'oh! Our $200 worth of extra tickets sold for $40 to a dude who didn't even know who Neil Young was, he was there scalping tickets for the Lakers game going on at the same time.

/The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away

I don't get the hate for scalpers.

What is wrong with simple supply and demand?

I could see hating on the teams for allowing groups to purchase blocks of tickets to resell.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111025&content_id=25785396&v key=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

pussies postpone game

Look kid, I provide a service, and that service costs money.

Leader O'Cola: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111025&content_id=25785396& v key=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

pussies postpone game

I just heard that, exactly what i was thinking too.

Scalpers set up on the same corners for ever Florida State home game. Other than one or two games a year (uf, Miami OU, etc) tickets are really eay to get for way less then face value. How these guys make any money is beyond me.

Got four tickets last week for the Maryland game that had a $45 face each for $75 total. Could have got them cheeper on the way to the game but wanted to pick my seats, so I hit up ebay

the1hatman: From TFA:
"Chicago is the best," said Green. "If the Cubs ever make it to the Series, it would pay my mortgage for 100 years."

1. Keep dreaming.
2. Your mortgage needs paid for 100 years? The housing crunch hit St. Louis hard I guess.
3. Still would not be long enough to see the Cubs make it back to another Series.
4. Only a scumbag scalper would ever utter the words "Chicago is the best"
5. Pujols juices.

I would think that a scalpers metric for which team is best has more to do with what the fans are willing to pay to see them than how good the team actually is. If the Chicago Cubs did make it to the world series, I would expect that the large and loyal fanbase will probably pay hand over fist for the tickets.

Likewise, a 'broker' with Toronto Maple Leafs tickets to a Stanley cup Finals game would probably be able to sell them for a great deal more than if the tickets were for the Ottawa Senators.

END COMMUNICATION

I love living in St Pete. From this year's first round of the playoffs:



/suck it, scalpers

Hmmm...legalize it, and suddenly prices go down, corruption disappears, and the profiteers start crying, whoda thunk it?

I'm not drawing any parallels here...nosiree.

Hmmm...legalize it, and suddenly prices go down, corruption disappears, and the profiteers start crying, whoda thunk it?

I'm not drawing any parallels here...nosiree.

You forgot the property confiscations by police as a profit center.
And the inflated headlines when a 1-ounce confiscation takes "millions in street value" off the market.

cannotsuggestaname: huh, I work for StubHub so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

Seriously. I do work for StubHub and I find the article funny. World Series is our busiest time of year, and our "brokers" are making money hand over fist. The corner brokers are feeling the pinch since they can't sell fraudulent tickets as easily as they used to.

Every night I pray to FSM that everyone involved in "ticket brokering" gets raped by a pack of AIDS infested mental patients in the parking lot of the hospital where their mother just died of cancer.

Can someone explain the hate for StubHub? They are a marketplace -- they don't hold inventory.

The huge benefit of the rise of StubHub (even over Craigslist and eBay) is how incredibly effcient the market is becoming. In the good old days, you had to pay cash in a back alley for questionable tickets from some mean looking dude who mocked you when you wanted to negotiate. Now the street scalpers are getting run out of town by StubHub, as anyone can post their inventory a penny below a "broker" and sell their extra seats.

For events where demand is just less than supply, prices fall HARD. I routinely buy tickets for Rays and Lightning games for $10 or less, and can sometimes get premium seats in the $20-25 range. In the example I posted above, scalpers were stuck with huge stacks of tickets to a game where they could be had for 1/2 of face value on StubHub. They got slaughtered that day.

I don't get the StubHub hate either

Now Ticketmaster, scorn away. Scorn -hard-.

Lord Zardoz: the1hatman: From TFA:
"Chicago is the best," said Green. "If the Cubs ever make it to the Series, it would pay my mortgage for 100 years."

1. Keep dreaming.
2. Your mortgage needs paid for 100 years? The housing crunch hit St. Louis hard I guess.
3. Still would not be long enough to see the Cubs make it back to another Series.
4. Only a scumbag scalper would ever utter the words "Chicago is the best"
5. Pujols juices.

I would think that a scalpers metric for which team is best has more to do with what the fans are willing to pay to see them than how good the team actually is. If the Chicago Cubs did make it to the world series, I would expect that the large and loyal fanbase will probably pay hand over fist for the tickets.

Likewise, a 'broker' with Toronto Maple Leafs tickets to a Stanley cup Finals game would probably be able to sell them for a great deal more than if the tickets were for the Ottawa Senators.

END COMMUNICATION

thatsthejoke.jpg

/duh