These days, it can be hard to find tickets to see a particular musician or sporting event without having to pay more than face value for a ticket and resorting to scalper sites such as StubHub or Vivid Seats.
A fan builds up anticipation wanting to go to a concert only to be disappointed when they see that tickets are either already sold out within the first five minutes or all of the best available seating has already been taken.
After trying to purchase tickets with no luck, people often use sites such as StubHub to get their tickets. StubHub is an online marketplace owned by eBay, which provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sporting events, concerts, theater and other live entertainment events.
Ticket scalping, also known as ticket resale, is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and are then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets.
Affordable tickets are bought by ticket scalpers in mass quantities and then sold to the public for a higher price. When this happens it eliminates the average fan from being able to attend entertainment events. The events then become flooded with people who can’t afford the overpriced tickets rather than actual fans. This hurts the entertainment industry because the average fan becomes limited to the number of events that they can afford to go to.
The economy is helped by ticket scalping because of basic supply and demand. It is the ideal business practice for economical purposes. There is high demand with minimal supply to create higher ticket prices resulting in a higher revenue for the economy. However, they take the risk of purchasing the entire supply of tickets without knowing how high the demand will be.
Ticket scalping has become somewhat of a profession in its own right, it’s almost a science. A lot of the ticket scalpers have been scalping tickets for a long time. They know which venues and artists will get top dollar. Based on the popularity of the venues and artists is how they determine the number of tickets to buy and the price point of the ticket.
Some people who scalp tickets are the actual season ticket holders for that particular venue. They get priority when purchasing tickets before the public so they buy tickets and then sell them on sites such as StubHub.
These sites are often used because they can be seen as more convenient for the consumer. Often tickets can be found for a cheaper rate on these sites if the tickets are purchased last minute closer to the event date. This is done because the seller is trying to get rid of the tickets and will lower the price to do so. StubHub also provides an actual view from the seats you are purchasing eliminating the guesswork of where the seat is from the arena map.
Another benefit from using StubHub is that they include the extra fees within the ticket price. This makes the consumer think they are spending less on the actual ticket because there are no hidden fees but in reality, they are spending much more.
In the scheme of the things, it’s unfair for concert goers, sports fans, etc. to want to experience their favorite shows and/or events live and have to pay exorbitant prices when the original ticket prices are fairly priced.
There isn’t much that can be done to stop the scalper sites because as long as there are people who are willing to pay for the tickets there will always be a demand.