Scalping vs. "Handling Fees."

Factual Questions
1

I recently purchased a couple of tickets for a campus event through ticketmaster, and was a bit surprised to note that the company had tacked on a few extra dollars as a ‘handling fee.’

Now, seeing as how my university is a very popular football school, the UPD are constantly on the lookout for scalpers during game days. The rule is that one cannot sell his tickets for more than 1 dollar the face value. Anything more than that is considered scalping.

So, my question. How does Ticketmaster get away with it?

More importantly, how can I get in on it?

2

Personally (IMHO) I think Ticketmaster is one of the biggest “scams” going. I’ve seen $10 “handling” fees on $45 tickets before. It was insane.

I think they are almost as much (if not more) of a monopoly than Microsoft ever was and I’d love to see them get taken to task on it.

How do they get away with it? I think its because nobody with bigger pockets has put up a fight yet.

3

Just a WAG but contracted distributor?

Ticketmaster has a huge distribution network. They distribute tickets for the venue probably for litle if any charge. In exchange they are premitted by the venue to charge a “handling fee” much like people charge you for shipping when you buy a book. There are business models out there for mail order/third party processing where the shipping/handling fees are most of the revenues.

4

I believe that Ticketmaster could easily defend its charge of a “handling fee” as not being scalping if that fee is charged consistently (either as a constant dollar amount or a consistent percentage) over all of its ticket sales.

IE, if they charge you a 200% “handling fee” for NFL Playoff tickets but only a 20% handling fee for regular season NFL tickets, that might be considered scalping - but if they charge a 20% handling fee for both, then it’s easily defended as their normal processing charge.

5

Here’s a good page listing all the ticket scalping laws, including actual cites to the state law.

Using that, I looked up the Connecticut law, which says the you can only have “a reasonable service charge for services actually rendered not to exceed three dollars”. Why isn’t TicketMaster illegal then? Because another part of the law says:

I imagine other states have similar exceptions.

6

Can anyone explain to me why the resale of tickets should be viewed differently from that of food, clothing, houses or anything else? I’ve always been puzzled by this. If at the last minute I decide I’d like to attend a popular basketball game, play or opera and it takes $80 to make a fan part with a $40 ticket, where’s the problem?

7

Because the people who own the venues don’t get any of the money that the scalpers charge extra for.

There are other less selfish reasons given, but that is one of the primary reasons. I would think this topic has been covered in GD.

In many states, the resale of tickets is allowed except on the grounds of the facility where it is taking place. In California, I can resell any ticket for whatever price I can get as long as I don’t do it at the arena or stadium.

8

True, but they also don’t lose any of the money that they originally charged for the ticket. And ticket resale may put some butts in some seats that otherwise were going to stay empty, leading to more concession sales, etc.

All sorts of things are re-sold by all sorts of people every day (cf. eBay). I’m darned if I can see why tickets should be different.