How come ticket brokers can buy thousands of of tickets for concerts before the public even has a chance, then sell them at inflated prices, but I can’t buy 20 tickets ahead of time for some movie and then sell them at an inflated price outside the theater? I personally think both are wrong but it is hypocritical.
Because they’re better crooks than you?
If by better you mean richer and more connected, you’re probably right.
Uh, I guess there might be rules against movie ticket scalping, but I think the most prominent reason is going to be the law of supply and demand. In almost all cases, you’re going to be a dodgy looking guy selling inflated price tickets right next to the official box office, selling them for cheaper. Most of the time, a movie isn’t sold out, or people are flexible about what they see. I guess you could do this for the midnight showing of the next Harry Potter movie but I doubt you’re going to be able to get too expensive.
A WAG but I speculate there is collusion involved.
Venues could raise official ticket prices higher. But there are various people who have to be paid a percentage of the official ticket price. Let’s say that a venue knows it could sell all its tickets for $300 apiece. But it’s obligated to pay 50% of what it sells its tickets for to other people. If the venue sells tickets for $300, it has to pay out $150.
Now let’s say the venue makes a deal with a scalper (or let’s say the scalper works for the venue). The venue sells a block of tickets to the scalper for $50 apiece and pays $25 to the people it owes a share to. The scalper then turns around and resells the tickets for $300 apiece, making a $250 profit on each ticket.
The scalper then turns around and kicks back $200 of that to the venue. The venue doesn’t have to pay any of this money out (they’re only obligated to pay out a percentage of the original sale) so they keep the $200 plus the $25 they made from the original sale.