It’s done that way on the internet as well. People are paid by these scalpers to keep on clicking till they buy tickets. Some of these “brokers” have special software that allows them to hack into the website and buy up tickets ahead of the ordinary chump. Even if the tickets are limited to 4 per person — if you have a hundred people going in and buying up 4 tickets each or whatever, you have 400 tickets you can sell for some really inflated prices.
And believe me, people will pay big bucks particularly for major artists, shows and games. Once I got the bright idea of seeing the Rolling Stones and Dave Matthews Band in concert - the ticket sales were already over, so I wanted to see what was available via these “brokers.” The CHEAPEST seat was $400. The best seats cost thousands.
As long as these “brokers” have a market, that is, chumps wililng to pay big bucks, they will always be around.
My own episode was long before the era of online sales- we had to do it manually. We also had to walk ten miles to the ticket office, in the snow, uphill both ways...
My favorite high-priced ticket story involves no tickets at all:
Two fellows from my town went to Tempe to watch the Buckeyes play in the 2003 national championship. They went expecting to buy tickets, but when they got there, the cheapest price they could find was $1200 and up.
Unwilling to spend this, on game day, they walked up to the gate and told the gate agent, “We’re getting in. You just have to tell us how much it’ll cost us.”
$800 a person later, the gate agent got in.
My favorite high-priced ticket story involves no tickets at all:
Two fellows from my town went to Tempe to watch the Buckeyes play in the 2003 national championship. They went expecting to buy tickets, but when they got there, the cheapest price they could find was $1200 and up.
Unwilling to spend this, on game day, they walked up to the gate and told the gate agent, “We’re getting in. You just have to tell us how much it’ll cost us.”
$800 a person later, the gate agent let them in.