Ticket Scalping

Scalpers are a cross between a drug dealer and a used car salesman. They have a focused swagger that gets down to business. There is a limited time to make a sale of a premium-priced product whose value is dropping by the minute once the game starts.

Why is there a market for this in the 21st century when it is so easy to get tickets online, either original or resells? There must be 3 main customer types for the scalper:

1. Someone who has no internet access or does not know how to find tickets online
2. Someone who randomly decides to try buying a scalped ticket
3. Someone who loves the game of trying to get a deal even when the odds are stacked against them (unless they wait until the game is far enough along so that demand falls sharply)

I was in the category of #2 above in my visit last weekend to the University of Alabama. I really enjoyed the entertainment of offering ridiculously low prices for tickets that were overpriced to see the looks of disdain on the face of seller. It was also fun to watch the persistence of someone determined to get tickets at their price, even though they were offering $100 less than the asking price.

Eventually we gave up and went to the sports bar.