High-Tech Ticket Scalping

Just clicking the wrong button can cost you hundreds of dollars for those "Phantom of the Opera" tickets at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. And one of the worst things is you can spend far less for much better seats if you buy from the center's site at www.tbpac.org.
The beloved musical is running in Tampa through Nov. 22. But along with the mask and the chandelier come high-tech ticket scalpers who exploit fans' passions for this and other shows, concerts and sports events into an expected $25 billion annually in scalped tickets by 2010, published sources show.
I'm sure these guys would prefer to be called "secondary ticketing companies," but let's call them what they are: scalpers. Just because they use computer programs instead of hiring line-standing surrogates and sell online instead of on street corners doesn't make them any less blight on the live entertainment industry.
While ticket scalping - the process of selling event tickets for multiples of the ticket's face value - is not new, the outrage over excesses during the Hannah Montana concert, last year's World Series' tickets and others may finally change things.
For example, Hannah Montana tickets that retailed for $26 were offered and sold for $254, $1,000 and much more. You can still buy "Phantom" tickets from the arts center in the orchestra for a maximum of $91 with fees. If you go to any of the online scalping sites - and I refuse to give them any publicity by naming them - you'll pay $336 and $386 for equivalent tickets. Why?
The scalpers claim they are providing a customer service, security and "price transparency," whatever that is. Even in the bad old days, it used to be that scalpers thrived in a naturally occurring marketplace in which consumer demand sometimes exceeded supply.
Now, through computer programs, high-tech attacks on venues' ticketing systems and other nefarious means, faceless scalpers try to artificially create a demand and then fill it with high-priced tickets that you can buy only from them.
During the Hannah Montana tour debacle, Missouri's attorney general called it "a blatant rip-off of consumers who attempt to purchase tickets in good faith through the proper means and are met with nothing but frustration."
Scalpers are even taking advantage of the inauguration.
The Washington Times reports that ticket brokers are selling tickets online to the swearing-in ceremony and inaugural parade, which are free and open to the public.
"People are too dumb to know that they're paying money for something they could get for free," Shawn Collins, a 35-year-old middle man from Summit, N.J., told the newspaper.
Several states have filed suit against scalping companies. And several states, including Missouri and Florida, are reconsidering ticketing laws.
In Florida a few years ago, a perfectly satisfactory anti-scalping law dating to 1945 - one that prevented the offer or the sale of an event ticket for more than $1 over the face value - was swept away by high-paid lobbyists and arguments of "a free marketplace."
Let's be clear. There's nothing free about scalping. Every ticket I've ever seen on a scalpers' site is more - sometimes outrageously, unconscionably more - than the venue price.
Venues such as the performing arts center want to provide the best seats at the best prices, even to the point of subsidizing some shows to reduce prices.
Here at the arts center, we do not knowingly sell to scalpers. Our policies include ticket maximums and the right to refund money and void tickets of those who violate those maximums.
And, as a publicly funded arts center, we have even more reason to try to stop anyone who makes it more expensive to attend events. We are a community resource, committed to growing future audiences for the arts.
Here's the reality: When you buy from a scalper, you will always pay more than if you buy from the source. That's how they make their money.
In our business, the relationship with customers is one of the most important goals.
But when you buy from a scalper, there is no relationship with the buyer. We cannot provide any customer service, including notices of time changes, cancellations and traffic advisories.
We can't replace your lost tickets. We can't compensate you for counterfeit or duplicate tickets.
It's heartbreaking to hear from patrons who have paid three or four times the face value for tickets, even when we have regularly priced, better seats available.
Here's what one anguished arts center patron wrote us:
"... Something has to be done about the resale policies. Normal people cannot afford to attend family events anymore.
"You should be concerned. My children will not get to see the Rockettes legend and eventually your status will fall and sales will fall and the cultural world will suffer and lose the impact on the new generation. ..."
We are concerned. We have contacted our legislators and urge you to do the same. In the meantime, do not buy from scalpers.
For the best seats at the best prices, buy directly from the venue.
Otherwise, you'll just get scalped.