I feel like every time I look for tickets for a sporting event or a concert these days the prices are just ridiculous. And I think it has a lot to do with these ticket resale sites like Stubhub. First of all I assume tickets are bought originally at face value and one ridiculous fee is charged by Ticketmaster or whoever sold them, then they are posted to a resale site for an increased cost and then another crazy fee is tacked on after that! It basically makes it impossible to get a ticket at a "normal" price when most of your money goes to fees and resellers instead of toward the ticket itself. And many events seem to sell out in minutes and then the tickets are posted online for double or triple the price. Even the nosebleeds end up being more than I want to pay.
I mean, my wife and I thought about going to see a band that we like, they are kind of new and local and rising in popularity, but I've never once heard them on the radio or even satellite radio. They have 3 shows and they are all sold out. The cheapest tickets we can get are $150, but there are thousands being sold so I can't imagine there's that much demand that is making the prices so high. It's insane. Then along with drink prices, parking, and everything else it makes it tough to be able to afford to do anything fun.
Anyway, I could rant forever about the fees and how flawed the system is, but what I really want to know is what can I do about it? I assume I can keep checking Stubhub and maybe prices will go down at the last minute, but that makes it tough to plan anything in advance and you still end up paying a fee. I can try to be better about trying to get tickets when they originally go on sale, but I haven't had much luck with that since they sell out in minutes. Or do I just accept that this is the way it is now?
December 20, 2018 at 08:48AM
