May 18, 2010

New ticket broker in town

Ticket brokering, aka legalized scalping, has been a hot topic in the past few years, thanks to the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, and the Bruce Springsteen Asbury Park debacle of 2009.  So when I saw something that reeked of secondary seller move into my neighborhood, I had to investigate.

SuperStarTickets.com is a website where folks (read: scalpers) can resell tickets, and whose company recently moved into a building off Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, VA, next to the Quizno's in Courthouse. And, they have an ugly logo.




Some fun facts about SuperStarTickets.com:
  • "Because most of our tickets are provided by independent, professional, secondary ticketing agencies, the price that you pay often is substantially higher than the price printed on the tickets."
  • "Since tickets are bought and sold on an open market, prices are subject to change at any time."
  • "The service charge is 11% with a $5 minimum per ticket, and is added at checkout."  And they don't sell single tickets, so double that.
  • "Brokers rely mainly on the general public to sell them tickets. Other sources are radio stations, musicians, coaches, players, corporations, other brokers, and occasionally the box office."  Scam...
And my favorites, c/o the FAQs:

"Ticket brokers refer to what they do as "providing a service". Can you elaborate? The average working individual neither has the time nor the energy to spend innumerable hours on the phone or waiting in line attempting to purchase quality event tickets..."  And the internet just makes it too difficult for people to connect?  Right.

"I can understand a service charge but for some events brokers charge five to ten times over the face value. How can they justify this? Remember, brokers have to pay quite a bit over the "face value" to obtain many of their tickets. Most brokers are law-abiding, hard working individuals who embrace capitalism and apply free market principles to make an honest living. Unfortunately, some people consider them "crooks" because they do sometimes charge a substantial amount over the "face value". "

What a welcome addition to the neighborhood.



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