The Ethics of Scalping
A month ago, I bought tickets to a concert that I was fairly sure was going to sell out. My pre-sale code allowed me to order four tickets, so I did - even though I only needed two.
A few weeks later, the concert sold out, and I sold my extra tickets on StubHub for a profit of $50 after commission, which essentially cut the price of our two tickets in half.
Then, I purchased tickets to a big football game that I also thought was going to sell out, and sure enough…it did. I purchased five tickets instead of the three we needed, and am hoping the sale of the extra tickets will help pay for ours.
Scalping is legal in my area, so I know I am within the law, but is it ethical?
My opinion is that if I put in the work to obtain the tickets, and someone else is willing to pay more than face value for them, isn’t that just the way a free market works? It’s not like I’m hacking into Ticketmaster to buy a thousand Hannah Montana tickets or something.
What do you think? Am I out of line here?
Photo Credit: Hawking Extra Ticket by P.J.S., used under Creative Commons licensing.
2 responses so far
Free market - nothing wrong with it.
By the way, TicketMaster bought one of the biggest “scalping” (secondary market) sites in the country a few months ago so even TicketMaster thinks scalping is fine. Again, free market at it’s best (or worst, depending on if you have money to play).
I think its completely allright. If i can save my time for $50 , i’ll happily you some extra bucks.