Ticket brokers: Big business and big ticket prices
I was wondering just how many ticket brokers I could find who are listing tickets for sale for concerts in North Carolina at greater than the $3.00 markup allowed by state law, and I figured you'd like to know what I found. It's quite interesting.
Internet ticket sales is big business for big shows in North Carolina.
I did Google searches for the Rolling Stones and U2 concerts in Charlotte this fall, and another for the Bruce Springsteen show in Greensboro coming up later this month. You can see my search for Springsteen tickets here, the Rolling Stones here and U2 here.
Opening only the first 10 brokers in each search that offered tickets, I found some amazingly high prices for those shows, especially the Stones and U2.
I also counted 21 separate Web brokers listed among the total of 30 links that I clicked.
The first surprise is that brokers are already selling tickets to Springsteen in Greensboro even though the show is not even sold out yet.
Second, that prices for the best seats at The Rolling Stones and U2 are off the charts. Around $1,000 for U2 seats and close to $2,000 for the Stones.
What's not so clear is who is going to enforce the state law, which clearly bars the selling of tickets to events in North Carolina that are priced more than $3.00 above face value.
The NC Attorney General's Office is already having conversations with representatives of Encore Tickets. They are among the companies that entered into a consent agreement in 2002 over charges that they were scalping tickets to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Raleigh. They agreed to abide by NC law, according to that agreement. But they're now among the companies selling Rolling Stones and U2 tickets at big markups over face value.
If you're dying to go to these shows, and you have the money, more power to you. If you want to find out what happens next, stay tuned here and to our print edition.