Originally Posted by squiggs96
I had asked the mods if I could generate the discussion on selling above face value, and here looks to be as good as place as any without starting a new thread.
How would people feel about CP allowing members to sell tickets above face value? I understand some people think it's awful, but I think it's a discussion worth having. Here's my logic on why I would allow it here.
Not all games are created equal. A Saturday night playoff game in infinitely better than a Sunday noon game against Arizona. I think there should be a premium for that. I also don't think if someone wants to only go to one game per year, that they should get to pay the same price that someone who is a season ticket holder pays. If I commit to four tickets per year, including preseason and playoffs, I'm committing to spending thousands of dollars. I don't get upset if you only want to pay $20 for the noon Sunday game, but there's no chance I want to sell you the NYE game against Edmonton for face value when the open market will give me three times that.
Here's why I would allow scalping on CP. With the Flames making the playoffs there is more demand for tickets. If people can't or don't want to go to games they will sell their tickets. If they want more than face value they will go to Ticketmaster, StubHub or other secondary markets. These companies take huge fees from both the buyer and the seller. Ticketmaster charges the seller 10% and the buyer 20% + $5.25 per ticket. I listed my tickets for $333.33 each. They sold, which means I took home $300 per ticket. The buyer paid $405.25 per ticket. Ticketmaster made $105.25 per ticket. I usually list tickets for whatever price will give me my desired payout, in this case $300 per ticket. If I get $300 per ticket, it really doesn't concern me how much the buyer pays, but I'd be very happy if they only paid $300 and not $405.25. For the 4 seats I collected $1,200, but the seller paid $1,621. Ticketmaster made $421 for facilitating the transaction. I don't mind them making money, but if we can do the transaction for free ourselves, why not?
If we were to list tickets above face value on CP I feel it could save both the buyer and seller some money. There are CP members who are going to Ticketmaster and StubHub during these playoffs, and maybe buying off of CP members. Either way ticketmaster is taking large chunks of coin that could be eliminated. Without the fees, the prices would be cheaper for the buyer, and the seller would, in theory list for less money, so this could save the buyer more. With multiple people being allowed to list here above face, this would increase the supply which should also drive the prices down.
The selling above face value only affects playoff games and about 25% of the regular season games. The rest of the games are unaffected and you can always get them below face value during the season. If the Flames continue to improve their team, ticket demand increases, this will increase prices. If the market is going to set the prices, why not have it all done here? I don't use CP specifically to sell above face value, but it would be a great benefit.
What I would do is have a subforum in the ticket threads where posters could start threads if they meet certain criteria. I would suggest being a season ticket holder and CP member for a minimum of three years, and maybe a posting minimum of 1,000 or so. This should curb actual brokers from posting for free instead of selling through their ticket websites, etc. It should also curb people who buy released tickets and then come here just to sell. Maybe CP could charge sellers to enable them to start threads for the season (a set amount would give them a season's worth of posting, whether they used it once or 1,000 times).
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