When I was younger and went to more concerts I was fully on board with the "scalpers are scum" bandwagon. But as I got older and started choosing sports over concerts I've changed my tune a bit and realized it's a two way street.
On the low demand events, say a mid week game in just about any league, you can often find tickets for below face value. Traveling to another city and thinking about hitting up a game in a new stadium? Stub hub is awesome and convenient.
But the flip side is when demand is up, you're gonna pay, and hard.
But having said all that, of the 5 events I've purchased through stubhub I paid a total of about $120 over face value. Which spread across the 16 tickets purchased for these events evens out to about $7.50 premium over face value.
For the convince of waiting well passed the "on sale" time, and not committing to a full slate of season tickets, is a pretty decent value.
At the end of the day it all comes down to supply & demand, and for time sensitive events there is a large disconnect between the two. The $65 ticket is far removed from the value in the market place, be it because demand out strips supply (see The Tragically Hip farewell tour), or supply outstrips demand (see The Blue Jackets on a Tuesday night).
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