If you have ever had a concert or show that you thought of attending and were unable to do so because of your lack of ability to obtain tickets to the event, a ticket broker could be the source of your difficulty.
Because of the way a ticket broker works, it is quite typical for the top seats to an event to already be accounted for. This is because the ticket broker typically hires outside individuals to do the ticket purchasing for him. On a given day, when tickets to a particular entertainment event essentially go on sale, those who work for the ticket broker will purchase seats before anyone else attempts to. Once the seats are bought, they are gone to be offered at a higher price.
Because of this manner of activity, a certain amount of state regulation exists pertaining to the sale of event tickets for more than face value, and each state has its own set of procedures. Some states go so far as to maintain that a ticket broker is prohibited from setting up a business operation in their state. The only problem with this is that the Internet makes it very effortless to conduct a business that crosses state lines.
Offering tickets to an entertainment event for an mount greater than face value bases itself on the principle of supply and demand. For any typical event, there are only so many tickets available. Because the demand for “choice seats” can be in excess of the supply of tickets, the value of those “choice seats” goes up, and here is where the ticket broker comes into play. The best seats to an event will be for sale – for a normal price often considerably greater than face value. Logistical considerations also come into play here, because theoretically the promoter of an event only wishes to issue as many tickets as can satisfactorily be sold. Issuing any more tickets is a waste of money. On a more pragmatic level, only so many “choice seats” can logically exist for a common event in question.
The debate continues on whether ticket brokers should even be given permission to do what they do. Ticket brokers will always maintain that they have a right to operate a business and are purely taking advantage of “the market.” The problem stands, however, that they aren’t in fact “doing anything.” No service is really being provided. Ticket brokers are unpretentiously taking advantage of the workings of the event ticket market rather than adding real benefit to it.
To measure the noteworthy benefit of ticket brokers in the entertainment event ticket market, a person should ask themselves what the event ticket market would be like if if ticket brokers were nonexistent.
