The morality of scalping - opinions needed

I have a 3-day pass to see my favorite band. 3 days is a bit excessive, so I'm considering selling one of them, especially since I've fallen on hard times and I could really use the money. The ticket cost me $50 but I could easily get $100 for it and if I wait a few weeks I could get more.

Now, I hate people who make a living on buying tickets and then selling them (professional scalpers), as they caused me to not be able to go to see Phish last summer (still bitter), but I see this situation different. I was responsible enough to buy all 3 nights the moment they went on sale and I intended to see all 3 nights and not sell them. More than that, people are readily - happily - offering me $100 for this ticket. They were lazy and missed out, and they believe an item I have is worth $100, so why not let one of these rich college brats take it? It's simple economics, supply and demand. And anyone willing to spend $100 on this one show obviously is living comfortably, probably off their parents dime.

I'm rationalizing. I'll probably sell it for $50 and make some guy or girl super happy, and I'll feel good about that decision too. But when I do good things I want to be sure I'm doing them for the right reasons, not just because they feel good to do.

What would you do, and why?

 

Sell it for $200.

 

If I felt as strongly about the moral implications as you do I’d give away the ticket;
but since I don’t “that’ll be 10 sawbucks’ chump”


Hotwater

 

Giving it away would be pretty unethical too. It'd be like walking up to the campus and handing $50 cash to some spoiled raver kid I don't know.

 

People usually sell at what the market value is at any given time for any given commodity. If you were selling anything else you would do so without even considering selling at a lower price.

If you were to sell to someone you knew I would suggest that you sell at face value. If it is not someone you know then sell at what the market is.

I personally would either sell at face value or give it away but then again I am not in a position of having a cash flow issue.

I do not think it is morally wrong to sell at market value.

Hope you really have a great time for the two days that you do attend!!

 

Heat - I see your point, but by the same logic that you're using, professional scalping is perfectly alright. I didn't see the shows I wanted to last summer because a number of people bought a huge number of tickets strictly as an investment, and then resold them to fans who were rich enough to afford the increase. The whole crowd dynamic changed, only rich fans could afford to pay these scalping middlemen. And these rich fans were perfectly happy to pay $500 for a $50 ticket, I suppose, but for people like me the whole situation was very sad.

Is my situation different?

 

Professional scalping is a business as is any other. There is a supply and demand and someone finds a way to make a living off of that.

Is it morally wrong, no, not if you are in the business to scalp and you make an investment with the intention of making a profit. If you can not get a ticket and choose to buy one from a scalper then they have met the demand and made their profit. They also took the risk when investing that they would be able to sell all that they purchased.

You did not present that you are making a living off of scalping, instead you have a situation that you have one ticket available for sale.

If applied to anything else it is not considered in the same light. If you were to purchase a car for $1500, knowing at the time that you are buying at a lower than market value and then sell it six months later for $3,000 it would not be an issue for most people. It would be a smart investment.

With almost any transaction if you made any profit it is considered a good investment and savvy.

One ticket does not make you a scalper. If you morally have an issue with selling it then do what you think is the right thing. Sell at face value or give it away or attend the other day.

Your ticket, your call.

 

i am so disappointed in this thread



i wanted to talk about scalping

 

the fact that you went and found that pic and uploaded it just to make a joke says a lot about how much free time you have.

But me responding to it says the same thing about me.

Thanks for the laugh. Back to work.

 

Yeah I thought this was head scalping too. >.>