"break it down like i'm stupid."
- Kimmyk
When I was young (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) if I wanted tickets to a big event like an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert, I'd drive to the local record store early in the morning and stand in line until the mall opened. Then, a few hundred of us would run in to the store and wait in another line. After the cashier ran off about 20 tickets for his friends, we would get a shot. They were general admission shows back then, and unless it was sold out, you were guaranteed to get in. That led to another series of line-standing and running-in at the show, but that's another story.
Now, the Internet rules, and tickets are a commodity like pork bellies or barrels of oil. They are bought and sold for a profit by big companies like StubHub (which was acquired by eBay in 2007). Because of a vagary in the law, scalping tickets off-site is not illegal, but selling them at the event is - ticket scalping has become a cottage industry. So much so that the teams themselves are partnered with StubHub to help season ticket holders unload their unwanted tickets for a profit. Check any team's web site and you'll find a StubHub link. They're the "official fan-to-fan marketplace." Really.
The Boston Red Sox play in tiny Fenway Park and all of their games are sell-out's. Yesterday, about a dozen early-season games went on sale. I decided to see if I could pick up a couple of seats to unload them for a little profit. Playing the game, as it were.Since I no longer have to drive to a record store to buy tickets, I can let the computer stand in line for me. This "Virtual Waiting Room" ran non-stop from 10am until 12:15am Sunday, when I was finally admitted. I wound up with two center field tickets to the May 6 game against the Cleveland Indians. They cost $40 for the pair. Similar seats are currently selling for between $33 and $140 each on StubHub.
If anyone from the Boston area is reading this, I'll let them go for $100 and you can save me the time of listing them - free shipping.
The amazing part of all this is that my computer sat in the waiting room for 14 hours, refreshing the screen every 30 seconds. If I was a fan, I'd be pissed. As it was, I got crappy seats that I'll probably be lucky to unload for a tiny profit. Fortunately, I was able to get a full day's worth of activities in while all this was going on.
What it says, more than anything, is what a racket the ticket-buying procedure has become. I've written about it a couple of times already. By the time midnight rolled around, all that were left for the other games were "obstructed view" tickets (there are poles and all sorts of obstructions in Fenway) and standing-room tickets, which oddly cost as much as my bleacher seats.
You'll see the good seats up on StubHub. There are already 344 listings for the May 6 game. As for me, I didn't get out of the waiting room early enough to get tickets to more than one game, and the tickets I got aren't very good, so the grand experiment could be said to be a wash.
Being the cynic that I am, I'd bet there is a scam going on that gets people through that waiting room business quicker than normal. Just like the cashier at the record store, only at home in their pajamas.
12 comments:
I get it now.
So you got a pair of tickets for a May 6th game all the while shopping, working out, eating dinner and doing laundry stuff. Cool! Way better than standing in a line.
I imagine though with the Red Sox as big as they are (seems everyone from Ben Affleck to Matt Damon) loves them their Red Socks so I don't imagine when the time comes for you to turn a profit that you will have a hard time.
Can you still list on eBay even though StubHub owns them? Interesting to know they (eBay) owns them. eBay will be the death of me one of these days with those sniper bidders out there. Damn them!! We tried to get tickets to a Giants/Detroit game I think it was a few months ago. No go.
Thanks for breaking it down for me. Think you can do that for t,z and p value charts for me? Get back to me...LOL!
Do they wear red socks or how they did that get that name SOX? and it's a Indians game taboot. Those Cleveland fans are crazy sonsabitches...I wouldn't worry.
The name Red Sox, chosen by owner John I. Taylor after the 1907 season, refers to the red hose in the team uniform beginning 1908. Actually, Sox was adopted by newspapers needing a headline-friendly form of Stockings, as "Stockings Win!" in large type would not fit on a page. The Spanish language media sometimes refers to the team as Medias Rojas for Red Stockings.
The name originated with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1867-1870 member of the pioneering National Association of Base Ball Players. Managed by Harry Wright, Cincinnati adopted a uniform with white knickers and red stockings, and earned the famous nickname, a year or two before hiring the first fully professional team in 1869. When the club folded after the 1870 season, Wright was hired to organize a new team in Boston, and he did, bringing three teammates and the "Red Stockings" nickname along (Most nicknames were then only nicknames, neither club names nor registered trademarks, so the migration was informal). The Boston Red Stockings won four championships in the five seasons of the new National Association, the first professional league. The success of the two teams in Cincinnati and Boston gave "Red Stockings" and other "Red" nicknames some historical and profitable grounding there and probably grounded other "Stockings" nicknames in other cities.
The Red Sox logo worn on uniforms in 1908, announcing the team's first official nickname.
In 1901, the upstart American League established a competing club in Boston. For seven seasons, the AL team wore dark blue stockings and had no official nickname. They were simply "Boston", "Bostonians" or "the Bostons"; or the "Americans" or "Boston Americans" as in "American Leaguers", Boston being a two-team city. Their 1901-1907 jerseys, both home and road, simply read "Boston", except for 1902 when they sported large letters "B" and "A" denoting "Boston" and "American." Newspaper writers of the time used other nicknames for the club, including "Somersets" (for owner Charles Somers), "Plymouth Rocks," "Beaneaters," and the "Collinsites" (for manager Jimmy Collins)"
The National League club, though seldom called the "Red Stockings" anymore, still wore red trim. In 1907, the National League club adopted an all-white uniform, and the American League team saw an opportunity. On December 18, 1907, Taylor announced that the club had officially adopted red as its new team color. The 1908 uniforms featured a large icon of a red stocking angling across the shirt front. For 1908, the National League club returned to wearing red trim, but the American League team finally had an official nickname, and would remain "The Red Sox" for good.
It's funny. I call FS5 "Webster" because he's always correcting my erroneous spelling and you are full of Wikipedia wisdom far greater than your years. You shall be referred to as WikiAnthony.
*screeching turntable*
wiki wiki wikiAthony!
Thanks for the update and edumucation on this very cold Sunday afternoon.
6 freakin hours at this craptastic homework. Fu......
and see when FS5 reads this he's gonna pull two of my errors right off the bat....(get it bat..soxs? baseball...you get it dontcha?)
he's gonna say "kimmy, you tard, it's sox not socks." and i'm gonna be all "i know i know!" and then he's gonna say "you forgot to put an N in Anthony's name. It's not Athony like you spelled it" and I'm gonna be all "I meant that...it's hip...like my turntables" and he's not gonna buy it, but he'll shrug it off knowing what he knows....and that's i'm keyboard challenged.
I put the "socks" thing under the "I knew what you meant" category.
I'm kind of a spelling and grammar snob, but there's enough colloquialisms on this site to stop me from that.
i'm blessed that my 'friends' know me well enough to know when to overlook my short comings.
good to know.
The spelling and grammar stuff came in handy while I was in college. There is a Writing Center at Widener where students can submit their papers and have the staff critique them and correct their grammar and usage. I never used it. I considered it "beneath me" to stoop to a help center so that someone else could construct my sentences for me.
I'd rather have gotten a B on my own than an A with help.
Go figure.
[Fragment - needs correcting]
Oh, and ...
I never got a B.
:)
Anthony you saw ELP?
That's a band I haven't heard about in years. I mean years.
yeah, you might be a dinosaur, but I am a baby dinosaur!
I have never been to Fenway. My dad bleeds white and blue Yankee pinstripes, he would kill me.
I saw them three times. My first-ever show was in 1974 at the Spectrum.
Fenway is overrated as a ballpark. Historically, I got more out of Yankee Stadium than Fenway. If you go to Boston, you should go to Fenway, but it's not a great place to see a game.
I just got it too. Makes since when you put it that way.
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