WYFF News 4 in South Carolina, responding to complaints from fans and arena officials, has come out swinging against the secondary ticket market in a recent broadcast segment where the station examines the sometimes high prices for tickets on broker Web sites. Click here or on the image below to view the story.

The video piece outlines some of the complaints against the secondary market, most notably reality that prices are often high for popular, hard-to-get tickets. The segment does not discuss the issue of transparency over how many tickets are released during onsales, nor does it look at how prices are often lower on the secondary market when compared to the primary market. Online ticket resale is not prohibited in South Carolina.

“Basically what they’re doing, they’re on a fishing expedition,” Carol May, Executive Vice President of the Greenville, SC Peace Center, told WYFF News 4 about online ticket brokers, who she refers to as ‘online, high-tech ticket scalpers.’ “If they get someone to bite, who’s willing to pay $300, they’ll turn around, call us and buy a ticket for $40.”



StubHub spokesperson Sean Pate argued in the piece that real estate agents should be called “home scalpers” and art dealers “antique scalpers,” if May’s term is applied to other professions.

“It’s really a solution for fans that are looking for a quick and easy access point to shows that are sold-out or have little or no availability in the primary market,” Pate told WYFF News 4 of secondary ticket Web sites.

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