I Am Pissed!

I was under the impression that, even when Native Americans did it, scalping was illegal. I guess I was wrong.

Tom Waits is appearing in Asheville tonight, and tickets went on sale Friday, July 14. Huge fan that I am, I immediately went on line to purchase two tickets, face value of around $75 each.

This can’t be right. There are no tickets available. I tried again. Same answer.

SHIT! Waits will never play Asheville again. This is like if the Beatles were stranded in Western North Carolina in 1966, they might have played our Civic Center just for something to do.

For my own information, I Googled “Tom Waits Tickets.” Sure enough, five different on-line ticket vendors had seats available – from $250 to $500 each.

Is that not scalping? I realize they’re not standing outside the venue hawking their wares, but is that not the same thing? They buy up all the available tickets then jack up the prices so that the average person can’t afford them.

My understanding of scalping is selling show tickets for more than face their value. Four times list price certainly qualifies.

Later (when I cool down),

obi