A further note on the legality of ticket scalping:
 
A ticket is a contract between the vendor and the purchaser.  It gives YOU
the right to enter and attend an event in exchange for monetary
consideration (money).  One of the terms of this contract may be (and often
is) that this ticket (legally, a license) is non-transferrable (your ticket
may say so on the back), meaning only the original purchaser may use it.
Some legal technicalities about the enforceability of such boilerplate
provisions aside, this means that if you sell the ticket, you are in breach
of the contract, and the ticket may be declared void.
 
Of course, it is not illegal to breach a contract (in fact it happens all
the time), but it can make the ticket worthless.  As a practical matter,
this contract term is not enforceable; at least not with present
technology.   After all, how will they know if the original purchaser is
the one presenting the ticket for entry.  The provision has however, been
used to take season tickets away from people who sell or give them to
troublemakers.
 
As to the question of why ticket scalping is illegal, it is true, as one
poster pointed out, that the ban is essentially a legislative judgment that
certain economic activity should be prohibited because some people don't
like it.  But this is true of any law banning an economic activity (or any
activity whatsoever, for that matter).  Thus prostitution is illegal even
thought it is merely one person  offering to sell something another wants
to buy.  I'm not saying that scalping is morally akin to prostitution, or
even that prostitution necessarily ought to be illegal (it's not in Nevada)
-- I'm just pointing out that moral regulation of economic enterprise is
hardly uncommon in the law.
 
The best defense of scalping laws I've heard was given by New York City
Public Advocate Marc Green (who was really talking more about large-scale
ticket agents):  Essentially, he pointed out that ticket agencies were
buying large blocks of tickets and driving up prices past the point at
which average families could afford to attend.  If you've been to a Rangers
or Knicks game, you know that this is a legitimate concern.  He obviously
prefered a distribution scheme that awarded tickets based on the luck of
the draw, rather than on an ability to pay inflated prices.  Whether or not
you agree will depend in large part on your views on social and economic
justice.
 
As to why it might be wrong for you as an individual to do it, bear in mind
that by scalping tickets at a high price you are basically taking advantage
of someone who is caught in a monopoly situation.  If you don't have a
moral problem with that (and aren't concerned that maybe one day you'll be
the one who can't afford to see the Forzen Four), then go out and lobby
your state legislator -- maybe they'll change the laws.  When it comes to
reselling tickets at face value though, I really don't see any moral
problem (if anyone else does, feel free to tell me about it), except for
the fact that, as previously explained, the ticket may no longer be valid.
 
I know this was only tangentially related to college hockey, and I
apologize if anyone feels the discussion is inappropriate to the list, but
there has been some list traffic on this point, so I thought I'd offer my 2
cents.
 
Please note that nothing in this post was intended to be legal advice, and
it should not be construed that way.
 
Carl Sussman
 
 
 
 
Carl Sussman                                              Harvard Law School
 
[log in to unmask]                             Class of '99
 
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