Business

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Ace Ticket: “Great” Prices for Red Sox Tickets?

Ace Ticket adWhat Boston Red Sox fan wouldn’t have wanted to see the seventh and final game of the ALCS playoffs to see if their favorite team would make it into the World Series?

Ace Ticket, a large broker of tickets advertised the day of the big game that they had tickets available at “great prices.” [Boston Globe, October 21, 2007]

For this game, Ace Ticket prices ranged from a “low” of $309 for lower bleacher seats to $2450 for field box seats:

ace prices

Those prices indeed are “great” (as in high), and it would be hard to imagine “greater” prices (although another seller had box seats behind the dugout for $5500 each). These tickets were marked up multiple times their face value. By comparison, based on prices for the regular 2007 season, bleacher seats normally sell for $23, and field box seats sell for $105. Playoff seats are priced higher: $25-$60 for bleachers, and $170 for field box seats.

[As an aside, Ace Ticket is selling bleacher seat tickets for game one of the World Series for $1095 and field box seats for $8900 each.]

Current Massachusetts law forbids the scalping of tickets by only allowing tickets to be resold by licensed brokers for no more than $2 above the face value plus certain limited business expenses.

So how does Ace Ticket get away with reselling tickets marked up so many times their face value? The state Department of Public Safety doesn’t enforce the law! Accordingly, Ace Ticket has tucked away this provision in their terms of sale:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Important: Also Note: In Massachusetts, the resale of tickets to certain events is regulated by statutes and regulations, including G.L. c. 140, ßß 185A ñ G, that authorize certain officials, including the Commissioner of Public Safety, to bring legal action against ticket resellers for claimed violations. In order to buy a ticket from Ace Ticket, you must acknowledge and agree that you cannot and will not bring any claim or cause of action in any private suit or administrative proceeding that is in any way based on Ace Ticketís alleged violation of any such statute or regulation, including, without limitation, G.L. c. 140, ßß 185A ñ G, and that your sole and exclusive remedy for the violation of any such statute or regulation will be to file a complaint or other notice with the public official responsible for enforcement of such statute or regulation. By purchasing a ticket from Ace Ticket, you expressly waive and forever release all claims that you, individually or as part of a class, might bring in a private action based on the alleged improper resale of regulated tickets in violation of any such statute or regulation, including, without limitation, G.L. c. 140, ßß 185A ñ G. I HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE READ AND AGREE TO THE ABOVE-STATED TERMS.

Translation: You agree not to sue us if we overcharge you, and all you can do is complain to the state or the city (which history shows will do nothing to address your problem).

While one Massachusetts consumer activist, Colman Herman, has tried to fight the ticket brokers on his own (and is winning), remarkably the state legislature is poised to repeal the state ticket scalping law.

The result: ticket brokers 1, consumers 0.  Go Sox!

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Land in San Bernardino, CA: $115 an Acre?

We all know that real estate prices are falling, but this is ridiculous. Here is a land auction ad that appeared recently on eBay:

land auction ad

Actually, the auction began at $1.00, and quickly zoomed to a $1.25. A week later, the five acres of land in San Bernardino went up to $570. Still a bargain by any standard. Or is it?

*MOUSE PRINT: Tucked away in the description of what you are bidding for is this further disclosure:

land auction small 

Translation: You are only bidding on the downpayment, and then you must also pay about $300 a month for the next 15 years. That comes to $54,000 including interest at an unspecified rate.

Of course, you need to make sure the advertiser really owns the property, that it is not located next to a nuclear power plant, and you will own more than just mineral rights.

Update: The auction ended on September first with a winning bid of $1525.

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CBS’ “Kid Nation” Contract: We’re Not Responsible If Your Kid Dies

Kid Nation logoThis fall, CBS is debuting a new reality series called Kid Nation. In it, 40 kids aged eight to 15 go off to a remote, deserted location to have a Survivor-like adventure for 40 days without adult supervision.

Controversy has sprung up about injuries some of the kids sustained, and the one-sided nature (in CBS’ favor) of a 22-page release that parents had to sign as a condition of their kids’ participation in the show should they be selected. (Here is the New York Times story.)

Mouse Print* has found and reviewed what is purported to be a copy of that release. The producers and CBS left nothing to chance in protecting themselves, while getting parents to give up their rights in protecting their children.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Kid Nation 1

Translation: I accept the risk if a wolf eats my kid, if he drowns during a competition, or any other terrible thing happens.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Kid Nation 2

Translation: If my kid dies, CBS and the producers are not responsible.

Some other provisions of the agreement include (1) that the producers can film the children 24 hours a day anywhere (but not in the bathroom if they are really doing their business in there); (2) that the kids will not have sex with the producers,  and if they have sex with other participants they will not hold the producers liable for STDs or pregnancy; (3) that neither the parents nor the kids will reveal anything about the show for three years, and if they do, they will pay CBS $5 million as liquidated damages; and (4) they will not sue CBS or the producers for anything but instead will take any disputes to arbitration.

It seems there must have been no shortage of stage mothers and fathers who were willing to bite the bullet and sign away their rights as the price for their kid to become a television star. This is no doubt the reason that CBS and the producers could get away with such a one-sided agreement.