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What 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:

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!