SINCE WHEN DID NEWSPAPERS START TAKING SIDES WITH SCALPERS??

Kennedy Center Opera House
202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org.

"Wicked, winner of three Tonys and a Grammy, continues to cast a spell over audiences in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and now here. The run December 21 to January 15 is officially sold out, but you might get lucky by trying the box office for returned tickets ($42 to $150), especially as the performance date nears. Failing that, many second-hand ticket dealers are selling—at high prices. Craigslist, eBay, and Stubhub.com are your best chances at a fair deal."

It's quite shocking for me to read that they are actually ENCOURAGING people to go to EBAY and other such places for "fair" deals...whatever!

PS - Someone should also tell whoever wrote that that it's NOT continuing to cast a spell in L.A. at the moment.




Washingtonian

Updated On: 12/11/05 at 10:57 PM

I suppose if there is an upside to that, it's that the people who were sort of on the fence of seeing it may be discouraged and the ones who really want to see it will have a better chance at getting the cancellation tickets and such. Don't be discouraged... where there is a will, there is a way!

that's true! If I can get tickets in LA from the cancellation line (twice...well, sort of...but I still got to see it twice from cancellation) then I can get them here. I think LA was the biggest city...I mean most popular.

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I have my tickets. I'm seeing it twice in DC but I was considering selling my ticket on eBay a few months ago (short on cash) and people were already charging an arm and a leg for crappy seats. Like $300 for back of the front mezz! I had an orchestra ticket, I could have lived off the profit from that for a year.

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Why AREN'T they doing lotto? I don't understand!

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Putting tickets on ebay isn't scalping; it's auctioning off tickets, and it's perfectly legal.

The Kennedy Center doesn't do lotto, they're too elitist for that. They don't want to risk having the commoners mingling about.

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In regards of what HighlyUnrealistic said: I was peeved to no end when it got around that the Kennedy Center had put the rest of their tickets up for sale, a week before the official sale date was posted. I got lucky and got a couple of alright mezzanine seats a day before every show was sold out... but thankfully my fiance had gotten wind of the sale at work and had already ordered 2 Christmas day tickets for part of my Christmas gift. It WAS suppose to be a suprise... but when I told him that I had bought us Wicked tickets, he informed me that he had already gotten us a pair. And they're good seats... 7 rows back, center stage. :)
As for the mezzanine tickets I bought: I sold them for face value to a gentleman in Silver Spring.

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I appreciate what you're saying Urban but, once again, my issue isn't with the legality. Just because something is legal doesn't make it right. I don't mean to come off as a goody two shoes or point fingers because God knows I don't always do the "right" thing... but it's getting to be ridiculous how hard it is to get seats to this show and maybe, just maybe, if people weren't so greedy it would be a little easier.

I just auctioned tickets on EBay for a performance I couldn't attend. They sold for less than face value and are front row center. I wouldn't call that scalping!

"And I'm not talking about the people who are legit and simply want to resell the tickets they can't use. I'm talking about the people who buy the tickets to purposely rip people off and make a profit."

Ken - see above as I feel like I am repeating myself and talking to a wall. I'm sorry you didn't at least make your money back. I'm sure if you would've put them up for what you bought them for as a "BUY IT NOW" auction that would've done the trick.

THANK YOU!

I'm always surprised when I visit this site and see banner ads for stubhub.com. If you look to your left you might see one right now.