Why is scalping offensive?

The tickets are rare, and in demand, and therefore valuable. If the issuers wanted to sell them at auction or "for all the market will bear" they could have done so and reaped the value created by the rarity. To sell them instead for a flat nominal sum is a kindness, and for a purchaser to turn around and re-sell the ticket for a profit is an abuse of that kindness.

In the case of the Patriots, or any private org that sells tickets, it's the Patriots who want to make the profit, rather than hand the profit off to anybody with an eBay account. I know that broadway shows were experimenting with selling a small block of tickets at $500 each, ridiculous prices, because they figured, better the last-minute charlie buy their ridiculously expensive tickets from the box office than from Creepy Dave on the street.

I am a big fan of the block of cheap day-of tickets. I know in Britain they've been used to drum up business for otherwise-scantily-attended plays, and such. Actually, at Fenway, day-of you can get in line and buy any ticket not already sold in the whole stadium -- and then you have to enter the stadium immediately, so you can't scalp the ticket you just bought.

Look, like I said, there's nothing inherently wrong with resale. In the case of Serenity, the tix went to the first purchasers. There's nothing wrong with selling your ability to be there first to someone else who will pay because they can't. If I've got a Big Important job that prevented me from buying the tix within moments of their release, the fact that someone else buys them and sells them to me at a price I'm willing to pay IS a "kindness"-- at least in the definition used above. They're NOT stealing the profit of the issuer-- the issuer already made the profit from the price they chose, and the buyer just makes the premium over his investment.

I'd say it's not dissimilar to the reason for all the warnings and disclaimers on fanfic. If there's a profit to be made off the game or broadcast thereof, it's not yours to make.

Again, this is a different situation from intellectual property. It's more like a bookstore selling books-- the author made his profit, and someone else gets a premium for making the property conveniently available. It's not the same thing as someone NOT paying you what you're asking to be paid and making money off of it.

Scalping is illegal in some places for reasons like the one Nutty stated above-- it's a weighing of interests that, in the case of monopolistic sports, favors people who get there first, rather than the people who can pay a premium. It's not a evil/good dichotomy.

It may be that the 800 lb gorillas can always get there first, and with their premium they're not doing me a kindness. Without them, I'd have gotten a ticket at the normal price. Now I'm forced to pay 1000% of the price instead, or just not go.

I think some people were trying to get at the idea (without fully explaining it) that there is something shady about creating a rarity and profiting off of that when you're not actually responsible for the rare property. Well, why is that, necessarily? Why should the people who who could have purchased but for the scalpers be privileged over the purchasers from the scalpers? The issuer is perfectly capable of limiting purchase to a certain number per buyer if he wanted to privilege the time-advantaged buyer over the richer, later fan.

It's not a evil/good dichotomy.

And yet - I still want to smack those guys who get in your face shouting "Buying tickets? Selling tickets?" in front of the Fleet Center with a rolled up newspapaer until they bleed from the eyes.

It may be that the 800 lb gorillas can always get there first, and with their premium they're not doing me a kindness. Without them, I'd have gotten a ticket at the normal price. Now I'm forced to pay 1000% of the price instead, or just not go.

Well, I feel bad for you, but I also see how someone values the ticket 10x more than you do.

If I've got a Big Important job that prevented me from buying the tix within moments of their release, the fact that someone else buys them and sells them to me at a price I'm willing to pay IS a "kindness"-- at least in the definition used above.

I don't happen to agree with this. Who's to say the tickets in question wouldn't still be there when the person finished their business if the resellers hadn't snapped them up? And even they weren't, the tickets would have still gone to someone who was an actual fan of the show rather than some vulture just trying to make a quick buck.

I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the ticket price for that Firefly Convention in Century City. Over $700.00.

I thought, "no one is going to buy those tickets, dear lord!"

And yet, to some, it's reasonable.

I'll never be able to wrap my brain around it, but there ya go.

I also see how someone values the ticket 10x more than you do.

Values it, or can afford it? I might now be willing to pay 10x for it, if I had the money. They're taking something for which the owners set a value, and resetting that. And they're not as much responding to the marketplace so much as controlling it.

I'm not that invested in this. I've never bought a scalped ticket, although I have sold them. But I think it's pretty clear that it's taking tickets from people who the sellers intended to be able to afford them and providing them to those that have more money.

Why should the people who who could have purchased but for the scalpers be privileged over the purchasers from the scalpers

Why should they be privileged less?

I may have the time to spend beating other individuals to the front of the line -- should I feel sorry for those that don't? The same way they feel sorry I'm too broke to pay the new price?