Cubs Playoff Ticket Prices Drop Dramatically After Game 2

[jaysabi]

The economics of professional ticket scalping is interesting to me and I thought this dramatic drop in ticket prices was interesting. All the hype over the Cubs had tickets to their games reaching insane levels.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-fans-tickets-wrigley-met-1021-20151021-story.html

Tickets to see the Chicago Cubs take on the New York Mets were expected to be the most expensive National League Championship Series tickets in the past five years, but the average price of a Game 3 ticket is down more than 57 percent, experts say.

The average ticket price for Tuesday's Game 3 at Wrigley Field was $526.28, according to TiqIQ.com, a website that aggregates ticket prices on the secondary market. After the Cubs triumphed over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series last week, tickets were listed at $1,233.01, TiqIQ spokesman Chris Matcovich said.

The drop may be in part because the Cubs trail the series 0-2, Matcovich said. However, there is typically a drop in ticket prices closer to the day of the event.

"This one is a bit more steep than normal," he said.

Some of the cheapest seats on resale sites were around $265, a 47 percent drop from the end of the NLDS.

The most expensive ticket was a club box seat listed at $1,900, Matcovich said.

Dozens of Cubs fans, like Joey Lipps, of the city's Lakeview neighborhood, lined up Tuesday afternoon outside the Wrigley Field box office in hopes of getting face value tickets after hearing the team had some left over.

"Once I heard that I got my (butt) over here," said Lipps, who also attended the wild-card game in Pittsburgh and an NLDS game in Chicago.

"Everybody and their mama wanted to get tickets, but once it became flooded with tickets, prices dropped."

Some are attributing the drop to the fact that the Cubs couldn't clinch at Wrigley after they dropped the first two games. Either way, it's nice to see scalpers get burned, since they're a big reason ticket prices are so unreasonable.

[teukon]

The economics of professional ticket scalping is interesting to me and I thought this dramatic drop in ticket prices was interesting. All the hype over the Cubs had tickets to their games reaching insane levels.

I wonder if Back to the Future had a hand in boosting the understandable hype surrounding the Cubs to unnatural levels.

Either way, it's nice to see scalpers get burned, since they're a big reason ticket prices are so unreasonable.

I prefer to see scalpers doing well.  Profitable scalpers only improve the distribution process.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Ticket scalping is always a risky venture as their is the possibility that no one wants to pay more than market price and of course the chance that the price drops significantly if demand wanes.
I'm sure all the delorian news and back to the future propaganda today will help those cub ticket prices go back up though haha

[jaysabi]

The economics of professional ticket scalping is interesting to me and I thought this dramatic drop in ticket prices was interesting. All the hype over the Cubs had tickets to their games reaching insane levels.

I prefer to see scalpers doing well.  Profitable scalpers only improve the distribution process.

I don't see this at all as they serve no market function. There's no improvement to distribution by them buying tickets and reselling them. Almost all tickets are delivered electronically anyway, so they don't improve distribution at all as electronic ticketing is as efficient as the process can get; they offer no incremental improvement. Their speculation only drives up the price for people who actually want to attend the game.

[teukon]

The economics of professional ticket scalping is interesting to me and I thought this dramatic drop in ticket prices was interesting. All the hype over the Cubs had tickets to their games reaching insane levels.

I prefer to see scalpers doing well.  Profitable scalpers only improve the distribution process.

I don't see this at all as they serve no market function. There's no improvement to distribution by them buying tickets and reselling them. Almost all tickets are delivered electronically anyway, so they don't improve distribution at all as electronic ticketing is as efficient as the process can get; they offer no incremental improvement. Their speculation only drives up the price for people who actually want to attend the game.

If the ticket price is too low then there will be a shortage of seats.  This will cause the event to sell out before everyone that wants a seat can get one.  We'll often see extended queueing for physical tickets or a rush for digital tickets.  This is inefficient distribution.

If the ticket price is too high then we will have a glut.  So few people will want to pay the high price that there will be empty seats.  This is equally inefficient.

Profitable scalping helps to reduce these effects.

[jaysabi]

The economics of professional ticket scalping is interesting to me and I thought this dramatic drop in ticket prices was interesting. All the hype over the Cubs had tickets to their games reaching insane levels.

I prefer to see scalpers doing well.  Profitable scalpers only improve the distribution process.

I don't see this at all as they serve no market function. There's no improvement to distribution by them buying tickets and reselling them. Almost all tickets are delivered electronically anyway, so they don't improve distribution at all as electronic ticketing is as efficient as the process can get; they offer no incremental improvement. Their speculation only drives up the price for people who actually want to attend the game.

If the ticket price is too low then there will be a shortage of seats.  This will cause the event to sell out before everyone that wants a seat can get one.  We'll often see extended queueing for physical tickets or a rush for digital tickets.  This is inefficient distribution.

If the ticket price is too high then we will have a glut.  So few people will want to pay the high price that there will be empty seats.  This is equally inefficient.

Profitable scalping helps to reduce these effects.

There are a shortage of seats in this case irrespective of scalpers. Face value is the price of the tickets set by the venue, and there is always a shortage of seats at the true price. Scalpers rush in to speculate and artificially drive up the price. This does not do anything to alleviate the shortage, just capitalize on the money the venue willingly left on the table, because the shortage of seats at the true price remains. This does not make the market more efficient. The scalpers provide an artificial price after creating more of a shortage than would otherwise be with artificial demand/speculative demand. This is not efficiency.

[teukon]

There are a shortage of seats in this case irrespective of scalpers. Face value is the price of the tickets set by the venue, and there is always a shortage of seats at the true price. Scalpers rush in to speculate and artificially drive up the price. This does not do anything to alleviate the shortage, just capitalize on the money the venue willingly left on the table, because the shortage of seats at the true price remains. This does not make the market more efficient. The scalpers provide an artificial price after creating more of a shortage than would otherwise be with artificial demand/speculative demand. This is not efficiency.

The "true price" set by the venue is far more artificial than the prices arrived at through scalping.  This would be like describing the Federal funds rate as the "true interest rate" while viewing the market rate of interest to be an artificial deviation.

With "there is always a shortage of seats at the true price" are you implying that venues always try to leave money "on the table"?  If so, why do you imagine they do that?

Profitable scalping does alleviate artificial shortages created by venues.  It does not increase the number of seats but it does decrease the demand for those seats.

[jaysabi]

There are a shortage of seats in this case irrespective of scalpers. Face value is the price of the tickets set by the venue, and there is always a shortage of seats at the true price. Scalpers rush in to speculate and artificially drive up the price. This does not do anything to alleviate the shortage, just capitalize on the money the venue willingly left on the table, because the shortage of seats at the true price remains. This does not make the market more efficient. The scalpers provide an artificial price after creating more of a shortage than would otherwise be with artificial demand/speculative demand. This is not efficiency.

The "true price" set by the venue is far more artificial than the prices arrived at through scalping.  This would be like describing the Federal funds rate as the "true interest rate" while viewing the market rate of interest to be an artificial deviation.

With "there is always a shortage of seats at the true price" are you implying that venues always try to leave money "on the table"?  If so, why do you imagine they do that?

Profitable scalping does alleviate artificial shortages created by venues.  It does not increase the number of seats but it does decrease the demand for those seats.

Yes, companies always purposefully leave money on the table. Obviously, when the face value of a ticket is $120 and it is selling for over $700 on the secondary market, the venue knows they are leaving money on the table. You can't have that level of disparity and be oblivious to it. Most likely, it is a gesture of goodwill to the fans. Kid Rock does the same thing at his concerts, intentionally setting tickets below what he knows the scalpers will sell them at:  http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/06/27/196277836/kid-rock-takes-on-the-scalpers. Nike does the same thing with its special edition shoes which they produce in limited runs and which sell for tens of times more than the list price on the secondary market. Nike knows this happens, but doesn't adjust prices, thus intentionally leaving money on the table.

[JesusHadAegies]

Ticket scalping is always a risky venture as their is the possibility that no one wants to pay more than market price and of course the chance that the price drops significantly if demand wanes.
I'm sure all the delorian news and back to the future propaganda today will help those cub ticket prices go back up though haha

Yap, a big risk for a business people. As long its profitable then wager