In my belief ticket brokers are just as bad as ticket scalpers and anyone who says otherwise is one of them.

It is completely ridiculous that true fans wait in long lines and ready by a computer to purchase seats only to discover that some hold broker has already snatched them all up.

How is this fair and how in hell is this providing a service? The tickets are already on sale for dedicated fans for fair market value. That is the service, not the greedy brokers who mark up the tickets to unattainable prices.

The whole supply and demand thing is a load of crap and a definite excuse in my book. Why don't we all sell drugs since there is such a huge demand for that? It's the same concept, just a different product. With the economic downturn that we have been through, there is a very small number of people who can afford such sky-rocketed prices.

It is such an injustice to any true fans of any kind who actually have a desire to see the event. And as for you who have said if you don't like it, don't do it well that is just pure idiotic ignorance. There is absolutely no benefit to the general public in ticket brokering and the only benefit is that a couple of moronic crooks can fill their greedy pockets.

Brokers are nothing more that glorified scalpers and anyone who agrees with their trade is ignorant. Why don't they try buying tickets to an event and have the same thing happen to them! Grr.

I'm so happy I found this site. I've been sending emails and calling everyone that would listen to my rants about this.

I sat in front of my computer this morning waiting for Taylor Swift tickets to go on sale at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. I kid you not they were sold out at my first attempt. The only thing I had to do was push the add to my cart button. I had the box office on speed dial from my cell phone and tickemasters on my home phone. Denied! But another company had tickets, hundreds maybe thousands available. All of this is before 10:03. How does this happen and what do we do to stop it? I understand that the tickets go fast. I totally respect all the true fans that have camped out on sidewalks waiting to see their favorite bands. And what a better way to spend family time than at a game, but what the heck? I understand the whole buy and sell at a higher price, but how does it happen within minutes? It's not fair! What can we do? Thanks for listening. Ann Longoria, designated concert mom.

"If you don't like the high price of gasoline stop driving and ride your bike. If you don't like the high price of concert or sporting event tickets stay home and watch TV or listen to the radio." sure, if you don't like the high price of rent go homeless! if you don't like the high price of food stop eating!

One point that needs to be addressed is that many brokers have access to events prior to them going on sale "to the general public" this to me is the part that is wrong both to the fan or the artist. If the actual number of tickets available to the public had to be disclosed prior to the sale then maybe people would wake up to what is really going on. you can go to almost any brokers site before the event goes on sale and get tickets. how can this be? Because they are not the general public!

Scalpers should be behind bars.

Nobody would be complaining if the mark up from brokers were reasonable. Furthermore, most of these ticket brokers such as Tickets Now are owned by the same company! So in a sense they are purchasing from themselves and charging 4 to 5 times what the ticket is worth. That is whats wrong. There are laws in this country against monopolies and that is what this is.

I just spent two days camping out for tickets with my 14 year old son. We were first in line and should have got a great seat. We did not!!!! We are sitting on the first level. We watched an event take place while we were in line, and learned the art of scalping. We saw scalpers park in 15 min parking for over eight hrs, as they continuously purchased tickets to a sporting event. Did I forget to mention the st louis police dept is under the building. No more corruption here. I watched as the scotttrade bldg management did nothing to stop the same people from buying hundreds of tickets all day, and never called to have cars removed from the parking area they had taken over. Did I fail to mention after speaking with these degenerates I learned their wives work in the ticket office. No corruption in the scotttrade center. While scalpers sold tickets at the event they were legally to be off the premises of the scott trade center. Scott trade center management did tell them to leave when they broke the rules and sold their hundreds of tickets near the doors. The corrupt little punks did that at least 20 times, although I dont know why they bothered. The st louis police did nothing about it. So you can all talk to each other if you like or you can make an on line petition to stop this ****. Take it to events of all kinds, make shirts that say help bring down ticket prices dont buy from scalpers or on line anymore. As for me, I am sending a copy of this across the web, to our new police chief, the attorney general, district attorney, senators and every broker I can find.

Problem is not the scalpers- it is the method that venues sell tickets. The actual artists would benefit more from auctioning the tickets off to the highest bidder. Then the true market value would be established. Poof- no more scalpers or brokers.

The ticket auction could go to a defined date before the event say 2 to 4 days. Then people could be emailed their seat confirmation to be printed out and then scanned in when they arrive at the event. This would be similar to what the airlines do with thousands of passengers on hundreds of flights per day...

The after market in event tickets is a legitimate business and is also huge. I liken it to any type of business related to supply and demand. If you don't like the high price of gasoline stop driving and ride your bike. If you don't like the high price of concert or sporting event tickets stay home and watch TV or listen to the radio.

The ticket brokers, in terms of the actual selling of the tickets, do not provide a necessary service to anyone. The tickets would have been sold through Ticketmaster et al, if the ticket brokers were not there; hence no service. All they are doing is cornering a market that has a very limited supply by buying up a huge chunk of said supply, and reselling it. I don't see how that's any different from buying up all of a product from local stores (eg - Best Buy) and reselling them on the street for more than was paid, and I certainly don't see the difference between a ticket broker and a scalper on the street.

Also, using the concept of 'the demand justifies the action,' is silly, as it could be applied to any number of illegal activities (eg - drugs, child pornography, etc) The thing I have the most problem with is the software advantage, as that clearly should be outlawed.

Brokers are offering tickets on line for $11,000 to $15,000 for Celine Dion Tickets. Why so high and can they get near that price. In Atlantic City, N.J.

Ticket brokers are nothing more than legal scalpers. While I understand the concept of supply and demand, many brokers have an unfair advantage by using illegal software to bypass security measures on major websites. Ticketmaster recently sued the developers of a software that allowed brokers to do exactly that - bypass the public and purchase large blocks of premium seats. Have you been to a 'sold out' concert lately? There are tons of empty seats in the closer sections, and people slyly try to move up while avoiding security. I attend at least a dozen major shows a year, and always see this happening. The empty seats are courtesy of our friendly neighborhood ticket brokers - the same guys who hire 'old school' scalpers to empty their inventory outside the venue the night of the show. So YES, ticket brokers are nothing more than glorified scalpers. They would sell you air and water if they could. I believe there should be laws in place limiting how many tickets a resale establishment can flip. I say fine them for making it nearly impossible for the average joe to get a decent seat at face value.

Are you kidding me? I miss the old days when you got to a ticketmaster site a bit early, stood in line and could be guaranteed a great seat, because you were there the second tickets went on sale. Brokers are thieves. It's that simple. To make an argument that you are providing a service is an outrage. My only satisfaction now is the fact that these people are miserable, sad human beings who will never stand a chance at being truly happy as long as they continue to choose this path in life.

Ticket Brokers = Legal Scalpers = Crooks. They have removed the opportunity for a family to attend any event. That includes sports and concerts. Have you ever wondered why tickest go "on sale" saturday morning at 10:00 AM and are sold out at 10:03 AM the same day? The brokers and their so called "employees" have bought them all up and are more than happy to sell you those $100.00 face value tickets for $275.00. Do the math...a middle class family of four wanting to attend a Red Sox game could probably do that if they were able to purchase 4 tickets at face value (let's say $40/ea x 4 = $160) but once the brokers get hold of the tickets you'll be lucky to find 4 seats together and if by chance you do find four together the cost would probably be $135/ea x 4 = $540 (against Tampa Bay not The Yankees) now putting the cost of the tickets outside the budget of the middle class family of 4. Have you ever noticed how many kids you see at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park?? Not many, and this is one of the reasons why. Ticket Brokers are nothing more than legal scalpers and in my opinion are one level lower than POND SCUM!

Ticket brokers don't provide a service to anyone but themselves. They're greedy, pure and simple. If someone wants tickets, they can go online and buy them. Nobody NEEDS a ticket broker to buy up all the available tickets 4 seconds after they go on sale and then mark them up 3 or 4 times. How does that help anyone except the jerk who's ripping off all the fans?

Why does no one every complain when a ticket broker loses his shirt and has to sell tickets for half of cost? Bottom line, its about risk reward and supply demand... end of story. If a person wants to get tickets at face value then they should buy full season tickets, suffer long losing seasons to get decent seats or stand in long lines to get tickets when they go on sale to the general public.. Personally I would prefer to pay a broker to do all that for me so I can enjoy the few games I attend a year in good quality seats.. I guess the guy selling parking outside the venue or the guy selling peanuts is a scalper too? We are ALL scalpers.. and I can assure you we don't go to work for free and nor should a person who works to aquire good seats and sell them should. So anyone who has a problem with scalpers should move to Russia, because the last time I checked we weren't a socialist state.

A Ticket Broker is as legimate as a Stock Broker which is very different from a ticket scalper. The ticket scalper usually takes the unsold inventory from the local Ticket Broker and sells them the day of the event either at the venue or near the venue. The prices depend on the demand so sometimes the tickets can be less expensive.

The article needs more facts and less opinion. It lacks proper research with regards to the law. I feel like the overall tone regarding Ticket Brokers is unnesessarily negitive.

The truth is that Ticket Brokers and Ticket Scalpers are providing a service to millions of people nationwide and worldwide. Simply put, if there wasn't a need then they wouldn't be there.

I'd like to see this article reviewed and re-written in a more objective manner.