Crazy...

So... a couple weeks ago I found out that Metallica is playing two days in Vancouver next month. It's one of those times where I thought ... wouldn't it be cool to see them again? Last time I did that? I ended up with two tickets to a Duran Duran concert, no one who could go and well... I still have those two tickets. I think I saw them eleven years prior to that. (Addendum: After I wrote this, I realized that that wasN'T the last time... The last time was KORN... I ended up sick as a dog with two tickets (which I can't find) and out over a hundred bucks. (That was when I had a real paying job.)

So... just on a lark, I went searching. The first night was already sold out by that time, but Saturday still had some available. For some reason, I could not see what tickets were left because I couldn't get past the damn two-headed dog (the stupid code that you type in to get beyond a certain point). I ended up agoogling for scalpers brokers and what I found was... uh... a little... crazy... One site had some listed from $89 to $179 all the way to ... get this... $506... PER ticket. This got me to wondering though... if the original ticket from the actual concert venue is sold and sent via email and then that person goes on to sell it online, what controls are there in place so that scams and phony duplicate tickets don't get re-sold? Just curious. And ... who the hell would pay $506 for a ticket? Who the heck average Joe HAS $506 to pay for a ticket? Crazy I say. If you look at the ticket stub above from 1997... it was $38.00. Not great seats, but not nose-bleed section either.

Sigh.