Johnson and I went to see HU and Framing Hanley the other night and I got the tickets through Ticketmaster. Normally I avoid Ticketmaster like a case of herpes but since Norfolk is 3 hours away and I didn’t feel like getting there and finding out the show was sold out I went ahead and tainted myself. The tickets were $15 apiece,  the “convenience charge” was $6.75 (x2), and the “order processing charge”  was $3.55 for a total of $47.05. I’d like to note that I did this all online with no assistance or input from Ticketmaster. So I was charged $3.55 to check myself out apparently. I’m not exactly sure what constitutes a “convenience” but apparently it’s worth $13.50 on 2 tickets. I mean it’s not like they rolled up to the front door and delivered them. I still had to pick up the tickets at Will Call. I did find it somewhat amusing that I was offered the ability to print them myself for an extra $2.50. Let me say that again…. Ticketmaster was going to charge me $2.50 to print tickets using my paper and ink. Is there any other business in the world that can get away with something like that? It would be like the grocery store charging me to take the groceries home in my own car.

My question is: Why is it illegal for me to charge more than $3 over face value for a ticket but not Ticketmaster? I’ll tell you why… because Ticketmaster has bought the right to. North Carolina General Statutes § 14?344 covers the sale of tickets in excess of stated price and basically says anybody can charge $3 over the face value of the ticket but if you’re Ticketmaster you can charge whatever you tell the venue that you want to charge in excess of face value. Ok, that’s not the exact language but it’s what the statute basically says if you read it carefully because Ticketmaster is a monopoly. But nobody’s really noticed that either apparently.

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