Need: 1 World Series ticket; Available: My Body (slightly used)

I still remember it fairly well- the first time the Phillies were in the World Series, way back in 1980. I was only ten but my parents let me stay up late to watch every game. Unfortunately, my father wasn’t a baseball fan, and besides we didn’t have any money for tickets. But that in no way diminished the memories of one odd the seminal sports memories of my youth.

Now, 25 years later, the Phillies are back in the World Series, and it seems like I’m going to have to watch this one from the sidelines, too. I understand that with the amount of time since the last championship, a LOT of people want these tickets, and for that reason, they would probably be expensive. But when I went to look, I found that it wasn’t just the demand from the fans that was driving up the ticket cost. It was the fact that every ticket I looked at was being bought up by ticket brokers — so that they could turn around and sell it for an even MORE obnoxious price:

The reason World Series tickets are so expensive - every buyer is a ticket broker

It’s criminal that these agencies can swoop in and buy up these tickets before the fans can, and then rape the fans to get a seat. One game – that’s all I want, but I can’t afford $600+ to go – $1,200+ if my wife were to come. I’m not sure why these brokers are exempt from the old statute that you can only resell a ticket for more 10% above face value. I could even see if they were to charge 2x what the face value was to cover their expenses. But this is a mark-up of almost 500%, and what’s more, the Pennsylvania legislature actually changed the law to allow ticket brokers to charge MORE for tickets.

Like I said, I’ll still watch the game and I’ll probably even go to a bar to watch a game with friends. But it pisses me off that as a fan of almost 30 years, I can’t afford to get a seat at the game because brokers can swoop in ahead of me and then ass-rape for a ticket. Business is business, but this is racketeering.