BCS Ticket Prices Fall; Scammers A Problem For Buyers
MIAMI (CBS4) - This week Sun Life Stadium is being transformed to host the Bowl Championship Series national championship game. It's been one of the one of the hottest tickets in town.
"The market started out around $2600," ticket broker Todd Rubin of "Todd's Tickets" told us. He thought there was a possibility ticket prices would break records.
Then this week hit.
"The market has been constantly dropping," Rubin said.
Rubin showed CBS4's David Sutta the online broker marketplace today. A ticket that used to cost $2600, is now $900.
"It's always unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen with these events," he said while shrugging his shoulders.
Even the parking passes that were once $600 are now just $150.
The natural question is what happened?
"If I knew the answers to that I'd be on my yacht right now. I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you," Rubin said while chuckling.
The dip should be short-lived though as brokers expect prices to climb as students arrive in South Florida this weekend.
Over the past week CBS4 has been testing the Craigslist market, scouring for a bargain, and boy did we find them. One ad read "Nose bleed seats for face value. Just $375." Another offered up Club Level seats for $550. Prime seats going for $2,000 on the secondary market are being advertised for $600 on Craigslist.
But things changed when we tried to buy those prime seats.
Sandra at Dream2honeymoon.com , a defunct website, kept switching email addresses on CBS4; then disappeared. In the ad for the club level seats, a person claiming to be Diana wrote CBS4. She wanted us to wire money. In turn she would use a courier that operates only in the United Kingdom.
"Very reliable" she assured CBS4's Sutta.
A man named "Bill" was the most convincing. He was offering up two nosebleed tickets for face value - $375. First, he wanted us to use Western Union, a classic service used by scammers. But then he gave us a phone number and a driver's license number.
He agreed to meet at a police station to do the deal, but when CBS4's Sutta tried to meet him, he was gone. Sutta never heard from again.
"You can get into bad situations with Craigslist. You don't know who you are dealing with. It's better to deal with a reputable person that you know who they are," Rubin said.
If you're buying tickets on the secondary market, here are a few things to watch look out for:
- There are no electronic tickets
- Every ticket has a hologram on it
- And tickets do not have prices on them.
And always if it sounds too good to be true; it probably is.
