Thousands Snatch Up Free Paterno Memorial Tickets, Some Try To Make A Quick Buck
By Paul Kurtz
STAGE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS) -- Penn State officials were overwhelmed with demand for free tickets to attend Thursday's memorial for Joe Paterno and although the tickets were free to the public, some tried to make a quick buck.
It took less than 10 minutes for the roughly 16,000 tickets to be snapped up.
Kira D'Annunzio, class of 2007, will be making the sad pilgrimage to Happy Valley.
"It's a once in a lifetime moment and he dedicated so much of his life and was such a big part of my life in four years," said D'Annunzio. "So I was willing to do anything to try to get the tickets."
Others were willing to do anything to get rid of the tickets and tried selling them online.
"I think it's absolutely disgusting," said Penn State alum Amanda Malamud.
A pair of tickets was reportedly posted online for $98,000, while another person said they needed to pay for a wedding.
Malamud says she was relieved to hear that the scalping efforts were thwarted on Craigslist by opponents who flagged the offending offers and on eBay by a policy that forbids members from selling tickets to events where tickets are free to the public.
"I have been watching it on my phone and saw that they were bidded up ridiculously high on eBay and eBay was forced to take them off," said Malamud. "So kudos to those who also thought that this was a poor moral decision."
