That's simple --- Remove the purchase price, or "face price" from the ticket.

What a seller has paid for any item is a matter of privacy and is no one's business. Imagine the problem you or any business would have reselling almost anything, especially your own home, if you had to list your acquisition price on it for the world to see. If a seller receives less than the face price, no one seems to care about the face price, but ask more, and some people get upset that anyone would try to make money at it, like it's a holy artifact. The venue can keep track of what they sold them for in the case of a refund where an event has been cancelled, which is rare indeed.

Besides, the face price isn't the full cost anyway. There are other acquisition fees that are directly paid that are usually not, or never listed on the ticket, such as the convenience charge and mailing fee. In the case of sporting events, any mandatory donations required by the venue in order to receive season tickets are not listed on the ticket, though they are a direct cost. And what about the cost of going to an outlet and you own time and funds used in the obtaining of the tickets? These are certainly worth something as well, and can't be fairly ascertained.

The main argument which prevails in any case is this: Ticket Brokering is no less of a legitimate business than the brokering of real estate, cars, jewelry or a number of other sales, investment or entertainment businesses. There is no public safety concern or legitimate consumer protection issue involved in regards to prohibiting ticket brokering, although there certainly are concerns in regards to possible fraudulent transfers (i.e., sales of counterfeit or stolen tickets, etc.). But just as there are with numerous other businesses, the answer to these problems is not to prohibit and infringe unconstitutionally upon a useful practice, the goal should be regulation in those states which seek to protect the public. It could be said that the promotion and sales of investment securities present a far more substantial risk to the public than ticket sales, however, each state has seen that such businesses are needed for numerous economic reasons, and instead of prohibiting, they choose to regulate those businesses. Also, there is no constitutional reason for disallowing sales of investment securities. The same can be said for ticket brokering.

It would seem to be a good case for a Federal Court to handle --- invasion of the right to privacy as provided to all citizens in the Constitution.

Of course, the cost has nothing to do with it. That's why tickets sometimes sell for below face price. The Market price takes over on weak events, and should rightly take over on strong events as well. It's perfect sense, but some doornail-brained concert fans (and many performers) don't seem to understand that.
 

POSTSCRIPT:

TIXFAQ has had over 100,000 hits since inception, and I thank everyone who has taken the time to read this information, whether they agreed with the content or not. Luckily, in America, you still have the right to disagree with another person and voice your own opinion, no matter how ignorant or stupid it is.

Unfortunately, in many states and municipalities, you don't have the right to sell a ticket for more than the printed price on its face because some people have enforced their will over the laws of certain states and locales. Today it's tickets, tomorrow it's religion, speech, and other precious commodities and inherent individual and business rights.

This article was written as a response to numerous articles by newspaper reporters and others who typically do not understand the secondary market or for emotional reasons despise it and the defense of it, including the numerous zealots who have no basis for their arguments. I have found those people are truly in the minority; however, those who do understand the need for a free and unrestricted secondary ticket market generally, as a whole, do not voice their opinions as loudly. This is for all of the above.

Please feel free to voice an opinion to me via e-mail.  Don't expect a reply as I rarely do, but if I do, it's usually in response to very positive e-mail, not baiting by idiots.

This page was completed with the help of a great many individuals, venue officials, Ticket Brokers, and others who are mostly anonymous, nameless, faceless people whether they asked for anonymity or not. I appreciate all their help in our research and will respect their right to privacy.

If you would like to find out about tickets to a certain event on the web, please keep in mind that I do not sell tickets at this site; however, I recommend that you search the Web using AltaVista.com (the best search engine for tickets) or Google.com (the next best for tickets) and also search using a phrase with the exact type of event tickets you are looking for in closed quotation marks, such as "Super Bowl XXXV Tickets" or "Dallas Cowboys Tickets" to find what you are looking for.   Be sure to put "tickets" in the search so you won't get a lot of fan pages and articles, only ticket sites.  Your local paper will give you a list of brokers who operate in your area, as well as individuals who have tickets for sale. On a national basis, try USA Today's classifieds for a list of national brokers. There are many listed on the Web who are not listed in USA Today, so in my opinion, the Web is always your best bet to find the ticket you want.

I do suggest that if you choose to deal with a ticket broker, make sure you purchase by a major credit card and ask for a copy of the invoice to be faxed to you after your purchase so that if you do not receive the tickets you requested, you can remove the charge from your statement. Try to get references from other brokers that they have dealt with. Bad brokers are generally known throughout the informal ticket brokering network. Ask for a seating chart of the venue where the event is being held, and only deal with brokers who accept all major credit cards and provide a toll-free number for their clients. Don't expect them to fax you a copy of the tickets they are offering, this is a time-consuming matter and since many promoters and venues threaten to cancel tickets sold by brokers, it is not advisable that a broker should do this. Also, some brokers quote tickets which are in the possession of another broker. They should tell you this, but many do not for various reasons. Do ask the broker to fax you a copy of the invoice or bill of sale which states the event, the event date, the ticket location, and the total charges AFTER you have made your purchase. The invoice/bill of sale should state the broker's company name, mailing address and phone number, and this will be your written confirmation of what you have ordered. Also ask them to provide you with a copy of the overnight airbill when they send the tickets to you. You should have both a copy of the invoice and the airbill faxed to you BEFORE you accept the tickets when delivered if you are not familiar with the Ticket Broker you are doing business with.

Be very careful in dealing with individuals resellers of tickets, because if the deal doesn't go as planned, you may very little or no recourse. Use as many of the same precautions as mentioned above in your dealing with individuals. The biggest problems are not getting stiffed or getting counterfeit tickets (which is very rare), rather, it's getting the wrong tickets, the wrong event/game, or, as the biggest problems seem to be, individuals sellers can be very, very greedy. They can be very adept at backing out of a deal already made at the last minute, slow in consummating deals, and very bad about wanting to change the terms of deal after a deal has already been made, and you will find that, in many cases, they will put you off until they are absolutely sure you are the highest bidder. Never, ever send an individual money in advance for any reason, and if you're dealing with a broker that demands cash in advance, make sure you have some paperwork in hand before you do so for recourse. Be very careful though; although dealing with cash or money order by mail is a convenience that authorized ticket agents such as Ticketmaster generally do not provide, it can backfire if you deal with the wrong broker, and it's probably sure to backfire if you're dealing with an individual reseller that you don't know. There are people who prey upon buyers who claim to have excellent tickets for cheap dollars and try to get you to send money in advance. Stay on the lookout for these scams.

Regardless, just feel safe in knowing that you don't have to pay for tickets you did not order or receive, and be thankful that somebody is providing you with a much needed service at a price you have agreed upon!