Tim Walker’s Scalping

On the morning of what promises to be New Zealand’s biggest Super Rugby match-up in years, sadly, this glorious rivalry has been tarnished by those who were quick to perceive this event only as a money-making opportunity.

The aforementioned match between the Wellington Hurricanes and the Otago Highlanders is scheduled to play out in Wellington; even so a great many ardent southern supporters were very keen to make their way up the nation to be a part of the spectacle. A seat at the Cake Tin was retailing for around $30; all they had to do therefore was to procure tickets.…

Tickets for the game first went on sale online; these sold out in under a minute. For the supporters of the old school of course there were still classic ticket-booth sales; these also sold out before many hardened supporters – some camping out under the elements to be sure of a purchase – could secure theirs. Further lots of tickets were later put up online and in the physical sense; all were quickly snapped up. It wasn’t long before all ticket retailers were sold out. Desperate fans turned to what is ostensibly the only place these days where New Zealand folk can buy second-hand goods, Trade Me.

…From $30 over the ticket-booth counter, some Highlanders/Hurricanes tickets were now going for up to $750. It’s a filthy practise but technically, given the abundance of loopholes, it’s not illegal. Arse-wipes who have zero interest in attending the game yet purchase a handful of tickets for their ‘friends’, who usually turn out to not be able to go after all, see that those tickets are quickly uploaded and, at about a 1000 percent profit, offloaded.

Scalping of tickets is a sickening practise. It deprives those genuine supporters of the opportunity to partake in an event, at the price set by the organisers of said event. I have heard the scalper rationale on the matter – “If they truly want to go, they should be willing to pay a bit extra for it…” – which is an utterly ridiculous thing to say. They shouldn’t have to pay ‘a bit extra’ because New Zealand is not a communist dictatorship. It is a free country where generally good people live their generally good lives, and ticket scalpers are the breed of degenerate outcast who have no compunction about preying on that goodness.

There is money to be made in the scalping game admittedly, one just needs to have scruples so depraved, so truly amoral that they have no appreciation whatsoever for the goodness, the decency that holds mankind together.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Haye Chit-Bag

Photography by Ura D Jenna-Rit

 

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