The tickets I purchased a week ago, on the left, cost a total of $931, including a $167 service fee. The seats directly behind me were on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday for almost $1,400, with a $251 service fee. Screenshots: Ticketmaster
Jason here: I'm fed up with the games we must play to get good concert tickets.
State of play: Rod Stewart recently extended his farewell tour and I visited his website to check ticket availability.
That linked me to Ticketmaster, where I found seats near the stage for his New York concert in July costing more than $1,200 each, just days before they went on sale to the general public.
Zoom in: Stewart's site noted that fan club members get access to presale codes — so I paid $30 to join.
That let me buy tickets last Monday for nearly the same area I was looking at, costing $466 each.
The intrigue: I was just curious, so I logged onto Ticketmaster on Friday to see the same seats, one row behind me, listed for $696 each — $230 more than what I paid days earlier.
The big picture: The Federal Trade Commission sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, in September, saying that they permit brokers to amass large numbers of seats and inflate the prices.
The company denied the accusations that it is "colluding with scalpers" in a letter to Congress last month.
My thought bubble: Regardless of who is at fault, the wild price swings show me that consumers are being exploited.
