If you think the asking prices on Stubhub for tickets to see Audra in Gypsy this evening were steep, someone is now offering a pair for tomorrow night for $3,215…and that's for each and on top of that, there's a service charge of $889 each. I'll save you the trouble of doing the math: It's $8,208 for two seats in the Orchestra section…and the seller doesn't even specify what row. There are several other offerings exceeding the price of $893 (plus a $248 service charge) that seemed so outrageous a few hours ago.
Meanwhile, seats in the second balcony range from $123 to $158 with service charges of $37 and $46 respectively. So you can see the show for a sorta reasonable price. You just can't see it from the same zip code.
I don't know what to think of this. I've bought tickets to a few events this way and once sold a pair that I'd purchased but couldn't use. I think I made about $35 on that transaction which seemed to be the markup that others were getting on similar tickets for that particular show. But I'm trying to understand this industry where somehow, some person or company grabs up tickets with a face value of $471 and slaps a huge price tag on them.
I kinda thought it was like, "Okay, I'll ask thousands of dollars for them and maybe there's some fabulously rich guy who'll grab 'em up and if that doesn't happen, I'll mark them down at the last minute as far as I have to to get my investment back." But if they're not marking them down on Stubhub, what is happening to those tickets when they don't sell? They're not going for half of face value at the TKTS booth. I doubt someone is standing outside the Majestic Theater trying to sell them in the hour before showtime.
Someone was sitting in those seats when Audra made her entrance tonight. How did they get those seats, how much did they pay for them and did the theater (or Audra) get any of the selling price over face value? I have some guesses but does anybody reading this know?