panda tix on e-bay, but...

As many of you probably know, viewings of Tai Shan, the young panda cub at the National Zoo, will begin soon, but by ticket only. Something like 13000 tickets were given away by the zoo, and of course, some are being scalped at unbelievable prices ($200 to $500) on ebay. However, according to this article, the zoo is upset that people are scalping the tickets, and will be comparing names on tickets to IDs.

This will be interesting...

(also, I thought scalping was illegal in Maryland -- you can add a small fee, like 10%, but no more -- and many of the sellers are in Maryland. I'll check on this and post more later)

Edit: I found a few scattered references to scalping's being illegal in Maryland, but nothing specific. Anybody know any details?

Scalping

While looking for information regarding ticket scalping laws in Maryland (see my previous post about the panda cub tix on ebay), I came across a lot of anti-scalping-law articles, arguing for free market, and saying there were no good reasons for anti-scalping laws, blah blah.

One of the best comments against anti-scalping laws was along the following lines: Why should selling hard-to-get items at high prices be illegal for tickets, but not for beanie babies?

I hate scalping (for profit -- I see nothing wrong with reselling tickets at cost if you find you can't see an event). But I have trouble justifying why it is wrong, or even immoral. Yes, it may mean that only people with loads of cash get good seats (or any seats) at an event. It may mean that a small number of people with nothing better to do than stand in line make a boatload of cash (which they may or may not pay taxes on, but that's another issue). But it's not life necessities, so you don't have the water and gas gouging during disaster type issues.

So why is scalping wrong, and why do I hate it so?

Feel free to comment.

Oh, found this at ebay: "There are no ticket reselling restrictions for residents of Maryland for any tickets bought or sold to events taking place in Maryland."

link to article with beanie reference -- note, the author is not as young as his picture suggests...