If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

摘要

It was an expensive but instructive paper clip. Earlier this year a Missouri man ostensibly broke the state's anti-ticket-touting law by selling two tickets to a Cardinals-Cubs baseball game for $79 above their face value. When confronted he explained that he had not marked up the ticket price: the $79 purchased a "decorative paperclip" to fasten the tickets. He was neither arrested nor fined. Suppressing ticket touting, known as scalping in America, faces other obstacles. Is a buyer who agrees to buy a ticket from a tout really a victim? After all, it is legal for people to sell almost anything at whatever price the market supports.