Sevens Scalpers on Trade Me Pinged
By MCDONALD, Greer
YOU were warned. That was the response from Wellington Sevens organisers after they contacted a number of sellers who listed tickets to the event on the online auction site Trade Me, minutes after the event sold out.
NZI Sevens chief executive Steve Dunbar said tickets were placed on Trade Me at 9.30am on Tuesday, 10 minutes after all 35,000 tickets available sold out.
He said tournament organisers “proactively monitored auction sites”. All sellers contacted agreed to pull the tickets immediately.
“At the end of the day, we want prices to be affordable to fans, rather than be offered at a premium,” he said.
He would not confirm how the rugby union gained contact details of those auctioning the tickets, but said it would monitor the auction sites till the event began on February 1, 2008.
Two staff watched over the auction sites on Tuesday when tickets were released. One fulltime ticketing manager would now take over dealing with would-be scalpers.
A Lower Hutt seller, who had two tickets listed, claimed not to be looking for a profit.
However, within 24 hours the highest bid was $610, more than three times the price of the original tickets.
The auction created a storm of response from other Trade Me users, with almost 100 feedback postings, mainly criticising the seller for profiting from the national game.
One disgruntled comment said: “Pretty rude man. It’s people like you that drives the price sky-high, hope someone burns you when they don’t pay for them, and you’re left with nothing.”
By yesterday afternoon the seller had posted a comment in response, saying: “Due to the problems with anger of other Trade Me members, and the WRFU saying (they) cannot be for profit, I am no longer selling these tickets. Sorry for inconvenience caused”.
In January 2006, Trade Me business manager Mike O’Donnell said the act of on- selling tickets through an online auction was not illegal, but more of a moral issue.
Mr O’Donnell said on the basis of that, the company chose to let the ticket-selling process continue rather than “impinging moral constraints”.
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