It's not that brokers all work off the same pool of tickets. The reason for duplicates is that firms (like my company) post our inventory on multiple online outlets or exchanges (websites like stubhub), and when fansnap collects their data from those sites they do not have a way of removing the duplicate entries.Even so, it is clear that there are significantly more Yankee tickets available on FanSnap.com than for any other MLB team, so it can be assumed that more tickets for the Yankees were bought just to sell.
Our secondary ticket market expert further dispelled the myth that ticket brokers are slimy by letting us know that Yankee fans can currently take advantage of some great deals on Angels and Rays tickets. Tickets for these upcoming series' are going for significantly less than face value. It is starting to look like those fans shut out of Yankee season ticket plans might end up doing better creating their own plans on the secondary market.
UPDATE: FanSnap's response to this claim if you
Hi Ross,
We agree that brokers are great partners for tickets. In fact, we partner with top brokers from across the country. You're also right that there are significantly more Yankees tickets listed on FanSnap than any other MLB team. This is due, in part to the large new stadium. There are simply more seats to be had. The economic downturn has been especially pronounced in New York and the high demand for tickets means many season ticket holders are selling. Because so many people are selling, it is a great time for fans to get great seats at great values.
I did want to clarify the point about comparable tickets on FanSnap. Giving fans the ability to compare tickets is one of our most popular features. We spend a ton of brain power and engineering time on enabling comparing. This way the fan is in control of where they buy the tickets.
In your broker's example where he posts to multiple sites, we show fans that ticket and each place it's posted. This way the fan can buy direct from the broker or if the fan has a StubHub account and wants to buy that way, they can. FanSnap is about comprehensive choice for fans. We posted about comparable tickets here: http://www.fansnap.com/blog/2008/11/fansnap-are-these-the-same-tickets-or-what/.
We love that you use FanSnap as a resource. If the future, if you need assistance with stats, please let me know.
Best regards,
Christian Anderson
FanSnap
christian@fansnap
