The Bleacher Bums: April 10, 2006 Archive

The "convenience" of "handling" your own tickets

Posted at 9:31 AM on April 10, 2006 by Ben Tesch

Ex-Bum, now Polinaut, Bob Collins, sends an e-mail:

So today I go online to order two tickets for next Friday night's game between the Twins and the Yankees. My son is a Yankee fan.

I go through the process and it adds a $6 "convenience charge" to the two tickets for a total of $90.00. Then, when I go to the final screen, there's another $3 charge for "handling." Now we're up to $93.00. Now you can print out your tickets at your computer right then. That'll cost you another $1.75 for a total of $10.75 in "extra" charges for buying someone's product.

The thing is, shouldn't there be a $1.75 discount for printing your own tickets? It's my paper, my ink, and my time and the Twins (or MLB.Com) doesn't have to spend any money on postage, envelopes, paper, ink, or a human to put it all together.

Ah yes, the wonderful word of online ticket ordering and fee gauging, first mastered by Ticketmaster, then copied by other ticket ordering services. One wonders:

• whether $3 per ticket is worth being that "convenient",
  
• what "handling" they are doing at all,
  
• why they are charging — for a third time in the same transaction — for printing your own ticket
  

I've never bought a baseball ticket online, but show and concert tickets are exactly the same. Terribly frustrating. It's no wonder ticket scalpers are still in business.