October 3, 2008, Newsletter Issue #137: Selling Tickets on eBay

Tip of the Week

eBay.com, a Web site that offers the auction-style trading of various items, has become a popular way for folks to buy event tickets. In fact, according to USA Today, ticket auctions on eBay are growing more than 50 percent a year. Within the last two years, eBay has had 100,000 tickets listed at a time, 90 percent of them for sporting events and concerts.

Buying and reselling tickets on eBay is legal. However, the site takes pains to ensure its users stay within the law. Since ticket resale laws are complicated and vary so much from state to state, eBay has a calculator that allows you to plug in the state you live in and the state the event is in to find out if you are operating within the law.

eBay points out that it is important to remember that the law pertains to you only if you live in the same state where the event is taking place. If you live in a different state than where the event is taking place, then you are not restricted as a buyer or a seller.

To give you an idea of how much the states differ in their laws, here is an example of what Florida and New York permit when it comes to the resale of tickets, according to eBay. In Florida you cannot sell or buy a ticket for higher than face value, including fees plus $1 for tickets to events taking place in the Sunshine State. In New York, you cannot sell or buy tickets that are more than face value, including fees plus 45 percent of the ticket price for venues that seat more than 6,000 people and face value including fees, plus 20 percent for smaller venues.

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