How Online Ticket Scalping (Eventually) Helped “Hamilton”
But “Hamilton” has also been a bonanza for another group: scalpers, who have been using ticket bots to snap up seats online, then reselling them at a huge markup. TheTimes calculated that scalpers could be making as much as sixty million dollars a year from the show—enough, in any case, that the producers announced that they’re raising the price of the two hundred best seats in the house, from about four hundred and seventy dollars to eight hundred and forty-nine dollars. (The prices of other tickets are also going up, but by significantly less.
.. The price hike makes excellent economic sense, and it also illuminates how the Internet has made it easier for Broadway shows, sports teams, and performers to raise prices without necessarily alienating fans.
.. online marketplaces like StubHub and SeatGeek have been a boon to people like the producers of “Hamilton,” because, although they’ve provided a venue for scalping, they’ve also made it easier for producers to discern what to charge.