While Chicagoans were reselling their “free” tickets to Barack Obama’s final speech for flat-screen TVs and Hamilton tickets, ticketholders to Donald Trump’s Inauguration don’t seem to be seeing the same dollar signs.
According to the New York Daily News, some ticket scalpers in Manhattan are finding that Trump tickets aren’t commanding the thousand-dollar price tags they predicted. At least one scalper, who bought a pair of tickets for $700 with the intention of reselling them for double that amount, found himself unable to even give the tickets away.
“Nobody wants to buy them,” he told local media. “It looks like I’m stuck with them, I might even have to go.” He says he got offers before he bought the tickets, but as soon as he had them in hand, people balked.
“I thought they would be in demand,” he said. The best offer he says he’s gotten is $200 for the pair.
Part of the problem may be that scalpers are pricing themselves out of the market. Inauguration tickets are available for free from Congressional offices, but in limited quantities, so there is a secondary market. But ticket cost is heavily dependent on the event’s popularity. Scalping the tickets is, technically, not illegal since the tickets were never for sale in the first place.
For President Obama’s second inauguration, tickets were listed on secondary market sites like Craigslist and eBay for around $2,000 each. For his first inauguration in 2008, bidding on eBay for a pair of tickets started at around $1,000.
Tickets to Trump’s inauguration are available from Craigslist and eBay for anywhere from $175 to $400 per ticket. For Trump fans in New York City, a pair of tickets can be had for around $1000, and you even get a souvenir program, pictures of Trump and his Vice President, Mike Pence, and a formal invitation suitable for framing. On eBay, there’s a “Buy it Now” option for the same package for $2,000.
Neither package has sold with only a few days left.