Scalpers get away using eBay, texting

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - September 20, 2008

La Salle coach Franz Pumaren said yesterday police authorities are practically helpless in arresting scalpers since these people have successfully used advances technology and communication to ply their trade.

Scalpers are expected to make a killing as demand for tickets in tomorrow’s start of the La Salle-Ateneo at the Araneta Coiseum have gone through the roof.

Despite efforts to curb the trade, police reportedly are having a difficult time implementing an anti-scalping law as scalpers turn to the Internet, eBay or texting to sell the tickets.

Though prices of tickets have jumped by leaps and bounds, there are still buyers willing to pay the stiff price as watching an Ateneo-La Salle game is a must for followers of the two schools whose rivalry, which some consider as insane and irrational, dates back decades and seem to grow even stronger.

Proof of this is that on eBay one bidder has offered P25,000 for a patron ticket for Sunday’s game. This ticket has a price tag of P300 but is normally is allotted by the league and the Araneta Coliseum to VIPs.

Upper box tickets costing between P70-170 are selling for as much as P4,000 while general admission tickets, the cheapest at P55, is going from P300-P500.

"Text messaging and the use of the Internet have made scalping easy," said Pumaren, who also serves as councilor of Quezon City and chief sponsor of the anti-scalping law passed by the QC council in 1997.

He said scalpers no longer linger around playing venues where they will be easy to spot and apprehend.

"The scalpers or the syndicates or the financiers, know their way around and they don’t stay around Quezon City," Pumaren said at SCOOP sa Kamayan forum yesterday. "You’ll be surprised, these scalpers hang around in schools to make their trade and with today’s technology, it is easy to do it."

But some scalpers still hang around venues. In fact, during the second Ateneo-La Salle game in the eliminations, several scalpers were arrested outside the Big Dome.

League officials are also faced with the problem of having to deal with counterfeit tickets. Already, some 100 fake tickets have been confiscated this season but no one has been arrested for this.

To prevent or minimize scalping, Pumaren said member schools must monitor the allocation of tickets. He recalled that during his days as a PBA player, tickets distributed to players are stamped with their names on it.

"They should try to monitor the ticket numbers if they allocate it to certain schools," he said. This way, authorities will know from whom the scalpers got their tickets.