I took to this show three extra lawn tickets and one extra pavilion ticket. (I would have posted them here in the ticket exchange, but by the time I realized I didn't need them, it was too late.) All I wanted was face value plus Ticketmaster charges. ($42 for the lawns and $77 for the pavilion.)
About 3:30 or so, I start walking around the parking lot holding up my tickets. About five minutes later, a guy approaches me wanting to know what I have. After I tell him, he says he wants to buy one lawn. He sticks $50 in my hand and tells me to keep the change. I give him the ticket.
I'm standing there sorting out my money and my remaining tickets when I'm approached by two young men wanting to know what I have. I tell them I have two lawns for $42 and one pavilion for $77. Before they could even respond, a guy dressed in a Hawaian shirt and shorts jumps in between me and the two men, pulls me aside and tells me very sternly, "I'm going to give you one warning and one warning only: You can't sell tickets here! It's a $1000 fine!"
I just assumed he was an undercover cop. In hindsight, I should have politely asked to see a badge or some kind of proof that he was an officer, but I was caught so off guard that I couldn't think. I just said, "Okay, sir, I guess I'll have to take these extra tickets in with me." I put my tickets up, and the man walks off. I turn and go walking around to another section of the parking lot, and behind me, I hear the two men who wanted to buy my tickets whistle at me. (They wanted the tickets really bad!) I hated to deny them the tickets, so I motioned for them to follow me. I walked over a couple of rows of cars and squatted down between the cars, so no one could see me. They followed me and paid me for the two lawn tickets, and I handed them the two tickets.
So, now I've still got my one pavilion ticket. Honestly, I expected to have a hard time selling it to begin with; after all, who wants to sit in a reserved seat by themselves? I wanted to try to get something for it, but I really didn't know what to do: The $77 loss on the ticket is small potatoes compared to a $1000 fine. Still wondering about the legitimacy of the guy's claims, I walked up towards the venue looking for an officer in uniform. I wanted to ask somebody who I knew I could trust what the policy was. Finally, I found two Alpine employees on horses, and I asked them about the policy. They said you could sell them for face value or less, but you couldn't profit from them. Wow, now I'm wondering who that first guy was and why he told me that.
I walked around for awhile trying to sell it; I had a few people interested, but no one really wanted to pay $77. Finally, I found a lady who was with some people who had lawn seats. She was just looking to get in so she could join them on the lawn, so I sold her my ticket for $50 and had a seat next to me vacant, giving me plenty of room to dance around and enjoy the show.
But, ever since that day, my curiosity has been driving me crazy as to who that man was and why he told me what he did. If he really was an undercover cop, why wouldn't he tell me it was illegal to scalp-not illegal to sell? If he was an actual undercover cop, I guess he just either assumed I was scalping, or either he defined scalping as "keeping the change" when my first buyer told me to keep the change. Whatever, that was ridiculous! If those two men had not chased me down and I hadn't later found the Alpine Valley workers to confirm policy, three people who wanted to go the show would have been denied the opportunity. What a moron!
