Scalpers Selling Charlie Sheen Tickets for Cheap
April 5, 2011— -- Is Charlie Sheen winning or not?
Just days into his "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option Tour," after being savaged in Detroit and somewhat redeemed in Chicago, there are reports that brokers and ticket holders are trying to unload their tickets at bargain basement prices.
Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for StubHub, an online ticket re-seller similar to eBay, said Ticketmasters' initial ticket offering the second week of March sold out very quickly at all 20 tour stops. So ticket holders were demanding an average of $150 a ticket on StubHub for Sheen's upcoming New York City shows at Radio City Music Hall, Ferrer said.
But after Sheen's opening night debacle in Detroit, in which he was practically booed off stage Saturday, average prices for those same shows had dropped by more than half to $60 or $70 and many people were selling their tickets for much less.
"Last week, the cheapest ticket was $66," Ferrer said. "Today, comparable seats are $25. It's very telling of where the market has gone."
Looks like Sheen, who appears in Cleveland tonight, is losing, right?
"Got nothing to do with us," Sheen's rep Larry Solters told ABCNews.com.
Solters pointed out the difference between scalped tickets and box office sales while referring to a recent article about the ticket controversy in Billboard.
"A ticket sold is a ticket sold, whether it's from Ticketmaster, CharlieSheen.com or the box office," Solters told Billboard. "Where they go after that, frankly we don't know. We all know a re-seller will often post their tickets to multiple sites to promote their product. It might be on multiple sites for the same ticket."
Solters also noted that Sheen's tour had sold close to 100,000 tickets without paid advertising. And Sheen gets paid regardless of where the ticket ends up -- whether the original ticket holder actually attends the show or tries to pawn it off.
As for reports that some Detroit show goers were demanding a refund, Solters told ABCNews.com, "Don't know anything of it."
So, even if reviews continue to be unfavorable and tickets drop to "fire sale" prices, as Ferrer puts it, Sheen could get the last laugh on this one. And he could well be laughing all the way to the bank.
