Ticket Resales Thriving in Recession, StubHub Says

The ticket-reseller market is going strong despite lower selling prices and new challenges from primary sellers, such as Ticketmaster’s (TKTM) paperless initiative, says StubHub.

Though the average price of a ticket on eBay (EBAY)-owned StubHub fell to $102 in 2008 from $112 in 2007, it began seeing gains in transaction volume and sales late in the year. Its first-quarter ticket sales rose 16 percent, while transaction volume climbed 26 percent, and StubHub President Chris Tsakalakis said it expects even stronger results in the second quarter.

“We see that, despite prices coming down, that we’re able to more than offset that with an increase in transaction volume,” he said.

StubHub sold more than 9,000 tickets to this year’s Bowl Championship Series, compared with about 3,500 last year, for example.

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