so anyone else should be allowed.

… of MLB’s partnership with StubHub, where you can now LEGALLY sell your tickets at a premium, with the blessing of the team and MLB. Reporting anyone NOW is pointless.

I can’t answer whether this income should be reportable to the IRS or not; I am not an accountant nor tax attorney.

And no, I have never heard of anyone having season tickets revoked.

and then sell them for a profit, congratulations! Report the gains on your taxes and give yourself a pat on the back. If you get a season ticket, and then sell some tickets for a profit, you should do the exact same thing. Once you buy the tickets, they are yours. The Cubs shouldn’t have a say.

I checked into this when moving to Illinois a few years ago. I knew as a non-Illinois resident I was not subject to certain laws.

The situation today is that anyone in Illinois can resell tickets for above face value through controlled outlets like ebay and stubhub. You don’t need a broker’s license. The buyer has recourse through the law, and the buyer accepts that by using these outlets. However, there are two types of taxes that may apply. First, as noted on ebay when you list a ticket, sellers of tickets to events within the city limits of Chicago are liable to collect/pay sales tax on those transactions (I assume for the amount above face value). Second, whether or not you have a “business” the income from resale of the tickets is taxable as personal income. This is the first year I have actually made more from selling tickets than I have spent. I do not have season tickets, but ended up not using most of the 9-pack I bought at the beginning of the year. I’ll be consulting an accountant about how to properly handle this income.

I’m a little jealous. For IF the day comes I can purchase season tickets, I hope I am well enough off that A. I don’t need the extra money and B. that I’m working at a job that allows me to go to every game. So I say man law #482 says “Thou shall not abandon your team in order to make some $$$.”

However, if it wasn’t for people like this guy, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to buy some of the seats I have purchased before. So I guess I say, let the invisible hand move.

prevented selling at any price. But they were loosly enforced, if at all. There was also the proximity law, referring to not allowing any sales within a given distance. The law radically changed in the 80’s, which of course was long before any internet thing. I do remember how it impacted scalping around Chicago Stadium for the ’Hawks, who were at the time the perennial hot ticket in town.

And since there are no laws on the books preventing this new situation with MLB and StubHub (the fans’ legal-scalping agency as I refer to it), there’s nothing that should be done about it. I just wish I thought up that idea. What a concept! StubHub’s gross margin is 25%, no receivables and low overhead; wow!

that scalping exists and will always exist. We are capitalists after all.

I don’t mind a season ticket holder selling extras or highly sought after games to off-set his initial outlay. In fact, I would encourage it. My only issue is the ease by which modern technology allows individuals to in essence use the Cubs for their own gain. A guy in Omaha can be a season ticket holder, receive his tickets and put every single one up on eBay or Stubhub. He might come out ahead in the good years, and lose a little in the lean years but he really has no reason to not renew his tickets every year. The Cubs seem to be a team that is almost forced to avoid any long rebuilding so it can be assumed that the team will be aggressively built. If he never gives up his tickets, it never opens them up to anyone on the waiting list to get their chances.

It’ll be interesting to see how the economy affects the season ticket renewal this upcoming season and the next couple. It may open up chances for a lot of people.

finance a good chunk of the current payroll upfront without knowing what the product will be on the field that year. People who hold season tickets pay a lot of money in January without knowing for sure what will happen. I think that once a season ticket holder helps bankroll, in theory, the product on the field that they should be able to use Stubhub or whatever to sell any games. The key point is there are probably more years where a season ticket holder has to eat a lot of tickets or simply give them away to benefit during these “boom” years. Over the long-term, a season ticket holder will eat most of the cost despite selling for ridiculous prices these last few years.

For the record, I don’t like the high prices of games and the unavailability of tickets but do support the free market system 100%.

Even though I only use my season tickets for roughly 15 games a year ( I live out of state and sit in the bleachers as well) I did not scalp until I think 4 years ago. It was combination of thinking it was wrong and stupidly believing something might happen if I got " caught" . After the Cubs were discovered to have been scalping their own tickets I lost my inhibitions. I scalp , I mean “sell” about 20 or more games mainly on stubhub because hey it is the “official” outlet. Most of these are big games I would don’t attend ( Opening Day, Sox, interleague). I use the money to cover my travel expenses. I also make at least 30 to 40 games available to friends and folks I have met at face value. I am not crazy about stubhub , partly because they make 25% ( 15% from seller and 10% from buyer) for having an efficient web site and partly because there set up makes it hard for me to explain how good my tickets are ( majority of terrace reserve seats have obstruction but mine don’t) Craig’s list is unreliable and eBay filled with crap.Having lost my job I might scalp a few more games but I certainly would never cut my friends off from tickets or make them pay more than face. It is a balancing act but I have no qualms about scalping since in 20 years of having them I lost many thousands because was stuck with tickets I was too disorganized to sell.

Cubs never have and never will do anything about scalping. I once received by accident the tickets of another season ticket holder. It was 6 different sets, either pairs in fours in various sections of the lower boxes. It was an individual not a company. I joked with Al at the time that I could scalp them and move to Mexico with the money but they clearly belonged to a professional broker. The 20 or so games I sell to cover expenses are small potatoes.