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Joe Pyrah
Dutch tulip bubble? Burst. Dot-com bubble? Burst. Housing bubble? Burst. Miley Cyrus bubble?
Pop.
What was once a mad scramble of scalpers to cash in on the tween star's appearance at Stadium of Fire is now a mad scramble to rid themselves of tickets barely worth face value. Within hours of going on sale April 4, scalpers had them listed on eBay and other Web sites marked up as high as 1,000 percent.
Some managed to make big money on the initial sold-out panic, but what a difference three months makes.
Let's go to Craigslist, shall we?
• 3 tix stadium of fire! SUPER CHEAP! - $65
• 8 stadium of fire tix. AMAZING PRICE! - $75
• Stadium of Fire 4 seats in the shade (face value - pay what we paid)
The list goes on and on, with hundreds of tickets being sold at face value. To be sure, there are people still hoping for the big score -- several auctions on eBay are asking for hundreds of dollars per ticket. But just days before the big event, sellers like Tim Snyder are just making sure they aren't left holding unsold merchandise.
He, his brother and father sold 46 tickets between them. Snyder said he hasn't had a problem selling at face value, recently getting rid of his last pair via Craigslist, but he hasn't had much luck selling for profit.
"There's still a lot of people selling them for more than face value," said the Springville resident about why he was able to sell his last tickets quickly. He did keep a few for himself and will be at the show.
Brad Pelo, the Freedom Festival's senior executive producer, said he's released 2,500 tickets over the past three weeks for public purchase and that may have had some impact on scalpers.
"Unfortunately, I don't have time to monitor the secondary market," he said.
The so-called secondary market upset many a parent in the early going who were looking to get their kids to a concert featuring the wildly popular Cyrus. The latest in a long line of Disney ingenues, Cyrus will be debuting music from her upcoming album "Breakout."
Prospective buyers should note that all available tickets for the Fourth of July bash are now in circulation. If you still want tickets, there are a limited number left -- though price no longer appears to be quite the problem it once was.
Stadium of Fire
When: July 4, 8 p.m.
Where: LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo
Performers: Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana; The Blue Man Group; emceed by talk show host Glenn Beck
• 49,500 - seating capacity for Stadium of Fire
• 2,500 - number of tickets released in the past three weeks for public purchase
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