Seller’s Market

Dave, from Los Angeles, is hopeful.

“I just got here last night so I haven’t done anything yet,” he said. “But I’m hearing good things.”

Rob, from Montreal, says he’s doing well and expects he will be doing better the second week.

“Hockey tickets are hot,” he said. “You just have to get up in the morning and get out here.”

But Steven Maguire of London wouldn’t mind a bit if Dave and Rob, and all of their mates, took a major bath, Japanese-style or otherwise.

“They’re greedy,” he said. “They’re asking way too much. For events costing 3,000 yen [about $25], they’re asking 30,000 [$250]. That’s 10 times face value. I can’t afford that. I need four tickets [for freestyle skiing]. I’d pay 5,000, times four, but I can’t pay their prices.”

Dave and Rob are scalpers, Steven a buyer, or would-be buyer, and the ticket action has been brisk for Olympic events here.

The scalpers--independent ticket brokers?--are from the U.S., Canada, the Scandinavian countries, England and elsewhere. They gather each day at Nagano station and the nearby Metropolitan hotel to buy and sell, saving the day for some fans, who were unable to get tickets through normal channels, irritating others for one reason or another.

When the men’s downhill was postponed twice early last week, many fans had to leave and weren’t able to return when the race finally went off Friday morning.

So did the scalpers buy those tickets back?

“All sales are final,” said Jack of New York. “I ain’t responsible for the weather.”

Buyers who were unable to make it back for Friday’s run will be able to file for refunds with the Nagano Organizing Committee after the Games are over--”All the tickets for the postponed events will be refunded,” NAOC media chief Ko Yamaguchi announced the other day--but refunds will be for face value only. Which leaves scalper customers out in the cold, so to speak.

Scalping is illegal in many cities in the United States--Atlanta cops were running in scalpers regularly during the ’96 Games--but is legal here. At first, the scalpers set up shop right in Nagano station, but when their numbers became too large, and their pitches too intense, they were politely moved outside.

Still, the haggling goes on, and the scalpers don’t always get the best of it.

“I got stuck with a lot of luge tickets,” said Irish Archie, no hometown claimed. “I’ll have to make that up somewhere else.”

But Tomas, of Upsala, Sweden, who has been doing this sort of thing since the 1992 Albertville Games, figures to go home a happy man.

“The people here are willing to pay,” he said. “I think these will be very good Games for me.”