Other Aspects of Rising Price of Tickets

Chuck Philips’ article documenting the soaring cost of concert and sporting event tickets (“Ticket Flap: What Price Convenience?,” May 10) fails to expose the most flagrant rip-off being perpetrated on the L.A.-area consumer: the legalized scalping of tickets by unregulated, profit-grabbing ticket agencies.

Philips asks, “How can a $17.50 concert ticket end up costing $26.05?,” but I am confronted with an even bigger question: How can a $30 ticket end up costing $150? Ticket agencies simply buy huge blocks of tickets for popular shows, leaving those of us unable to wait on line the morning the tickets go on sale entirely at the mercy of their 400% markups.

Now, I really like Elvis Costello, and I shelled out $150 for a seat at the Wiltern Theatre because I was out of town the week the tickets went on sale. But I feel abused. When will Los Angeles follow the lead of other major cities and try to put these shysters out of business?

JESS BORGESON

Los Angeles