- Phils, Rockies have many personal ties
- Ryan Howard, the power and the glory
- Phillies pitcher Happ controls his pitches and emotions
- Thumbing through Phillies' up-and-down season
- Phillies manager Manuel, Rockies GM O'Dowd worked together in Cleveland
- Rockies again, but a different Hamels
- SEPTA adds subway service for Phillies' games
- Bensalem man in driver's seat of Cole Hamels' MVP car
- Day games create buyer's market for Phillies playoff tickets
- Playoff weather
- Daulton memorabilia going up for bid
- Torre is the real Mr. October
- Twins, Tigers vie today for AL Central crown
- Mets announce coaching shakeup
- Baseball Notes: Starting over: Mets shake up coaching staff
- Sam Donnellon: Phillies' newcomers enjoying the ride
- John Gonzalez: Forget Phils of yore
- Ronnie Polaneczky: Vow to never ignore a Phils victory
- Broad Street Billy: Wanted: memories from fans to promote repeat
- The Phillies Zone: The Inquirer's Phillies blog
- High Cheese: The Daily News' Phillies blog
- Photos: 2009 Phillies season
- Download: Phillies wallpapers for your computer desktop
- From the archives: 2008 World Series coverage
- Buy Phillies jerseys, playoff t-shirts, hats, and more
- Purchase Phillies playoff photos & reprints
- Photos: 2009 Phillies
- Relive the memories: Coverage of the World Series run
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Day games create buyer's market for Phillies playoff tickets
Crusty baseball manager and Philly native Lee Elia was right: Playoffs or no, 85 percent of the world has to work instead of going to a daytime ball game.
Contact staff writer Derrick Nunnally at 610-313-8212 or dnunnally@phillynews.com.
Because of Major League Baseball's schedulers, the other 15 percent are coming out ahead in a sudden buyer's market for Phillies playoff tickets.
Sports history notes that Elia used a torrent of salty language in his legendary 1983 rant about the day-game spectators of his Cubs team. And after word came Sunday that the Phillies would launch their world-title-defending playoff run with day games tomorrow and Thursday, Elia-esque expletives echoed through the Phanatic masses.
Then thousands leaped online to sell their tickets.
"I'm not blaming it on the Phillies," said Jim Stachelek, 55, of Harleysville, a real estate broker who listed his two seats on Craigslist yesterday for $300 because the schedule prohibited taking his wife. "I know it's Big TV. It's ridiculous, kind of annoying, and I couldn't believe it."
The flood of resellers achieved a rare feat by submarining ticket prices as Game 1 against the Colorado Rockies draws closer.
The online ticket-sales aggregator FanSnap.com found 5,499 Game 1 tickets on sale at various sites yesterday, about 2,000 more than were being hawked Sept. 27. And the average asking price had cratered: from $260 per ticket Sept. 27 to $165 yesterday.
That is still better, however, than the tickets' actual face value. The listed price on general-seating tickets for the Rockies series is $45 for some seats and $75 for others, the Phillies said. Standing-room-only tickets sell officially for $35.
At one of the largest marketplaces, the MLB-approved StubHub.com, the tide of for-sale postings dropped the average asking price there from $166 last week to $134 yesterday. By comparison, tickets to 2008's first round against the Milwaukee Brewers went for an average of $148 on StubHub.
The same is holding for local brokers, where as of yesterday, get-in tickets could be had for under $100.
"The demand is good, but it's obviously not as good as it was last year," said Jeremi Conaway, vice president of the Wanamaker Ticket Office.
Over on Craigslist, Nick Rizzotte, of Wilmington, posted two seats for $125 each for tickets with a face value of $50 each late yesterday morning for Game 2, which conflicts with a long-planned business meeting in Baltimore. He wrote the ad to drum up interest: "Cliff Lee probable pitcher!!! Be there for the excitement of a HOME PLAYOFF GAME!!!!"
Precisely 100 minutes later, he was astonished when he looked back at the site and saw how crowded the sellers' list was.
"I don't even see my ad on here now," he noted glumly.
While these are good times to be buying, those who have tickets but are seeking to make a few dollars in lean times by selling are caught in a hard place.
Gino Capobianchi, 48, of Feltonville, a disabled maintenance mechanic, and his firefighter son thought selling a couple of playoff seats would help defray their season-ticket costs for next year. A friend had gotten $5,000 for two World Series tickets in 2008, and "that put lightbulbs in our head," Capobianchi said.
As of yesterday, they were resigned to hoping the bad economic climate would actually help their effort to sell two Game 2 seats for $350 for which they paid a total of $130 including fees.
"It's in the middle of the day," Capobianchi said. "Day workers can't make it. Night workers can't make it. But with the unemployment rate, I'm sure it's sold out."
The pro sellers said enthusiasm would eventually overtake supply in this baseball-mad city, especially for sellers sharp enough to read the market and adjust their prices.
"If you can't sell a Phillies playoff seat," Wanamaker's Conaway said, "you probably shouldn't be selling seats."
Perhaps Conaway was right.
On StubHub last night, seats for the pricey Diamond Club were generally going for better than $300, and quite a few exceeded $400. In fact, four seats in the second row had an asking price of $1,500 each. Ouch.
In Sports
Hamels and Howard give fans two powerful reasons to believe. D1.
Contact staff writer Derrick Nunnally at 610-313-8212 or dnunnally@phillynews.com.
