I know one person who actually acts that way, mostly. At different times he has had full or partial ticket plans for the Knicks, Yankees and Giants. As soon as he had his tickets he would list every game on Stubhub at ridiculous asking prices. Occasionally they got bought. He never regretted it, even if it was a game he really wanted to see, "If someone wants to pay me an inflated price for my seat, they can have it." But I think he priced with a percentage over the expected value for each game individually. So using NYCFC/Miami as an example, if the going rate is say $450 for a seat in the 200s, he would ask maybe $650 for that game. For a run of the mill $55 game, he might ask $75 or $80. So he always got what he perceived as above market value for any specific game. not just market. But it's the closest thing I know to someone treating the two situations you describe as the same.
With respect to your wife's POV, which is shared by most, I believe it has reasonable logic on it's side. Let's say some has a NYCFC season ticket plan at $1,800, so that the average ticket price per game is $100. NYCFC might value some tickets at $75 and Miami at $400. First, it's rational for the STH to act as if every ticket cost $100, because they were bought at a price that could only be bought as a package. The cost assigned by NYCFC is somewhere between market and fictional anyway.
Second, even if the actual secondary market price for that seat the Miami game is $1,000, that does not change that the STH paid $100 (or $400 if you insist). So the STH sits and thinks, "I gladly paid $100 each for the Miami tickets, or maybe I paid $400, while getting the rest of the season at an even bigger discount. And I want to go to the Miami game at those prices which I already paid and I can so I will. But I would not pay $1,000 because I do not think it is worth $1,000 to go. Nonetheless, I sell not my Miami tickets for $1k each, because I want to go to the Miami game for $100/$400 a ticket and I can do that. So I will. Stated another way, just because it is not worth $1k for me to go to the Miami game is not the same as saying it is worth $1k for me to go. That other people want to go so much they will pay $1,000 per ticket does not change that I am going for less, and am rationally happy to do so." I understand the reasoning behind the counter argument: by refusing an offer of $1,000 for your ticket you are effectively giving up $1,000 to go. But they are not the same.
Also, it is fully rational to consider real transactions as real and imputed or potential ones as fantasy. Economists love to consider things like imputed income not earned by stay at home parents offset by imputed service fees not paid for childcare services rendered by hypothetical third parties. Same for the imputed rent homeowners pay to themselves for the privilege of living in the house they bought. I think the latter might even be considered when calculating GDP. But GAAP accounting and tax accounting and Quicken for personal finance just count actual transactions. If I don't sell my Miami tix then I paid what I paid in an actual transaction. The $1,000 is fantasy until it's not when and if I make it happen.
Last edited:
