It’s ‘Shotime’: Scalpers eye 400% gains as tickets pass HK$23,000 for Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers debut in Seoul Series
- Tickets to the six-game series in Seoul are selling at five times face value, and could come with an unusual seatmate
- The series includes two regular-season games between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, plus four exhibition games with Korean teams
Want to see Shohei Ohtani’s debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Seoul next week? It could cost you more than 4 million won (HK$23,700) – five times face value – plus land you with an unusual seatmate.
Tickets to the six games in the Seoul Series – two regular-season Major League Baseball games between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, plus four exhibition games with Korean teams – were originally sold only on Coupang Play, a streaming unit of US-listed online retailer Coupang Inc.
To deter scalpers, the service allowed its members to buy no more than two tickets and to show ID to attend the game.
On secondary market Ticketbay, scalpers say they’ll accompany buyers to the game. In a listing for a 2.5 million won ticket for a table seat on the first baseline on March 20, the seller writes: “Join me and let’s get in the game together. There’s no other way.”
Other scalpers are using a technique known as “ID moving”, where they find a prospective customer with a Coupang Play account. After money’s changed hands, the seller cancels an existing ticket, then rebuys it immediately, this time under the customer’s name. If someone else happens to snap up the stray seat, the deal is off.
