Need a sold-out train ticket to the Obama inauguration? No problem.
For the low, low price of $100 or more, a ride to history is now just a click away on Internet auction sites, like eBay and Craigslist.
Prices for MARC train tickets to Washington, D.C., which sold out this weekend, now are worth 10 times their face value as entrepreneurs cash in on what is expected to be the record-setting inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama Jan. 20. Between 2 million and 3 million people are expected to converge on the U.S. capital this weekend.
“You are bidding on the hottest ticket of the century,” writes one Cockeysville-based eBay user who is selling two round-trip MARC tickets between Baltimore’s Penn Station and Washington’s Union Station for more than $100 each.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This must be paid immediately.”
To discourage inauguration ticket scalping, lucky ticket holders must pick up their tickets to Obama’s inaugural ceremony in person at the U.S. Capitol. Industry leader eBay and its subsidiary, StubHub, agreed to ban the re-sale of inaugural ceremony tickets to protect lawmakers’ rights to distribute their allotments as they see fit, said company spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe.
But tickets to the event? That’s fair game, Sharpe said.
“If it’s legal to resell them, we will allow people to resell them,” Sharpe said. “That’s the thing about eBay — it’s one of the best places to go when things sell out quickly.”
Maryland transit officials are encouraging those who want to travel to the District on Inauguration Day to use a special commuter bus service to the D.C. Metrorail.
Reservations are not required, and customers can buy $10 round-trip tickets onboard Jan. 20.
But officials said they will accept MARC train tickets as long as they are originals.
“There are always going to be enterprising people, and we can’t control that,” said Maryland Transit Authority spokeswoman Sharon Wicker. “But we do try to remind people that any time they buy something from someone other than the original vendor, that would be MTA in this case, they should exercise caution.”
