Tragically Hip fans hoping to see the band live without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars may be in luck.
Ticket prices for the Vancouver shows on sites like StubHub have dramatically dropped.
The cross-Canada tour had fans clamouring for tickets after band frontman Gord Downie announced he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The two Vancouver shows sold out in minutes in May and the prices skyrocketed as scalpers hoped to cash in on the band’s adoring fanbase.
“The cost is hyper-inflated. You're paying such a premium for people you want to go see and enjoy, but it's like you're planning a vacation, you're spending that much money," one concert fan told CTV News.
As the Hip concert dates approached, prices for the Vancouver shows dropped as low as US$39.
"I think people realize more and more now that as the event gets closer, people will get rid of their tickets at a lesser price rather than get nothing," said Alan Gelfand of Fair Ticket Solutions. "The scalpers and the resellers gambled and they're losing on this one."
Vancouver ticket broker Kingsley Bailey, said the automated bots that purchase tickets en masse are not the real problem.
"The bots aren't the issue. It's legislation to give the consumer the opportunity to know exactly how many tickets are being sold on an onsale," he said.
Bailey said consumers should know that most Canadians only have access to about 40 per cent of all tickets being sold when scalpers and VIP tickets are taken into account.
"If the consumers were made aware of this, this type of situation wouldn't happen," he said.
Now tickets are being sold for a fraction of the original price, though they will likely be the worst seats in the house.
For anyone who gets in the arena though, many fans will likely feel like they’re ahead by a century.
