If you weren't lucky enough to snag gold medal hockey tickets in the 2010 Olympic ticket lottery, you can still see the game -- but you will have trust your already bad luck one more time.

That's because you may have to get those sought-after tickets from online sources, despite warnings from Olympic organizers that scalped tickets will be invalidated.

Individual postings to buy and sell websites like Craigslist and EBay began showing up just hours after lottery winners were informed of their selections Wednesday.

One posting lists a pair of gold medal hockey tickets for $5,000 -- more than double the original asking price.

Other postings offer trades between events, such as opening ceremonies and hockey games.

Phase two begins

A second round of sales begins on the official 2010 website Friday morning when those shut out of the lottery have a chance to pick up the few unsold tickets to some preliminary events or medal ceremonies. Those will be sold on a first-come first-serve basis.

Caley Denton of Vancouver's Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) said more tickets will be on sale by mid-2009 when the final capacity of the venues is determined.

VANOC says the number of requests for 2010 tickets is more than double the number that was reported for Salt Lake City in 2002, the most recent Games held in North America.

The committee expects to collect more than $230 million from the approximately 1.6 million tickets sold to the public for the Games.

Olympic enthusiasts submitted over $345 million in ticket requests during the Phase 1 of ticket sales.

2010 Games tickets by the numbers

  • Total value of tickets requested during phase 1 of sales (Oct. 3 to Nov. 7): $345 million
  • Value of tickets requested on final day of requests: $135 million
  • Page views on ticketing site from Oct. 3 to Nov 7.: 18.5 million
  • More than 3.5 million page views on November 7 alone
  • More than 140,000 tickets requested for men's gold medal hockey
  • More than 10,200 tickets were requested for the men's four-man bobsleigh final

2010 Olympic ticket facts

  • 1.6 million tickets will be available to the public.
  • 50 per cent cost less than $100.
  • The most expensive ticket is $1,100 for a seat at the opening ceremonies.
  • The cheapest event ticket is $25 for preliminary rounds of cross-country skiing and biathlon.
  • The most expensive ticket for the men's gold medal hockey game is $775.
  • Tickets to the nightly victory ceremonies will be $22, but a third of them will be given away for free.
  • Visa is the only payment card accepted

The 2010 Winter Games will take place in Vancouver and Whistler, from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28. The Paralympic Games will follow from March 12 to 21.

With files from The Canadian Press