Emails about the $4 ticket fee

I really appreciate the discussions we’re having – BklynGuy posted this in the comments:

I’m a season ticketholder, have used the Mets’ “Ticket Transfer” service and can fill in a couple of holes here. First, to confirm, it’s $4 per transfer, and the transfer can include anywhere from 1 to 4 tickets per game. Second, the transfer automatically cancels – that is, invalidates – the hard ticket(s)’ bar code(s); the PDF ticket(s) include(s) a new bar code. Third, once the PDF ticket(s) is/are emailed and accepted, the recipient can then forward that email (containing the PDF or PDFs) without charge, as it then is just an image that he owns and can do with as he pleases. (Maybe his buddy sent him 2 tix and he then wants to send one of them to HIS buddy whom he’ll meet at the seats, or maybe he wants/needs to transfer his e-tix from one device of his own to another.) Also, the recipient has (or at least used to have) the option to say he’ll pick up the transferred tix at Will Call rather than print them out, which I guess is useful if you’re receiving tix on your smartphone while driving to New Shea on the BQE. Finally, a little-noticed side effect: the transfer process makes hard tix a dicey proposition when dealing with strangers if you’re on the buying end, because there’s no way to know if the bar code’s been invalidated by a Ticket Transfer. As a result, when I’m occasionally on the buying end, I’ll usually only accept a PDF or printout of it.

Good to know that it’s $4 not $4 per ticket (and I will update that other post).

MetsMike says:

Being someone who has spent a good amount of years working in and around professional sports box office operations, and in defense of the Mets, the fee to transfer tickets are to offset the charge they receive from their ticketing provider. Providing professional sports ticketing (not ticket sales, but actually providing the ticketing service online) is a multi-million dollar business. I don’t know the particulars of the Mets situation, but I can assure you they are being charged either exactly or close to the $4 fee.
That and the combination of controlling the second market for tickets with the fee, this doesn’t seem to be the battle we should be fighting.

That seems logical to me that the Mets are passing along a cost.  What I don’t yet understand is how other teams are able to do it for less, or in the case of the Knicks for free.

I’d love more insight if anyone has any.

Did everyone survive the earthquake?