Just Call Me Del Boy

Ticket touting update:
I advertised my spare ashes tickets on thegumtree; to test the water I put them on at six times the face value wondering if there’d be any takers. The first response I got was an email from some twat asking whether I was having a laugh, and that anyone paying that much would be “stupid or a desperate aussie spending their hard earned barman wage.” I agreed with him saying you would have to be stupid, but there are plenty of stupid people out there and, if he looked on ebay, he would find plenty of people willing to pay that much.
I left it over the weekend and come Monday, had responses from 3 people all saying they would buy them. So applying what little I actually remember from my unfinished education in Economics, I let demand increase the price and reposted the ad.
Shortly I had another interested party. After a quick phone call and a bit of haggling, a deal was done. The buyer (English geezer as opposed to desperate Aussie barman) was willing to drive into town and meet me near my office, with cash, the next day.
And so the transaction was completed at lunch time today; a little bit dodgy making a cash transaction out in the street, but I felt like a regular Del Boy Trotter after that with a wad of bills held in a paper clip in my jacket pocket. Of course the next place I went was the bank to deposit the cash equivalent of 650% of the face value of two ashes tickets.
The story however does not end there. My friend, let’s for these purposes call him Rob; also was fortunate enough to have 2 tickets. He too is coming on the SA trip and will thus be selling his tickets. So after discussing my wheeling and dealing with him, I advertised his tickets on his behalf. Shortly after, he received a call from the same person who purchased mine, willing to buy his for the same price. The story I got was that he was going to treat his son, Rob’s story was the grandparents. In any case, we don’t care what he does with them, we’ve got our money and we both think it is a stupid amount of money to pay for tickets to the cricket. The black market price may go up as the test draws closer, but tickets are being sold by ticketing agencies now, for the same price we received for ours. So I’m happy, what it all really equates to for me is free flights to Johannesburg. Now that’s what I call budget travel.