Sandy Scalpers Join Long Line of Douchebags

The proceeds from the "121212"  concert, featuring Eddie Vedder, the Who, Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Bruce Springsteen, are intended to benefit the victims of Superstorm Sandy. So it's especially heartening to see a ticket sold for $60,000.

Except the ticket was sold on the secondary market by scalpers and almost none of the money will reach its rightful beneficiaries because everything is terrible.

Motivated by outrage–and, perhaps, his sixth sense for media attention–Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling for online sellers like StubHub to prohibit sales of charity tickets. In the meantime, the Sandy concert scalpers have joined a long, undistinguished list of assholes who have tried to ruin charity events in the past:

6/2005, Live 8 Concert: "More than 2 million text messages were entered, at a cost of 1.5 pounds ($2.70) each…Some winners immediately listed tickets on eBay, and some sold for more than 2,000 pounds ($3,600)."

9/2009, Jay-Z's 9/11 Benefit Concert: "Tickets to Friday's show were purposely set low at $54.50…One site was offering tickets for $45,000 each."

11/2010, Garth Brooks Concert for Nashville Flooding: "A show on Dec. 21 has a top ticket price of $1,177. The late show that night is at $1,375."

8/2012, Metallica's Greater Vancouver Food Bank Tribute: "Scalpers didn’t take long to capitalize on Metallica’s $5 charity concert, with tickets to Monday’s gig at Rogers Arena going for as much as $50 on Craiglist."

10/2012, Charity Hockey Game: "Every $20 ticket for the Oct. 17 hockey game — Bieksa's Buddies vs. UBC Thunderbirds — was snapped up quickly as hockey-starved Vancouverites spotted perhaps their only chance to catch some of the Canucks in action this season."

Preying on Canadians' withdrawal from hockey to make a buck? This might be the most heartless one of all.

Previously
Chris Christie Says Nice Things About Barack Obama
Mitt Romney to Hold Storm Relief Events

Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

Tags: Chuck Schumer, Hurricane Sandy, Money, Music