It's already a seller's market for Seahawks playoff tickets

Michael Kim is a Seahawks season-ticket holder with prime seats on the 50-yard line. While he'd like to go to the first playoff game, he knows the tickets are gold.

After he posted the pair on Craigslist.com, an online market, a fan in San Diego offered $1,500. Someone else bid $1,700, and Kim is trying to decide whether to hold out for more.

Tickets for next weekend's playoff game at Qwest Field don't officially go on sale until Monday, but that hasn't stopped season-ticket holders — who already have playoff tickets — and ticket-booking companies from selling the hottest ticket in town.

Kim said he still may go to the game, "but if someone else wants to pay me money, I'll give them up."

And if the Seahawks win next weekend?

The tickets will be "even hotter," said Kim, who definitely would sell his tickets to a second playoff game.

Another season-ticket holder named Josh, who declined to give his last name, is a student at Northwest University in Kirkland. He says he was given season tickets as a bonus from his summer commercial-fishing job and would like to go to the game, but needs to buy books for school. He reluctantly sold his tickets for $300 each.

Playoff dates, tickets


Jan. 14 or 15:NFC divisional playoff game

Jan. 22:NFC Championship Game

Feb. 5: Super Bowl XL, Ford Field, Detroit

Tickets on sale: Through Ticketmaster, 206-622-4295,

or online at www.seahawks.com at 10 a.m. Monday

Tickets will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. by phone through Ticketmaster and online through www.seahawks.com; they won't be available at the Qwest Field ticket office. Prices range from $55 to $350 per ticket. The limit is four per person, and they must be purchased with a credit card.

The Seahawks expect tickets to sell out in a half-hour. But when the playoff-bound Chicago Bears recently put their tickets up for sale, they sold out in two minutes.

The Seahawks won't say how many tickets will be available. Qwest Field has seating for 67,000 people, and the team has about 40,000 season-ticket holders.

So what's a fan to do if he can't get through to Ticketmaster?

There's the obvious option of going to such online markets as Craigslist and eBay, but buyers risk getting fraudulent tickets or paying high prices for bad seats. There were 30 ticket sellers late Thursday on eBay. Craigslist had 17 postings by people looking to buy or sell tickets.

Another option is to get tickets through companies such as Ticketsnow.com, which deal with licensed ticket brokers. Brokers buy and resell tickets and use Ticketsnow as a conduit to bring sellers and buyers together. Ticketsnow says it screens these brokers by having them provide at least three references. The company doesn't buy directly from season-ticket holders because it doesn't want to take the chance that tickets they sell are fraudulent.

"When you buy online, it's buyer beware. You come to Ticketsnow and you don't worry about it," said Jennifer Swanson, company spokeswoman. She said her company doesn't regulate the price, "but we create a buyers market because sellers have to be competitive among themselves."

The cheapest Seahawks playoff ticket being offered on Ticketsnow was $130 for a seat in the uppermost section of Qwest Field; the most expensive was $700.

The simplest way to try for a playoff ticket: Show up at Qwest Field on game day. The city last May reversed a 62-year-old ordinance banning ticket scalping, or selling tickets for more than face value. Now sellers can ask whatever price they want, but they can't sell the tickets on stadium property.

The City Council agreed to eliminate the anti-scalping law after weighing enforcement costs, legal challenges and the reality of ticket sales over the Internet, which had dodged the scalping law.

Two years ago a municipal-court judge ruled that two men accused of scalping Mariners tickets were the victims of selective enforcement because the baseball club was doing the same thing online. However, the case remains open. In November, a Superior Court judge reversed the lower court's decision and said the two men can be prosecuted.

Nonetheless, Seattle police say they won't pursue anyone who occasionally tries to sell a ticket on game day as long as the sale is done off the stadium grounds.

"We recommend people not buy tickets this way," police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said. "There's no guarantee they are not counterfeit. Until they're scanned, you don't know if you have a valid ticket."

Attempts to get playoff tickets have led to some creative endeavors. Some online buyers, for example, are offering trades. One posting on Craigslist is from someone who has a 2001 Mariners jersey signed by the entire team. He wants to trade it for a ticket to the NFC Championship Game if the Seahawks make it that far.

Another fan offered to trade tickets for an iPod and another for concert tickets.

And then there are people like the woman who describes herself as "Desperate Housewife." She lives in Portland, her husband's birthday is Jan. 15 and she wants to buy him playoff tickets.

"I don't want charity, but I don't want scalped tickets either," she writes.

Another woman, a single mom named Lisa, made a similar plea on Craigslist, saying she knows that other people will be able to pay more than she can, but she thought she'd try anyway.

"This would be a big splurge, but worth it since I am sure it would be one of the best experiences of my life. I know that sounds dorky, but it is true. I love the Hawks and always have since the lazy Sundays growing up watching Zorn, Largent and Warner."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com