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Oconomowoc High School musical tickets hit by markups
Tickets to one high school's fall musical performance are getting steep markups on third-party resale sites.
OCONOMOWOC, Wis. - Don't overpay for tickets! That is the warning from one local theater.
Contact 6 found tickets for its high school musical listed for hundreds of dollars online.
Getting tickets
The backstory:
It is the first week of high school in Oconomowoc. 1950s nostalgia is center stage in this year's fall musical.
While Grease is the word for the students in rehearsals, behind the curtain, the theater is spreading the word about what they consider a rip-off.
"Over the summer, it just sort of blew up," said Cynthia Luksich.
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Luksich is talking about inflated ticket prices. Not at the Oconomowoc Arts Center, where Luksich is box office manager, but on ticket reselling websites.
"I get a call every day at this point, sometimes a few calls," Luksich said.
How it started
What we know:
It started about six months ago with The Nutcracker. One woman reported buying four tickets at $75 each. The theater's top ticket price for the show was $39.
The theater posted a disclaimer online. Despite that, many of those same third-party sellers now have tickets for Grease.
"I did see one site that had them at 800 dollars; this is a high school production," Luksich said.
Price markups
Dig deeper:
Tickets for Grease are either $18 or $21. Contact 6 found them listed online for hundreds of dollars more. Across platforms, Grease tickets are listed between $50 and $100 on the low end. On the high end, they're more than $600, $700, even $800.
"If they actually fall for it and buy the tickets, oof. That’s just devastating," said John Cramer, director of the Oconomowoc Arts Center.
Why you should care:
Cramer worries people will see those prices and skip the show altogether, instead of buying them directly for a fraction of the cost and no added fees.
"(The price is) so much more reasonable than what they’re finding online," Cramer said.
Some websites warn that there are limited tickets left. That's not the case.
"Must just be the way they are pressuring people into getting their tickets," Cramer said.
The other side:
Contact 6 reached out to ticket resellers about their prices and tactics. On Vivid Seats, tickets were listed between $53 and $747.
After hearing from FOX6 News, Vivid Seats said, "This event was listed in error by a seller, and we have removed those listings accordingly....No tickets were sold."
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FOX6 News also heard back from Events Tickets Center. The seller said in part, "Our platform is a resale marketplace, where customers can purchase valid resale tickets from individual resellers who set their own prices."
The company says its website mentions at every step that prices may be above face value.
What you can do:
The Oconomowoc Arts Center is not aware of anyone paying as much as $800 for a ticket. It recommends that anyone who overpaid file a dispute with their credit card.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Jenna Sachs and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from Cynthia Luksich, John Cramer, Vivid Seats and Events Tickets Center.