How Event Significance, Pent-up Demand, Playoff Oversaturation, and Series-Clinching Euphoria Can Impact Secondary Market Behavior in Major League Baseball’s Postseason

Though academic research on secondary pricing behavior continues to grow and commonly features baseball studies, there is little research of secondary market behavior for playoff games in professional sports. Because the postseason presents a unique set of dynamics compared to the regular season, an examination of postseason secondary trends affords an opportunity to test several hypotheses pertaining to consumer behavior in this environment. Using 547 online transactions accounting for 1,378 tickets purchased through online ticket reseller TicketCity.com for 35 different games across eight cities during the 2013 Major League Baseball playoffs, the empirical results suggest that secondary markup percentages are (1) greater for each successive round of the playoffs, (2) larger for teams experiencing longer absences from postseason play, (3) smaller for teams with more playoff appearances over the last 20 years, and (4) greater for games where the home team has a chance to earn a series-clinching victory. Additionally, the results show that markup percentages are lower as face value prices become more expensive, higher for weekend games, higher when the weather is warmer, lower for larger stadiums, lower for local secondary ticket buyers, and lower for upper-tier seats.