Who can sell: Reserved-seat season-ticket holders only.
How sellers sell: By logging on to the Web site with a specific PIN number.
How do buyers buy: By logging on to the Web site.
Prices: Tickets ranged from $51.75 to $155.25 Monday.
Fees: Sellers pay a 10 percent selling fee. Buyers pay a 15 percent fee included in the price and an additional $1.95 fee per ticket.
Tickets: Must be printed from the Web site. That action nullifies the original paper ticket.
Timing: Tickets are available only up to four hours before the game. If they don't sell by then, it's up to the original ticket holder to sell them or attend the game.
The College World Series now is in the ticket-reselling game, along with eBay, Stub Hub and others.
For the first time, the CWS is taking part in the secondary ticket market, allowing what could be seen as NCAA-supported scalping.
Series season-ticket holders who can't use their reserved seats can now sell them with the NCAA's blessing on a Web site called Ticket Exchange.
The NCAA uses similar Web sites to sell tickets to other events, including the men's basketball tournament. The college sports governing body pitched the idea to the local group that runs the series, CWS Inc., which agreed to try it out this year, said Herb Hames, CWS ticket chairman.
Hames calls it a win-win because the site enables those with extra tickets a legitimate, sanctioned way to sell them to those who need tickets without including nonsanctioned brokers.
But it comes at a cost.
Sellers set their own prices - the current highest is five times face value - on the Ticketmaster-run Web site.
Prices on the site Monday ranged from $51.75 per ticket for a June 16 afternoon game to $155.25 for a seat at the first championship series game June 22. Those tickets would have normally cost $20 for the June 16 game and $33 for the June 22 game.
If the tickets are sold, the seller gets a check, minus a 10 percent posting fee that's shared between Ticketmaster and the NCAA.
CWS Inc. gets none of the profit, Hames said.
Buyers also pay a 15 percent posting fee that is included in the price, plus a $1.95 authentication and delivery fee per ticket. After a transaction, the original paper ticket is voided, and the buyer prints a new ticket to use at the game.
If tickets don't sell within four hours of game time, they are removed from the site and the original holders are responsible for selling or using them themselves. No fees are assessed for unsold tickets.
The fees virtually guarantee that no ticket will be sold at or below face value on the Web site.
But money isn't the sole motive for the site, Hames said.
"It's meant as an accommodation for fans, not for people to make a lot of money," he said.
Fans looking for tickets seem more concerned about the dearth of tickets on the site than any potential prices.
Fewer than 60 total tickets were listed on the site Monday. Tickets weren't available for many games, including the first two contests Saturday.
Brad Garrison poked around the site but didn't find what he was looking for. The Madison, Wis., sports groundskeeping supply salesman hopes to buy extra tickets for clients but came up empty.
His company - Dallas-based Diamond Pro - has four season tickets but needs more. Garrison planned to check the site periodically but posted a request on Craigslist as well.
"I'm certainly open to buying from Ticket Exchange," he said. "It's credible and reputable, but they just don't have what I need right now."
The lack of tickets is probably because the site is new, Hames said. The CWS ticket office contacted season-ticket holders about the site and offered training sessions but got little response. Hames expects the number of tickets to increase as the series nears and progresses.
This year also is essentially a trial run for Ticket Exchange. Organizers hope to have perfected the process by the time the series moves to the new downtown stadium in 2011, Hames said.
The Ticket Exchange Web site signals a change in philosophy for the College World Series. Organizers have long threatened to take away season tickets if the holders sold them for more than face value, although it's uncertain how often that has happened.
That threat still looms, Hames said, if tickets are scalped through any service but Ticket Exchange. And people still are prohibited from selling tickets above face value within a half-mile of Rosenblatt Stadium. Ticket Exchange skirts that rule because it's a Web site.
Chad Carr has sold College World Series tickets through his business, Ticket Express, since the 1990s. The NCAA, of course, doesn't get a cut of his sales and in turn doesn't bless his business.
He acknowledges that the new Web site poses a threat to his business, but he thinks he'll do fine anyway.
"We welcome the competition," Carr said.
Hames advises fans to check with the CWS ticket office before using Ticket Exchange or any secondary market such as Carr's business, eBay or Stub Hub. Roughly 1,000 tickets go on sale the day of the game and can be purchased only in person at the box office. Reserved seats sold out for only four of last year's 16 games, Hames said.
"Try the box office first and try to get them at face value," he said. "If you don't have luck, then try Ticket Exchange."
• Contact the writer: 444-1220, dane.stickney@owh.com
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