SCALPERS PREPARE FOR PLAYOFFS AND POLICE

By Jenny Speer

KENMORE SQUARE – Roger Wheeler moved his Red Sox ticket-filled fist over his mouth to stifle a yawn. After eight hours of pacing up and down Brookline Avenue buying, selling and trading tickets to Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Sept. 5, Wheeler’s workday ended at 9 p.m.

“It was nuts today,” said Wheeler, 32, of Medford. “We call these games monsters. It was big as a house.” This is scalper lingo for

Wheeler spends the hours before every home game at Fenway Park reselling tickets, earning a living by violating state law. The law –unchanged since 1924 – allows those possessing a license from the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety to resell tickets for $2 above face value plus certain business, handling and service charges. The law is rarely enforced against electronic ticket resellers – who, in recent years, have caused much debate over the law among legislators in recent years – and poses an inconsistent but present threat to street scalpers.

“The law is there whenever the Boston Police feel like it,” said fellow scalper Eamon Brooks, 28, also of Medford. “If a cop is having a bad day, they’ll get you for resale without a license, or hit you with a $500 fine for loitering.”

The Red Sox's opponent also determines how stringent police are, said Wheeler.

“It depends on the game, too,” he said. “They’re a lot stricter during Yankees and playoffs games.”

Officer James Kenneally, a police spokesman, declined to comment on whether laws against scalping would be enforced more rigorously as the Red Sox advance in the MLB playoffs.

“We wouldn’t speak to whether or not we’re going to have more people out [in Kenmore Square] specifically looking for scalpers,” he said. “There’s a lot going on during the playoffs.”

The playoffs expose the vague role of the scalping laws, as Red Sox tickets become even more of a coveted commodity than usual. While legislators attempting to amend the 1924 law are worried about ensuring consumer safety through guaranteed products, ticket seekers have not expressed the same concerns.

“If you have the opportunity to go to a game, you’re not really concerned about where [the tickets] came from,” said Peggy Pappas, 21, of Boston. “You’re not worried about how much you’re spending if you’re going to a playoff game.”

Michelle Reyes, 27, of Malden, does freelance graphic design for the Red Sox and gets tickets to games as a perk.

“I’ll still get tickets from scalpers if there’s a game I really want to see,” she said. “If I can’t get tickets to the playoffs, I definitely will. It’s about the game; it’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

Some licensed ticket vendors offer guarantee clauses to ensure consumers that they are buying a legitimate product. Ace Ticket, for example, boasts a “200 percent money back guarantee on the validity of any tickets purchases from [them]…only obtain[ing] tickets from secure and trusted sources,” according to its website, aceticket.com. Wheeler, however, insisted that authenticity is a priority among his colleagues.

“We get our tickets from season ticket holders, venues, players’ family friends, and sometimes we’ll even buy them off of fans,” he said. “We’re territorial, but we all work together. We kind of have to if we want to get the tickets people are looking for.”

For Brooks and Wheeler, the playoffs mean longer hours and heightened awareness, but they are not daunted.

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Brooks said. “Sometimes the toughest part is acquiring the tickets, sometimes it’s not getting arrested, sometimes it’s fighting the weather. But we’re making money and having fun, not creating victims.”