Thread: White House Easter Egg Roll tickets on eBay

Just more bad Changes from the Obama administration. Just couldn't leave well enough alone and had to go off and make it worse. Dixie

WH Easter Egg Roll tickets on eBay
Jim McElhatton (Contact)
Friday, March 27, 2009

The hottest free ticket in town is starting to get expensive.

After the Obama White House distributed tickets to the annual Easter Egg Roll online Thursday, a group of six tickets apparently sold on eBay for nearly $1,000, while dozens of people seeking tickets posted ads elsewhere offering everything from Redskins seats to a professional photo shoot for a chance to go to the April 13 event.

One parent, Leticia Barr, said she thought it was a "brilliant idea" when the White House decided to give out free tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll online. But then she saw that some tickets were being sold by an online auction house — and now she's not so sure.

"Like so many parents in the D.C. area, I thought about camping out in past years [to get tickets]. And this year, when I heard they were giving the tickets out online, I was happy they made the move," Ms. Barr said in a telephone interview. "But it's unfortunate that people would profit from an event that's supposed to be free and available to the public."

The White House started distributing tickets online Thursday for the annual event. In previous years, people had to stand in line to get tickets. By evening Thursday, tickets were distributed to people in 41 states, though many parents complained that the the online ticket distribution system had crashed.

Semonti M. Mustaphi, deputy press secretary for First Lady Michelle Obama, said Friday officials were working with online sellers to prevent such scalping.

"We monitor Web sites that facilitate third party sales to ensure that tickets to White House functions are used properly," she said. "Companies are cooperating and sales of the tickets will not be valid."

According to the White House, the tickets also are bar-coded and have a name printed on them so they can't be duplicated. Officials also say they're separately giving out tickets to D.C. school children and military families.

Still, a link on the eBay web site notes that two adult tickets and four children's tickets sold for $979.99 on Thursday afternoon. The same seller was also offering tickets to a Dave Matthews concert and had recently sold basketball and baseball game tickets.

"The White House has always structured the Easter Egg Hunt as a free event and we believe its in the spirit of the holiday that these tickets not be sold; we will be removing any tickets listed on eBay," said company spokeswoman Karen Bard.

On the web site craigslist.org, would-be attendees offered all sorts of deals to anyone willing to give up their prized White House tickets.

One ad offered two regular-season Redskins tickets (no parking) for two adult and two childrens Egg Roll tickets. Another person offered to provide free consultation for a solar hot water system installation in exchange for tickets.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... kets-ebay/

I thought blogger Moe Lane wrote a better summary of the debacle.

The White House Lays An Easter Egg.
Conservatism 101: Or, How not to make children cry.

(Via Glenn Reynolds) I’m going to sum up The Enlightened Redneck’s post here about what happened to the White House Easter Egg Roll ticketing system this year (not because there’s anything wrong with his post: read it!):

The new administration, having decided that the old system of having people engage in the time-honored tradition of physically camping out in line for tickets was somehow “unfair,â€

So...ahhhh...this supposedly new age internet savvy administration really blew it.

As a parent who had a ticket I'd be worried about my child's safety.

Let's say some terrorist snapped up those tickets, ordered an existing terrorist cell to go to this event and then

WAIT, stop, I can't use the word terrorist anymore according to Janet. What is it now? A man made disaster man who wants to create 'problems' at the White House egg roll event?

Hopefully someone will get their hands slapped at this mistake.

I'm very concerned about all the disenfranchised egg rolling children.

This is what happens when you "Change" for the worse. Easter at the White House 2009



The Republicans are not "the party of No", it's more like the pary of "no I wouldn't do that, if I were you".

Dixie