UPDATE: So I went and started to order tix to other games, even the same game but different sections, stopping short of placing the order, and the $7 fee IS there! But I tried pavilion SRO again, and there was no fee! I can't figure this one out. There's also a new thing where you can have th ticket go to your phone, and then at the park they scan the image on your phone's screen....weird.

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Well I'll start with my usual message, which is that you can believe the people on craigslist who say things like, "35 dollars for a standing room ticket--look around, you ain't gonna get better than that!" Or you can go to redsox.com and buy the damn ticket for face value! 20 bucks! Plenty of SRO and everything else available for the upcoming homestand. If those sell, more will be released. (Also note that even if it was "the best price out there," that doesn't make it right for you to STILL sell the thing for nearly twice face value.)

But here's the good news. Since I can't go on Friday or Saturday, my next chance to see Manny's 500th dong live is Sunday. I bought one of the pavilion standing room tickets--love that view--and I noticed something that surprised me in a pleasant or otherwise anti-bad fashion:

$25 ticket, plus, "Total Convenience Fee for 1 seat $4.25," equals, "Price for 1 seat $29.25."

Okay, that's normal. But then:

"Subtotal: $29.25
Order Processing: $0.00
Total: $29.25"

A ZERO-dollar order processing fee! You know what it usually is? Seven bucks! In other words, if you buy the cheapest ticket, 12-dollar upper bleacher, the 4.25 fee plus the 7.00 fee means you're almost paying double face value. But if the $7 fee is gone, that changes everything! I just got Iron Maiden tickets and stupid Ticketmaster-bater charges about 17 dollars in fees per ticket. So 4.25 ain't bad. (And, of course, with the ticket-scalping agencies, you pay even more ridiculous fees...on tickets priced way above face value anyway.)

I don't know if this is permanent or if they just forgot or what's going on, but if this is the new thing, it's a big deal, at least the way I see it. Way to realize you don't "need" 7 extra dollars every time somebody places an order, Red Sox!

I've also been wondering if the Sox went against the S****ub deal because they don't want to get sued by someone claiming, "Hey, you told me to go to this other place to buy tickets and I paid WAY more than face value and then I found out you were selling them for face! Also, the back of the ticket says it's illegal to resell them for more than 3% of the face value..." Maybe that's why they went the "sponsorship only" route with A** Tickets.

I still don't know why anybody goes to those agencies. Unless, of course, your home team is so shitty that people sell on there for below face. But even then, you could just go to craigslist and avoid the fees.