There have been a couple of articles in popular press recently (here, and here) talking about the relationship between the Red Sox decline in standings to resold ticket prices. Again, with the help of my friends at SeatGeek.com, I thought it would be interesting to look at how average resale ticket prices are doing as compared to last season.

The above chart observes average resold ticket offer prices for the first 34 games of the 2011 and 2012 season. The chart makes it a little hard to tell, but this years average resale price of $68.17 is down about $12 from last seasons average of $80.65. Who the home team plays has a big influence on resold ticket prices – those wild up ticks on the chart are predictably the Red Sox Playing the Yankee’s. Comparing average resold prices for the first season match-up between these two teams, 2012 is down about 21% on average. By comparison, the games against the Oakland Athletics are down a whopping 53% on average.

The summary: the data confirms it is a buyers market. I predict that the best value games over the summer will be the Blue Jays and White Sox. When the Yankee’s return in July, I would estimate that half decent seats should be in the $90-100 range; better seats should be considered a deal in the $150-175 range.  For those that are new to buying tickets on the secondary market, in weekend match-ups, Sunday is your best bet for a deal.