In modern times, it wasn't so long ago that if you wanted to get tickets to a sold out concert, show or game, you either couldn't go, had to wait forever in lines or on the phone, or you had to go to the venue and try your luck with an oftentimes unscrupulous scalper in the shadows. These scalpers would regularly charge an excessive amount , offer little choice in seating and they'd only take cash. And you would be taking the risk of purchasing fake tickets!

Fortunately, this is no longer the case. The tide has turned in favor of the fans. Today, the ticket buyer is empowered and enjoying the benefits of a new model fueled by the Internet.

Just like the business of travel has been dramatically improved by the Web, so has purchasing tickets to events. There's a whole new breed of online companies that facilitate the buying and reselling of concert, theatre and sports tickets. They operate in what's called the secondary ticket market and fans are enjoying the benefits, even if they don't realize it.

Companies like StubHub and ClickitTicket sell tickets online and over the phoneand offer the consumer huge selections, choice seating, guarantees, market-regulated prices (although often at prices higher than the face value), and accept credit cards and phone calls where there's no waiting on hold or redialing. The consumer has definitely made out with this new model. And if the ticket website doesn't have the seats or prices the consumer is looking for, another website is just a mere click away.

The secondary ticket market has become so popular that even Ticketmaster has gotten into the game with a new service called TicketExchange. And eBay recently purchased StubHub, both legitimizing the fledgling industry even further.

It works like this: season ticket holders can sell their unwanted tickets directly to secondary ticket market websites, or to brokers who move their ticket supply through other event ticket websites. Or purchasers can buy small blocks of tickets from the concert venue or sports teams, and re-sell them to brokers or directly on the Internet after a certain period of time.

Since there's heavy competition among the online ticket websites and the secondary ticket market has blossomed, prices are kept in check, customer service and trust are at a premium and the consumer has a larger overall selection of seats, dates and venues to choose from.

The secondary ticket market does get its share of criticism. In particular, every state in the U.S. has different regulations on how much re-sold tickets can go for, and there has been complaints from the fans in cities who feel that the tickets are being sold to retailers at the expense of fans who've put in the time and commitment to make franchises great.

But in response to this criticism, the resale points have developed a number of strategies, and the market forces help keep the playing field fair. Most venues or teams make it a point not to re-sell tickets until after the bloc of tickets that's allocated to direct sales has sold out; many of them use a Dutch Auction style system where fans or buyers of blocs of seats can name their own price and get the tickets they want at the price they want, if they missed the opening sales of the event in question.

Since there has always been, and always will be event ticket reselling, allowing the secondary ticket market to thrive is definitely best for comsumers. Otherwise, fans would have to wait in long lines at the venues, spend an eternity on the phone redialing, or be forced to deal with the exploitative and often dishonorable scalpers lurking in the shadows outside the venues on the night of the events. Many would simply opt not to bother.

The online secondary ticket market makes it easy to buy tickets, and that's what the consumer is paying for. The prices may be higher than face value, but they're getting to attend sold out events for little effort. There's no waiting in long lines, there's no trying to find someone with a ticket to sell on the street, and there is no hitting redial thousands of times only to get busy signals, or an operator who's only got tickets in the nosebleed section.

In some cases, these ticket sites cooperate with the professional sports teams and franchises, coordinating their sales with the sales the franchise makes to handle premium seat assignments on a per game basis. This is another benefit for consumers. It lets an out-of-town sports or music fan get a premium seat in advance when they're in on a business trip that they might not have been able to get otherwise. And people can now get premium tickets to shows and musicals in the city they are traveling to as well.

All in all, these sites are empowering consumers The secondary ticket market websites are forced to be trustworthy and price conscious, and need to offer great customer service, ease of use and large selections or risk getting eaten up by the fierce competition. The fans are the beneficiaries of this. The fans are paying for the ultimate in convenience as well. All they have to do now is click the mouse a few times, and wait for the tickets to be mailed to their door. And the fans are finally able to avoid being at the mercy of scalpers. I imagine even the fans of chariot racing or bull fighting of ancient times would have preferred such a great service.