Reselling tickets to the USU Howl

Many parties occur every year around Halloween time throughout the state of Utah, but there is one that infamously stands above the rest: the Utah State University Howl.

Students come all the way from Salt Lake City, Orem, Cedar City, St. George and even out of state to participate in an event that is notorious for how wild it gets, both on and off the dance floor.

Due to high demand and limited supply, Howl tickets are often resold for profit. The high price of attendance and the act of resale has carried negative consequences in years past.

Tickets in the USU card office are $15 for students and $25 for general public admission. These prices jump higher once tickets are posted for sale on social media.

To get an idea of how the Howl ticket reselling culture works, Zane Williams, a junior at USU who has made a name for himself reselling thrift store items, explained what constitutes a good flip versus a mediocre or bad one.

“A good flip to me is a flip where I can at least double the money I put into a single product after shipping and listing fees,” he said.

A timely return on investment helps significantly, he said. The demand for Howl tickets is hot and they go quickly, making them an appealing opportunity for resellers.

“It’s popular (to resell) because you can easily make $40-60 selling howl tickets purchased at a student price ($15). I sold two last year at the door for $45 each. People come from all over and are willing to pay big bucks. The biggest howl ticket flip I’ve seen was on the (freshman 2016) student Facebook group that sold for around $85.”

At $45 dollars, when tickets are bought at the student price, resellers are getting 300 percent of what they originally paid for the Howl admission.  Despite the more expensive tickets, people are still willing to pay these prices to get in.

Hype and buildup surrounding the Howl coupled with the steep asking price of resold tickets could create unrealistic expectations for non-USU students attending the Howl. Every year there are arrests made at the Howl, but the majority come from students representing other schools.

In 2014 for example, according to former Statesman writer Christopher Farnes, there were 23 arrests made at the Howl, but only 4 of them were USU students. The arrests ranged from a minor in possession to disorderly conduct.

Police officers from the 2014 writeup suggested that perhaps the reason for this disproportionate amount of non-USU student arrests is that they attend the Howl expecting to have a consequence-free good time without realizing how strict Logan law enforcement is in regards to alcohol and other situationally illegal substances.

Tickets and more information about the Howl can be found at https://howl.usu.edu/.

— landon.stuart@aggiemail.usu.edu

@Landos84