« Previous | Next »
Bib resale: bad for babies, good for runners
Published on 22/05/08
by Maureen
I’m running an upcoming race with a bib that I purchased from another runner on craigslist.
I failed to sign up for race in time, but was still interested in running. I remember one of my co-workers selling her Shamrock Shuffle bib last year and decided see if there were any available for the upcoming event. There were, and after about six tries, I got two responses from people whose numbers were still available. I took the first that came to me, which happened to be a young woman only one age group away from my own (and as of Saturday, I’m the oldest person in my age group anyway). The exchange went smoothly- I gave her $50 in cash, the face value of the ticket, and she gave me the schwag bag with the race chip and the bib.
Just before I left to pick up the bib, though, one of my co-workers brought up some interesting points. Is it wrong to buy a bib? On a moral level, I don’t think it is, unless you’re being scalped. But also, you are then not the one who signed the “I can die doing this” waiver. If something happens to me during the race, no one will be able to tell that I’m not the girl I bought the bib from. If there’s a debacle like last year’s Chicago marathon, then what do you do? There could be a thousand people there with purchased bibs. And how are they insured?
Is there any way we can start doing waiting lists for races AND allowing runners the opportunity to drop out until about 2 weeks before the race, at a cost? I know volunteers work hard to get the packets out on time, but there has to be a little leeway for the handful of racers that might opt out. Most people, especially young people, just don’t plan far enough ahead to know if they’ll be able to make a race. Plus, there’s injuries, unexpected job transfers, etc. etc. The race charity or staff can still benefit from maybe more money than they would before. Especially in cases like the Chicago Marathon, where bidders are already looking for craiglist bibs. The race is more than four months away! That’s crazy. You can’t even know if you’ll be able to prepare that far ahead.
I understand that we should discourage jumping ship at the last minute, but sometimes it just happens, and with limited entries, why not make someone happy who otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance? This also eliminates having people buying bibs on the cheap at the last minute. Some entries for this run are selling as much as 30 percent below face value. That means someone is losing $15 so someone else can run. That’s just not fair.
Other runners argue that there would also be a market to scalp more popular races. While this might be the case, I think the scope of it is limited to negligible. I dont think the demand for any race is so high that someone will be able to make substantial profits off of it. If people are scalping race bibs, the people buying them are morons. There’s enough honest people selling at face value that you should be able to wait and find something better. There would have to be a united front of scalpers to make that work, and I doubt that will happen in the running community.
For me, I don’t plan on using this technique as a standby, just a way to get out of a pinch for a race I’ve wanted to do for two years now, and to complete my perfect golden birthday weekend. I have a friend who hasn’t run as herself for years. Maybe she could use a hand.
To read some other opinions, visit http://forums.runnersworld.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/493106038/m/6051095101
The run is over. Now what?
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.