Days before the Indiana Fever selected Caitlin Clark with the first pick in the WNBA draft on Monday, tickets to her expected WNBA debut against the Connecticut Sun on May 14 popped up on eBay.
It’s precedent-setting given that tickets these days rarely pop up before games are played. But the historical nature of the game has led to opportunity.
Physical tickets are nearly impossible to come by in 2024, much to the dismay of collectors. Digital is not only the norm. In most cases, it's the only option.
However, teams either allow physical tickets for an extra fee or, if someone claims they can’t get a digital ticket, the box office will print them out.
Mohegan Sun, which owns and operates Mohegan Sun Arena, where Clark will make her debut against the Connecticut Sun in May, told cllct that they do, in fact, print tickets if asked, providing an example of an elderly patron who may not have access to a phone.
The first seller to list a ticket to the game on eBay noted in their description “My 80 year old mother was able to get them to print the ticket because she showed her flip phone.”
Repeated attempts to contact the original eBay seller, username ticketamerica2009, have gone unanswered, but digging into their eBay sales history reveals multiple auctions of Clark debut tickets, the highest of which notched $1,293 on April 11, in-between Clark’s final NCAA game and the WNBA Draft.
At the time of writing, 19 sales have been completed on eBay, mostly within the range from $250-$500.
Of those 19, 18 came from that same seller.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct. You can follow him on X at @Will__Stern.