PETER GASTON Ten tickets for reserved seats for Rod Stewart's February 10 concert at the the Mission are being auctioned on the internet with bidding starting at $5000. Those interested could have the tickets immediately for $10,000 on the Trademe website. At $1000 a ticket - more than eight times the originalprice of $120 - it breaks all previous heights of scalping, and is more than 2 1/2 times the concert record paid for tickets to the Kenny Rodgers concert in 1997. One Auckland fan thought he had got such a snip after paying $750 for two reserved seats - three times their face value - that he asked his Napier source if he could get two more at the same price. But it is not only the concert tickets that are commanding top dollar. Online auctions for accommodation for the concert are also soaring to dizzy heights. On the net an auction of six tickets and accommodation at Clive has already reached to $1240 while an auction for boutique accommodation for two couples in the Esk Valley, with a taxi to the concert thrown in, opened at a cool $1200. A net auction of a VIP concert package of an On the Meadows picnic for two, with reserved tickets, on-site parking and the use of the seller's home for the night has already hit $1200 on the net. Locals advertising general admission tickets for the concert have been asking between $160 and $180 for the $100 tickets. It's not only Mission tickets and accommodation that are commanding top prices. One person is advertising bottles of 1994 Shirley Bassey Pinor Gris and 1993 Ray Charles Fumé Blanc for $30 each - more than twice their original purchase price.
