On December 17th, 2015, tickets for Adele’s highly anticipated U.S. concert tour went on sale at Ticketmaster on a first come, first served basis. Throughout the day, a record 10 million people tried to purchase the 750,000 tickets available. In an attempt to prevent ticket scalping, Adele and Ticketmaster limited buyers to four tickets per concert and required that premium seat holders present the credit card used to purchase tickets to get into the concert. Despite these attempts to restrict resale, tickets on secondary sites like StubHub, were selling for ten times their face value.

a. Draw a supply and demand diagram that depicts the market for Adele concert tickets. Assume all tickets cost $150. Label the equilibrium price, quantity, and resulting shortage.

b. In your diagram, highlight or label the areas that correspond to consumer surplus, producer surplus, and total surplus.

c. Explain how reselling tickets on secondary sites can increase consumer surplus.