Like most Denver Broncos fans, Boyd Haslam bleeds orange and blue.
But for this Sunday’s showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship, Haslam said another color superseded his allegiance to the Broncos: green.
“I’m a big Bronco fan,” said Haslam, 48, of Craig. “But I’m not as much of a Bronco fan as I am a fan of money.”
Haslam, who for the past 12 years has shared a pair of season tickets with a group of friends, this week sold the tickets on eBay at a significant premium: The tickets, which are 11 rows from the field and show a face value of $135, commanded $1,000 each through the auction website.
When the winning bid came in, “I thought I had won the lottery,” Haslam said.
Broncos and Steelers fans throughout the U.S. are scrambling to find tickets for the game, which will send the winner to Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5 in Detroit. As a result, ticket brokers and Broncos season-ticket holders are finding a lucrative secondary market for the seats.
“It’s going to pay my Christmas bills,” said Paula Nessmith, 43, a season-ticket holder since 1975 who on Tuesday unloaded her tickets at an Englewood ticket broker. “I couldn’t help myself.”
She did the same last week for the game against New England. For that game, she sold six tickets with a face value of $70 for $150 each, turning a $480 profit.
For the AFC championship game, Nessmith sold six tickets with a $90 face value for $350 each, turning a $1,560 profit.
Season-ticket holders get first option for playoff tickets.
Nationwide, tickets to the Broncos-Steelers game are considered more valuable than the NFC championship game, which pits Seattle against Carolina, said Kenneth Dotson, chief marketing officer of Tickets Now, a Chicago-based online ticket reseller.
Broncos-Steelers tickets, on average, are selling for $600 apiece, about 30 percent more than the Seattle-Carolina game.
“It’s because you have two traditional powers with loyal fan bases,” Dotson said.
Frank Graziano, owner of Alliance Tickets in Englewood, agreed.
He said Steelers fans are known industrywide as rabid fans who diligently follow their team, which has pushed prices upward.
“They have fans all over the country,” Graziano said.
Even so, some Steelers fans are holding off buying until they arrive in Denver, said Joe Weigler, owner of Shadyside Travel in Pittsburgh.
“They are definitely willing to pay, but a lot of people are waiting until they get to Denver because they think they’ll be able to get them cheaper.”
Savvy buyers sometimes can find bargains minutes before kickoff as desperate sellers try to unload extra tickets to avoid a major hit, Dotson said.
At least 15 states, but not Colorado, outlaw the resale of tickets to sports or entertainment events above the face value, according to the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Denver city limits, it’s illegal under a city ordinance to sell tickets above face value, Denver police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez said.
Staff writer Julie Dunn contributed to this report.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
