scalp v.1
1. to tout tickets (orig. for railroads) at above face-value price.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Americanisms 473/1: Scalp, To. [...] To speculate in unused railway tickets . | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Courier (Lincoln, NE) 6 Feb. 1/1: Buying and selling passes and tickets [...] consitutes the vast bulk of the ticket scalper’s business [...] It is a sneaking trade [...] The seller fears he may be dealing with a ‘spotter’ [...] the buyer is worried throughout his journey by the fear that his scalped ticket may be refused. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Oct. 4/8: Dutchy Perlstein did not get into the Mayor’s ball on a scalped invitation ticket. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 13 Jan. 10/2: He scalped the tickets at an advance of 5 cents. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. | |
| Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] [H]e was ‘running’ tickets for a ticket speculator [...] ‘For Chrissakes, it’s not scalping this time’. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 174: Five-dollar ringsides were being scalped for two and three times their official price. | |
| (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 184: ‘He’s scalping for less than they cost,’ Corinne said. ‘To last week’s fight.’. | |
| Life 337: I always heard the stories of how Freddie was ripping me off, scalping tickets and so on. |
2. to re-sell any item for a profit.
| Dly Ardmoreite (OK) 19 Nov. 5/1: We scoured the market and ‘scalped’ the jobbers. Took the woolens, paid cash, got ’em for a song. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 144: Sandwiches grabbed from station platform vendors were scalped for upwards of two dollars each. |
3. (gambling) to take a commission on a bet.
| ‘Big Shoulders’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 579: He gets to taking bets on prize fights and baseball games, and scalping the bets. That is, if somebody gives Blooch a bet on a proposition, right away he hustles around and gets somebody else to take it off his hands, generally at a shade better price than Blooch gives in the first place. Besides, he knocks off five per cent on a winning bet as his commission for his trouble, so he really is nothing but a sort of middleman, or broker, though what he calls himself is a betting commissioner. |
In derivatives
1. a ticket tout; also attrib.
| Harper’s Mag. Sept. 623/2: Where theatres are all the run, And bloody scalpers come to trade [DA]. | |
| Chicago Trib. 8 Mar. 5/4: All the above-named scalpers were arrested [...] and taken to the Armory and placed in the bull-pen [DA]. | |
| Lantern (N.O.) 27 Aug. 2: A good thing to kick them scalpers or ropers-in of the street. | |
| Courier (Lincoln, NE) 6 Feb. 1/1: Buying and selling passes and tickets [...] consitutes the vast bulk of the ticket scalper’s business. | |
| St Louis Republican (MO) 20 Nov. 39/5: Chief of Police Kiely inaugurated a crusade against the scalpers. | |
| ‘Alibi Ike’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 48: ‘They ain’t no more seats. They’re all sold out.’ ‘We can buy some off’n the scalpers,’says Carey. | |
| Broadway Melody 2: The scalper’s ballyhoo. | |
| ‘The Jollity Building’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 256: I once seen the Clutch get a rock off a ticket broker [...] By the time the scalper noticed the ring was gone, he thought [etc.]. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 276: The late ticket-seekers, the sharp-eyed scalpers, the busy little guys making last-minute book. | |
| Living Black 246: There were no tickets left and scalpers wanted $35 a ticket. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 24 Feb. Dave W. (my boyfriend) got a ticket off a scalper for 50 cents more than I paid and got a closer seat. | |
| Florida Roadkill 194: A fast-talking scalper in one of those big, floppy Dr. Seuss hats. | |
| Mad mag. Feb. 31: How about a psycho-looking scalper carrying a port-o-potty door. | |
| On the Bro’d 88: A couple of scalper dudes whispered [...] about Lakers tickets. |
2. one who buys the unused portions of long-distance railroad tickets in order to sell them at a profit.
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 3 Sept. 8/2: L.D. Ross, ticket scalper, was arrested yesterday for selling railroad tickets. | |
| Nation 5 Oct. 276: With the constant quarrel between railroads and scalpers, passengers have nothing to do [F&H]. | |
| Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 14 Apr. 4/4: Sometimes the purchase of a ticket from a scalper places a person in an embrassing position. | |
| St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 17 Apr. 2/2: I will travel tonight to chicago on a ticket which I will purchase of a scalper and will save the sum of $2 . | |
| Dly News (Perth, WA) 7 Dec. 2/3: To the uninitiated, it may be as well to state that the ‘ticket scalper’ is a dealer in rail way or steamship tickets, who sells tickets so as to profit at the expense of the Railway Department or the shipping companies. | |
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 39: Nineteen was pretty well up in the dodges of scalpers [...] he was able to exchange the ticket. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Oct. 13/3: The person who buys a return ticket cheaply from a scalper sometimes saves money by it, and at other times he doesn’t. | |
| ‘The Girl and the Graft’ in Strictly Business (1915) 99: There was a scalper’s rail-road ticket as far as Kansas City. | |
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 461: Scalper, (1) A dealer in second hand railway tickets. (2) An utterer of counterfeit railway tickets, hat checks, passes, etc. |
3. one who ruthlessly pursues financial deals.
| Sketches of the Cattle Trade 292: The hurrying tramp of solicitors, vulgarly, but not inappropriately, called ‘Scalpers’. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 216/1: Scalper (American-English). A savage horse, suggested by the Indian habit of achieving the scalp, and the tendency of the scalper to snap at the head of his groom. Now extended to describe briefly any human being of merciless tendencies, especially in his financial dealings. |
4. (gambling) one who bets in such a way as never to lose.
| Across the Board 318: Scalpers Those who bet on a horse at high odds and make book against the same horse at low odds, so that they are able to profit whether the horse wins or loses. | |
| Complete Guide to Gambling. |
(orig. US) working as a ticket tout.
| Nation 5 Oct. 276/2: A corporation like the Pennsylvania Railroad must protect itself against loss through ‘scalping’ [DA]. | |
| Pall Mall Gazette 1 Nov, 2, 1: Ticket-scalping... has reference to the transferability or otherwise of tickets rather than to their date of expiry [F&H]. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 5 Jan. 1/2: Will Scalping Hogs Get Away with It? [...] The scalping has prospered and big extra money has gone into the pockets of the ticket Shylocks. | |
| Chicago Daily News 8 Oct. 3/1: Those fined [...] denied scalping [DA]. | |
| Florida Roadkill 169: One paper [...] predicted scalping at one to two hundred dollars a ticket. |
In compounds
(Aus.) the unused half of a return ticket.
| Singleton Argus (NSW) 29 Dec. 1/6: No runners, gamblers, drunkards, thieves or scalp tickets permitted. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 68: Scalp ticket, the return half of a train ticket. |
In phrases
(orig. US) a ticket tout, who sells tickets to popular events at greatly inflated prices.
| Railroad Guide 12: It would prevent the deception daily practiced upon this class by ticket scalpers [OED]. | |
| Americanisms 533/1: Ticket scalper, a speculator in unused railway tickets. | |
| Time 26 Aug. 27/1: Comedian Joe Brown [...] is locked out of his dressing room by mistake on his opening night and is compelled to pay $20 to a ticket scalper to get into the theatre in time for his entrance cue. | |
| ‘On Broadway’ 12 Aug. [synd. col.] An imposing array of shows are scheduled [...] Comforting news for the ticket-scalpers. | |
| (con. 1919) Eight Men Out 3: The first two games of the Series were to be played here and every seat had long since been sold. Ticket scalpers were getting the phenomenal price of $50 a pair. | |
 | synopsis of ‘Just the Ticket’ [film] at online.swank.com 🌐 Andy Garcia stars as Gary Starke, a ticket scalper extraordinary who presides over a motley crew of street merchants. | |
| ‘Scalpers Among Us’ in Bacon mag. 🌐 Enter the neighborhood ticket scalper, occasionally seedy, fixer to the needy. Scalpers can be total bastards or guardian angels to anybody at any given moment. |