Nothing cheap about UF-UT

Off-campus parking: $20.

Two pieces of pregame pizza: $6.

Watching the Gators beat the Volunteers in person: an arm and a leg.

Priceless or not, Gainesville scalpers can attest to the big bucks paid for University of Florida football tickets, especially come Saturday, when sellers will try to take advantage of high demand in a weak economy.

And the hot sales aren't ending at the city limits: Joellen Ferrer, corporate communications manager for StubHub, one of the nation's leading online vendors, says tickets for Saturday's Florida-Tennessee game are fetching an average of $282 - the highest-grossing regular-season Gators game in the vendor's history.

Area scalpers expect similar prices.

Andrew Johnson, 27, who on Saturday was buying and selling tickets on West University Avenue before the Troy game, said student tickets for the Tennessee game could go for as much as $250 a piece on game day.

"When they get out here, and there's no tickets, they end up paying more," Johnson said, citing the short supply of passes to one of Florida's most-anticipated games.

But conditions aren't always this favorable for turning a profit.

Despite the Gators' No. 1 ranking, face-value tickets for Troy flooded University Avenue as rain began to fall at kickoff, leaving several scalpers with a handful of unused paper - and not the green kind.

Johnson, of Fort Myers, was among those stranded with extras.

He said he purchased his west-end tickets for $25 each. By noon, he was trying to sell them for $30 apiece to no avail.

"It's like the stock market," Johnson said. "Sometimes you get out here and it crashes."

In 2006, the state repealed its law prohibiting ticket holders from selling for more than $1 above face value.

Selling tickets is not allowed on campus.

Since that time, the economic downturn has impacted sales on the secondary market, but scalpers say changes in the law also have contributed to lower ticket prices.

Johnson said that when scalping laws still existed, "people would understand it's a risk and spend more money."

He said buyers now feel more comfortable negotiating prices with scalpers.

Also, scalpers now have to operate in a competitive market.

"As a result of the law change, there has been a much more vibrant marketplace for event tickets in Florida," StubHub's Ferrer said, "which has led to increased availability and lower prices for consumers."

Capt. Jeff Holcomb of the University Police Department said the number of "professional resellers" surrounding UF's games has increased.

In Holcomb's 21 years on the job, he has dealt with several policy changes, from halftime hand stamps that allowed fans to go to bars at halftime, to the more recent ban on smoking.

But he said legalizing scalping off campus was among the biggest changes, especially in lieu of increased counterfeiting.

Chandos Mate-o also buys and sells tickets for a living. The Floridian knows his environment right down to weather forecasts.

"There was a 70 percent chance of rain," he said of the Troy game. "You knew that going in."

Mate-o said he expects Tennessee tickets to go for $200 to $300, and after making even money this past Saturday, he hopes to pocket upwards of $500 this Saturday.

Another factor driving up the price for tickets to the Tennessee game is the Gators' relatively weak home schedule, Mate-o said.

Unlike last year, when scalpers could depend on strong demand for games against LSU, Miami and South Carolina, the Gators will host Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Florida International before the Nov. 28 regular-season finale against Florida State.

These games come on the heels of Charleston Southern and Troy, which Ferrer said generated average prices on StubHub of $91 and $85 respectively.

Mate-o said FSU prices could surpass even those for Tennessee.

Tickets will be coveted - but available, he said. After all, "sold out" is all relative.