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SINGAPORE : Organisers of the National Day Parade say they are working with online auction sites like Yahoo and eBay to stop the sale of tickets online.
Tickets for the Preview and Parade shows were only given out on Saturday, but already some people have put up theirs for sale.
And this has ruffled some feathers.
It has been one long wait for William Soh, a successful applicant for the NDP tickets.
This is the first time the 66-year-old will be watching the National Day Parade, and he made sure he's first to get the tickets, turning up at 7 in the morning, 3 hours before the collection counters opened.
Mr Soh said: "I come here, all the light was not open, very dark. I thought, oh, where, where."
He is one of over a few hundred people who collected their tickets on Saturday.
Many, like Frank Lopez, another successful applicant, have been trying to get tickets for several years.
And it riles them that some successful applicants are making a quick buck by selling their tickets on the internet.
Mr Lopez said: "I've been trying for 7 years, yet people still sell tickets. Yesterday I went to internet just to get the location. And what I found out was: $450 per ticket, $250 per ticket, $350 per ticket."
Colonel Teo Jing Siong, Chairman, Executive Committee, NDP 2007, said: "We are working with some of the internet companies and we will try to trace those tickets. This is not easy, if we can we will bar them from applying for NDP ticket in future."
A check online found 4 tickets going for a total of $600 on Yahoo! Auctions, while a search on eBay had one ticket at $121.
"I won't buy it because I will encourage those people who sell online," said one Singaporean.
"If I can't get a ticket, I will watch live on TV," said another.
But where there's demand there will be supply, and there seems to be no shortage of people willing to pay for a ticket.
One said: "I would buy it to watch the NDP! it's once a year, and this year it's at the Marina new place right, it's not at Kallang anymore."
He added that he was prepared to pay up to $100 for the ticket.
Each ticket comes with a serial number tagged to the applicant's identity card number.
Organisers say anyone found to have bought a ticket will not be allowed to enter the parade grounds. - CNA/ch
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