An Internet ticket site was Thursday offering tickets to see a show on the sold-out US tour of children's television idol Hannah Montana for the price of a new car with all the extras.
"Either someone is just being ridiculous, or they have mislisted the price and put a couple of zeros too many to make it 24,000 dollars (18,000 euros) instead of what should be more like 240 dollars," said Sean Pate, a spokesman for StubHub, the Internet resale service on which the ticket was listed.
Parting with 24,000 dollars -- the price of a new convertible Volkswagen Beetle -- could get parents a ticket to the January 5th show in Atlantic City, New Jersey, of the concert tour of the lead character in the Disney Channel's popular Hannah Montana TV series, played by Miley Cyrus.
"Hannah Montana means so much to the pre-teen set that parents are spending so much money to treat their children," Pate said.
"It's bordering on the ridiculous," he added, before defending the resale market.
"We live in a capitalistic society. There are sell-outs at all of these venues and there is a limited amount of seats. I don't think anyone is being taken advantage of here," he said.
"People in Atlantic City are paying over 400 dollars on average to see her show. I can guarantee you that the looks on their children's faces will be worth that amount."
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon saw the Hannah Montana ticket frenzy not as an example of free market economics but of trickery, swindling and the source of scores of disgruntled parents.
"Ticket brokers were using sophisticated software to go online and hoard all the tickets to this high-demand event and then turning around and selling them at grossly inflated prices," his spokesman John Fougere told AFP.
"Our investigators found tickets on sale for one show at 2,135 dollars," Fougere said.
The top price set by the tour promoter in Missouri was 56 dollars, he said.
The Missouri attorney general sued three ticket brokers and was able to get hundreds of new tickets released onto the market at book price.
Hannah Montana targets eight to 12-year-old girls and is shown in 178 countries including the United States, where it attracts 2.2 million viewers per episode, according to Disney.
