By Chris Isidore
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Yankee fans won’t be buying pricey World Series tickets this year, but they are paying outrageous sums to see Derek Jeter’s final home game in the Bronx.
Jeter, who announced in February that he’ll retire after this season, is scheduled to play his final home game Thursday night against the Baltimore Orioles.
Tickets for Thursday’s game are now going for an average of $642 online, according to SeatGeek, a ticket search engine. And that’s with a weather forecast that day that calls for rain. The same tickets were going for about $475 just this past Thursday, said SeatGeek’s Connor Gregorie. The cheapest tickets are roughly $360.
Last year World Series tickets in St. Louis fetched an average of $702. Prices were higher in Boston; tickets for the final game went for an average of$1,100. It was the first time that Red Sox fans had a chance to see the team win a championship at home in 95 years.
Jeter and the Yankees have their final three games of the season in Boston after his final home game, and those tickets are getting pricey too. Tickets to the first two games cost about $160, and $336 for the final game Sunday.
Watching Yankees icon Mariano Rivera play his final game in the Bronx cost a lot less — tickets were about $88 two days before the game.
If this Thursday’s game is rained out and isn’t rescheduled, anyone who paid top dollar in a private transaction or on Craig’s List will have to haggle with the seller to get the money back. But fans using online resellers like eBay’s StubHub can get their money back, leaving sellers out of luck.
“I hope those sellers haven’t spent the money already,” said Gregorie.
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