MIFFED Rangers fans have taken their revenge on match ticket touts – by hijacking online auctions ahead of newco’s first game.
Angry supporters placed hoax bids on dozens of eBay auctions, after tickets for a cup-tie against second-division side Brechin were advertised at over-inflated prices.
The sold-out game on Sunday is part of the Ramsdens Cup and will take place at Glebe Park, Brechin.
Ticket touts started trying to flog the match tickets, which have a face value of £32, on eBay earlier this week.
But unimpressed footie fans took revenge by bidding ridiculous sums of money on the site, leading eBay to remove the auctions.
Several fans placed hoax bids of over £100,000 on tickets in attempt to stop the sales going ahead.
One seller from Montrose was bombarded with 45 bids with the final ticket price reaching £153,100.
Other sellers also had similar problems with the Gers extreme fan power resulting in six-figure ticket sale prices.
Some punters took to football message boards urging other fans to place sky-high bids on the tickets.
One poster said: “The exorbitant bids were an attempt to draw attention to the strength of feeling and disrupt the auction.
“People who queued up at Glebe Park on Monday to buy tickets just to put them on eBay and sell them at inflated prices to fans desperate for tickets is morally wrong.
“It’s good to see fan power fighting back against these people who are only interested in making as much money as they can.
“In the past we have taken similar action in protest at Old Firm and European tickets being sold on eBay to stop touts lining their pockets.”
Selling tickets on eBay is banned for matches in England and Wales and can legally be very confusing.
In the past there has never been a huge black market for Scottish games although briefs for international games, titles deciders and Old Firm matches do sometimes happen.
The Tartan Army a few years ago used eBay to hijack the auction of Scotland-Spain tickets with bids reaching an enormous £1million.
This form of attack on bids is not new and has occurred in some very high-profile cases.
Tickets for Michael Jackson’s public memorial service caused outrage amongst fans as they appeared on the popular auction site.
Fans started bidding large amounts to ensure touts did not make a profit from the singer’s death.
This also happened as tickets for the memorial service of America College football coach Joe Paterno began appearing online.
eBay eventually stopped all sales of the tickets as fans sent the prices sky-high causing great disruption.
