Hundreds of tickets have been discounted on StubHub ahead of the Tragically Hip’s two Vancouver shows, with prices as low as $51.

The Tragically Hip kicked off their farewell tour in Victoria, B.C. Friday night, a few months after the band revealed that lead singer Gord Downie is suffering from terminal brain cancer.

When concert tour tickets went on sale on Ticketmaster in May, they were quickly sold out within minutes with most being taken by ticket “bots” and scalpers. The tickets later showed up on ticket reseller website StubHub, for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

However, it seems too many tickets were left unsold, resulting in a dramatic price drop in an effort to sell the tickets. Some consumers could get a deal just days before the Vancouver shows.

“I think people realize more and more now that as the event gets closer, people will get rid of their tickets at a lower price,” said Alan Gelfand, the founder and CEO of Fair Ticket Solutions.

According to Gelfand, the scalpers and resellers took a gamble on raising their prices, hoping that consumers would be desperate enough to pay the over-inflated prices, and lost.

The best seats have already been taken by those who overpaid by hundreds of dollars, but the cheaper seats will at least get Tragically Hip fans into the arena for the historic shows.

According to Kingsley Bailey, a ticket broker in Vancouver, the situation shows a problem bigger than bots buying tickets.

“The bots aren’t the issue,” Bailey told CTV Vancouver. “It’s legislation to give the consumer the opportunity to know exactly how many tickets are being sold.”

According to Bailey, as little as 40 per cent of tickets are actually sold to regular concertgoers, a system that Bailey says is broken and in need of more regulation.

“If the consumers were made aware of this, this type of situation wouldn’t happen,” said Bailey.

Tickets prices have dropped considerably for all of the shows with the lowest listing at $20 for the Calgary show.

According to a notice from StubHub, a portion from all of the Tragically Hip tickets sold will be donated to the Sunnybrook Foundation which will support the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research.

With a report by CTV Vancouver’s Julie Nolin