GREENSBORO — The ACC basketball tournament tips off Thursday night in Greensboro. But, the game of buying and selling tickets for a lot more than their face value is already underway.

Scalping is a game of numbers -- sellers looking for suckers, buyers looking for bargains. WRAL's Bret Baier took a shot at both.

First, he scanned the classifieds, trying to sell three center-court seats for all three days of the ACC Tournament. The face value: $200. The paper was filled with anxious bidders. One man offered $4200, and some help if Bret wanted to go to a concert sometime.

Then, he set out to buy a ticket. One guy wanted to sell one ticket to one game for $500. That ticket was for a seat in the nosebleed section, behind the basket, in one of the upper rows. He said that he wasn't scalping, because with the $500 seat came a breakfast buffet.

NC Attorney General Mike Easley says that you're getting a $447 buffet -- because the man could sell the ticket for $53, at most. If you buy or sell a ticket for more than three dollars above the face value, you're committing a Class II misdemeanor in North Carolina.

Greensboro Police will be outside the Greensboro Coliseum in full force. Last year, ten officers went undercover to bust ticket scalpers. Police made about 50 arrests during the run of the tournament.

People caught selling or buying tickets for more than three dollars above face value were slapped with a $500 fine or jail time.