Ticket scalpers in Beijing who have been trying to sell Shanghai World Expo tickets on classified websites are complaining about a lack of interest.

A ticket-seller, surnamed Li, a resident of Fengtai district, has posted several ads on baixing.com, a popular classified website. He said he invested 6,000 yuan on buying 30 tickets at face value - 200 yuan each.

The tickets are for the May 1 opening day.

"I priced them at 500 yuan each last week but no one called me, even though I promised that the tickets are all genuine and I will provide buyers with an invoice," he said. "I did not expect that it would be so difficult to sell them."

He has since lowered the price to 300 yuan and is offering free delivery to any district in Beijing but has still only sold four tickets.

But his experience seems to run counter to that of authorized agents in the city.

Agencies, including booking hotlines 12580 and 11185, said yesterday their tickets for the opening day had sold out.

Buyers who want to get hold of a ticket for a specific date will have to try unofficial channels.

"I have asked my friends to try to find a ticket for May 1," said Liu Mian, a 28-year-old woman from Haidian district.

"The tickets for that specific day are quite special because they will be a collectable souvenir and on the opening day, a lot of art events will be held."

Liu said she is hoping to see some of her favorite artists.

"I haven't got the ticket I want so far," Liu said. "But I will not try to buy it online because it is very likely that I will encounter fraud."

Xu Zhe, a 21-year-old college student from Chaoyang district, is also shying away from online sellers.

"I called a seller for a ticket priced at 300 yuan but I changed my mind later. It's too risky to buy tickets by looking at those posts online."

Yuan Yuan, a spokesman with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, said about 400,000 tickets have been issued for the opening day of Expo. They have been distributed via authorized agents.

"We expect there will be a large demand for tickets for May 1 and wish we could have provided more tickets but we have to take many factors into consideration, such as security of the venues and visitors' safety. Currently, there is not a plan for increasing the number of tickets for opening day."

He said some tickets being sold online may be genuine "but we advise visitors to buy their tickets from authorized agents such as post offices and branches of the Bank of Communications".