The only way that could possibly be true is if the price the scalpers charged was the face price they had to pay.
In that world, there wouldn't be scalpers.
In that world, there wouldn't be scalpers.
If the scalper has enough customers that he can sell out the show above the face price of the tickets, the existence of those customers is sufficient to make it "practically impossible to get a ticket at face price" whether the scalper exists or not.