Can anybody tell me what the deal is with the Opening Day tix for sale on StubHub? Is this a scam?
Absolutely not a scam. Pick seats that have the Instant transfer option and the team issues a new bar code to StubHub so that you can print them at home and be certain that the seller's bar codes have been invalidated.
I'm surprised by the number of OD tickets sold this far from the gameday, around a couple hundred sold for greatly increased prices over face value. The interesting thing is that most of the sales are in a small number of section in the RF and LF corners, so I suspect that there are two primary groups of sellers driving down the market in those areas, those that bought the Holiday Pack and those that bought the buy two full season ticket packages get two free deal. (It's also possible that the Nats themselves are listing unsold tickets at jacked up prices.)
My plan is to wait until the season ticket holder presale and to buy the best available for my group of friends. I'd highly recommend this option as you get great seats at the STH discount price.
A tip for using StubHub is to list dummy tickets for sale for the desired event, this allows you the option to view not only tickets for sale, but also the history for sales in each section of the ballpark. (The fakes should be priced high enough to prevent anyone from actually buying them.) I'm looking to buy some premium tickets to a spring training game at the Astros park and so I check the sales a couple times a week to gauge the market. Currently prices are creeping down, as soon as I see the best deals starting to get snatched up I'll make my purchase.