I'm going to have to lean towards NO on that one?

I have an upcoming need for tickets to stuff. Anyone still in the biz here?

any handle on Phish tickets?

Good thread, I've made it through most of it.

I used to resell tickets on a very small scale and remember a site that listed all tickets sales and presales. it was something like ticketscour . com. Does anyone know of a site that lists all event and onsale times?

Thanks

Is this thread still alive? When was the last time OP chimed in?

I can provide a tickets from time to time. and yes, Im looking for a guy-scalper who do selling near the stadium In NY (madison). is there anybody still in biz here? Pm to me if you interested in partnership. doing many tix for you. (jabber - crocodile@thiessen.org)

seems legit

.

Very interesting thread this providing a wealth of useful information. I've decided to dabble a bit with this myself having attended many high profile sporting events myself and coming to understand how easy it can be to get good tickets if you are prepared to be in the right place at the right time etc.
I'm in the UK and music events seem to be a good way forward, what with all of the new arenas that have been built over here, the o2 in London in particular.

I'll convert the currency from£ to $ for the purposes of this forum but in short I've started up on a grand scale, purchasing $36,000 worth of tickets in the space of a month. A third of them are for a U2 concert and I did this on the back of making a very fast $1,000 profit on 4 presale tickets bought through the fan club. The rest of my tickets were then bought for $280 each through general sales, which is a very high face value. My feeling was that I'd make the same kind of profit but, of course the market changes when 4 nights go on general sale. The concert is now "sold out" and, it took about a week for this to happen, presumably because even the "cheaper" tickets were also extremely expensive.

None of my tickets have sold after about 3 weeks so my question is, is this the type of event where the prices will rocket nearer the time or am I sitting on a load of tickets that will be difficult to shift?

I would have to say over all that things have started very well and I have already picked up on a lot of tricks that have been reaffirmed on this thread. The dynamics of how this all works is mind boggling but fascinating.

I'm nobody, but this sure seems like the kind of question you knew the answer to before you put $30,000 on the line.

almost unbelievable. you sold 4 tickets so you blindly fire 30k?

In my younger days I turned what was an incredible stretch over the summer into a disaster by buying as many Jimmy Buffet tickets as I could handle for 1 show and busto I went. Ticket industry if you are doing it as a hobby you need to diversify. Just like the stock market. It's tough to turn a profit on any concert ticket with a face over $50 IME. If the artist is already scalping them, there is no room. I learned that lesson buying up $200 face tickets for the Rolling Stones. GL.

U2 is going to be hard to resell I think. There are enough reputable ticket resale platforms out there that no event is ever "sold out" anymore. And U2 plays some large venues. And you have probably the worst tickets in terms of resale value. There are a small number of people who are willing and able to pay inflated prices for the best seats that you probably got through the presale. If the event is going to be high demand, your next best bet is the cheap seats. These will be affordable to the general public even if the market resale price is above face value. $280 seats that weren't good enough to be snatched up during the presale aren't going to be attractive enough to resell to the people interested in the best seats, and they're not going to be cheap enough for the fans who want to go to a U2 concert on a budget.

the artists have really caught up..

ie. for taylor swift there are many many higher priced tickets in prime locations.. this is beyond the VIP packages which get you the really good seats.

i'm talking $600+/seat and gets like $20-50 cheaper each row you go back.. this is all via the primary ticket broker, not a 3rd party (stubhub, etc)

Best bet to make money is the lawn seats at summer amphitheaters. Easily sell $25 lawn seats for $60-75+

taylor getting paid...

Thanks for the U2 advice d10 / EddyB66. I have pretty much have diversified with my $36K investment, although I do seem to have put too much of it into U2 (total of 50 tickets but all of them at the top price of $280, which works out at around a third of my overall investment).

As EddyB66 says, the artist is already scalping them so I guess I've learned that the hard way. Some of those top priced tickets are actually in the top tier (the ticket actually comes with a warning advising against going if you have a fear of heights!). Bang in front of the stage though!

U2 normally do play large venues but I'm assuming their gigs at the o2 London could be classed as relatively modest as they have a 20,000 capacity and they are only playing 4 nights?

I fully take on board what you both say about going for the cheaper tickets for this scenario so it would appear that I've made a bit of an error and I'm learning already.

What would you guys say would be the best strategy for getting shot of them? The concerts are in a years time and I have so far sold 6 out of the 50 tickets. That's 2 in the pre-sale at 92% profit, another 2 in the pre-sale at 110% profit and then 2 after they went on general sale and I began to realise the profit margins weren't going to be so high any more (got 15% profit for them). I'm not too fussed if I break even over-all, because it's all about learning, but I'd rather use a strategy where I will break even, than one where I risk being left me out of pocket if I hang on to them until the death. I assume your view is that they won't rise in value say 2/3 weeks before the event?

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how my other sales have worked out. For example, with One Direction there's been a 90%-105% profit no matter what the ticket (so it was obviously best to go for the more expensive ones that time round - they had a reasonable face value so I guess that's the reason). Ed Sheeran (Wembley Stadium, 80,000) all the tickets cost the same in the primary market so the profit margin came down to how lucky I was with the seat allocation. He was 20% - 80% profit and all tickets sold the day they were listed. Nicki Minaj (o2 again) 50% profit for the cheap tickets and 15% for the expensive ones (all reasonably priced on the primary market again - now I'm starting to see what you guys are saying!). Take That (o2 again) steady 30% for top price tickets, which were quite expensive to buy at $150 in the primary market.

(1) always diversify and don't put your entire bankroll on the table. Having a too large percentage of your budget on one show might end up burning you

(2) the margins on cheaper tickets will be higher and it will be easier to move them in quantity although a 100% profit on a cheap ticket will be equivalent to 15% profit on an expensive ticket

(3) keep track of concerts, tickets sold, prices and costs, and then analyze your own numbers. It seems you are trying different seats and different shows (all music though) so get a feel for it and look back to learn lessons

(4) you mentioned some shows 1 year in advance. Most people who buy 1 year ahead will try to buy right when they come out. The market will definitely improve within 1 month of the show as impulse buyers enter the market

1D is the biggest pop group on the planet right now, that's the reason.

i had a little thing around 2000 where this guy gave me a couple of his credit card numbers and had me multitable ticketmaster going back and forth on the ticketmaster site starting a few minutes before a sporting/music event went on sale and would email the parameters of the tickets he wanted me to buy and then i would call retailers in the city of the event and ask what seats they would buy. after i got them i would call retailers in said city and fedex them the tickets for a premium sometimes a very nice premium if you got killer seats and split the profit with the guy who supplied the ccs and knowhow. i made some decent money for very little work. is this still working for people, or is it not possible to do this/oversaturated market at this point?

Before the Internet, I would just pay a guy who worked at the record store to not open the doors to the people waiting in line until 10:05. Meanwhile he could pump out 40-60 tickets, and we would just sell whatever seats we didnt want. ****ing internet...

Thanks mrducks, good advice.

Anyone know of any other Forums/threads discussing similar stuff to this one by the way?

I am going to England in March (London) and would like to get tickets for Noel Gallagher's High flying birds on Mar 28th. This is a Teen Cancer Trust concert and is sold out. I am in Canada and after checking online, tickets are crazy on the secondary market once all the fees and shipping are added in. Should I bite the bullet and pay through the nose or wait and try to get tickets once I arrive?

If anyone has some tickets to OSU/Oregon they are looking to sell, I'm looking for 2 together

if you want, I'll just kick you in the nuts for free.

just checked stubhub and there's lots of pairs for ~$700 each.

gotta be places you can find them...