How to Profit Reselling Event Tickets
Tickets to the hottest events usually sell out really fast, usually on the first day. The key to getting highly profitable tickets are to get them either on the first day or before the first day of sale, also known as pre-sale tickets. This can all be done from the comfort of your home. I will explain how you can get access to pre-sale tickets and give you a list of sites that offer pre-sale codes on occasion, and most importantly how to turn those sold-out event tickets into COLD HARD CASH!!
If you are just starting off with re-selling event tickets I suggest that you start selling tickets of events that take place in your own city, to ensure general knowledge/background of the city and venue. Once you get the hand of it you can start buying tickets in other cities.
Before purchasing any event tickets you need to research a few key elements to ensure maximum profitability.
The two things to Research before purchasing tickets: Supply & Demand
- Supply: The size of the event's venue (1,500 seats? 15,000 seats?)
- Demand: Popularity of the event or performer
The Supply of the event - The supply of the event's venue is an important factor. You need to first determine how many tickets will be available, the more/tickets available the lower the profitability will be. The lower the seats/tickets available the more the profitability for each ticket will be. Another factor in supply is how many times that event will run, for example it comedian Dave Chappelle comes to Town and they schedule two shows and each show has 15,000 seats available you want to make sure the demand is there. If a big name act comes to town and there is only one show available more than likely you can count on the show selling out. Use your judgement. It usually comes down to using common sense.
The Demand of the event - Study the demand of the event that is going to take place, whether it's a sports event, like an NBA Basketball game or whether it's a rock concert like U2, you can determine if the event will sellout based on a few key factors, the advertising/publicity of the event, the talk around town, radio announcements, study the trend of past performances or games. Let me give you an example, let's say for instance you live in Minneapolis and the Timberwolves are having a great season and they're starting to pick up popularity. You notice that the last game was sold out, that's great news, based on previous experience once a game sells out the games following it usually follow the same trend, so buy tickets for those upcoming games. If they end up going into the playoffs, you're almost guaranteed a sell-out. If your team ends up going to the finals, buy as many tickets as you can, from my past experience they have always sold out. To get a more accurate analysis of whether a performer will sell out or not, visit their official website and check out their past performances. If it's a sports event check out their official website or the league's website such as NBA.com.
I know this was pretty basic or maybe even lame to most of you, but now you understand the principles of supply and demand in the ticket reselling business...now, where to get these tickets.
Where to buy tickets
Ticketmaster.com is the number one source for purchasing tickets off the Internet. This is the main source in which resellers purchase their tickets. There is one other option to Ticketmaster.com and that is going to the actual (physical) box office of the venue.
There is one trick of the trade I will now discuss that will allow you to purchase the tickets before the general public can purchase them. Only a select few with pre-sale codes will be able to purchase pre-sale tickets.
Where to buy pre-sale tickets
Buying pre-sale tickets for the most part is done on Ticketmaster.com but it requires a pre-sale code. Getting access to the pre-sale codes is the tricky part...here are a few sites that I personally use to get my pre-sale codes:
Fatwallet - http://www.fatwallet.com/search/results.php?query=presale+codes&collection=forums&sort=date
...this is the section of the forum dedicated to the discussion of pre-sale codes to events ranging from baseball games to popular concerts. This is a great source for pre-sale codes from all across the nation. Incidentally, Fatwallet is a great bargain hunting website centering around a set of forums that allow users to publish deals and rebate offers on a comprehensive range of products and services...check it out!
TalkTix.com - This is another discussion forum where professional and nonprofessional ticket brokers come to discuss pre-sale codes and give the heads up on the hottest tickets. Also, in depth discussion of what to buy and what not to buy....very informative site!
Sign up on the artist's and Radio Station's mailing list/fan club - Most artist's have official websites and on their websites they may have fan clubs or mailing lists. Be sure to sign up for those as a lot of times they give you access to the pre-sale codes before the general public.
Now that you have some great tickets....let's make some quick cash!
Two methods of re-selling tickets: Craigslist.org and eBay.com
As you probably already know, craigslist.org is a great place for buying and selling on the Internet, there are absolutely no fees! Because craigslist is local, I have found great success in selling just about anything there. Many savvy ticket buyers will usually check either on craigslist or eBay. It is also easy to meet up with your buyers and do the exchange. I have found that tickets sell better than anything else because you actually meet face to face which brings a sense of trust to the buyer. Ebay is also a great place for selling event tickets, they have a dedicated section for selling event tickets. Because of eBay's massive popularity, the number of people searching for tickets on a given event is worldwide. You can easily list your tickets and find buyers for them. It is important that you have good feedback because people are very skeptical when it comes to buying event tickets. There has been a lot of bad press about fraudulent tickets, having good feedback will send the message to the buyer that you are a legitimate seller and you will not and do not sell fraudulent tickets.
Also you should realize that Ticketmaster offers two forms of tickets when you're making you purchase, a"physical ticket" (one that is mailed to you and actually sent to a physical address) and "ticketfast tickets", (one that is sent via email immediately after making your purchase) you can print these tickets from home and walk right up to the ticket booth of the concert.
I recommend using "ticketfast tickets" not only is it quick and convenient but it's easier to send a ling when reselling. If you're re-selling the tickets on craigslist.org, simply print it up and when you meet them give it to them. If you're re-selling the tickets on eBay, simply send them a copy of the link to print up the tickets themselves.
I hope this information useful and as ALWAYS, it's FREE!