Flipping Concert Tickets

[mgronqui]

Anyone ever successfully make a profit off flipping tickets?

I purchased a ticket today, the exact time that tickets went on sale, and I just found out there was an internet presale the day before. As a result, all the good seats were taken. Then I searched on ebay, kijij and they were selling tickets for ridiculous prices! Heck, even the second best seats, which is what I got, are going for more than double the face value price.

It gets me thinking, should I buy a bunch more and gamble flipping them? Hmm...

[jesterwilly2004]

Anyone ever successfully make a profit off flipping tickets?

I purchased a ticket today, the exact time that tickets went on sale, and I just found out there was an internet presale the day before. As a result, all the good seats were taken. Then I searched on ebay, kijij and they were selling tickets for ridiculous prices! Heck, even the second best seats, which is what I got, are going for more than double the face value price.

It gets me thinking, should I buy a bunch more and gamble flipping them? Hmm...


Welcome to the world of scalping. If the concert is hot, you can't get anymore tickets. Too late. You cannot go by what you see on the internet as some of the tickets are priced high but don't sell.

[zod]

Anyone ever successfully make a profit off flipping tickets?

I purchased a ticket today, the exact time that tickets went on sale, and I just found out there was an internet presale the day before. As a result, all the good seats were taken. Then I searched on ebay, kijij and they were selling tickets for ridiculous prices! Heck, even the second best seats, which is what I got, are going for more than double the face value price.

It gets me thinking, should I buy a bunch more and gamble flipping them? Hmm...

You know even on presales, the only release a few good pairs, and most often the rest aren't that good. All the best tickets go to brokers, radio stations, promo tickets, season ticket holders etc... The vast majority of the good tickets don't go on sale at all to the general public.

And now that scalping is out of control, you've got some bands, that charge you for their fan club, then sell you packages in the first 10 rows, which cost an arm and leg, because they want to do the gauging, and don't want brokers getting in on it.

Anyways yah. I felt the need to correct you, in that it probably wasn't the presale where the good tickets went, the good tickets were probably not sold to general public :)

[sillysimms]

You know even on presales, the only release a few good pairs, and most often the rest aren't that good. All the best tickets go to brokers, radio stations, promo tickets, season ticket holders etc... The vast majority of the good tickets don't go on sale at all to the general public.

it probably wasn't the presale where the good tickets went, the good tickets were probably not sold to general public :)

This poster is right. Try doing a search before any ticket sales have even taken place (presale or other). Some of the ticket brokers already have tickets listed for sale with the section and seat numbers listed. So they had some way to get access to those tickets or know that they would get those before anyone had any opportunity to purchase tickets. I usually try to buy during presales just so there aren't as many people online trying, but they don't release many good seats during a presale. They save the bulk of the seats that are available to the public for the day the tickets go on sale to the general public.

Selling a ticket for more than face value is technically illegal but doesn't seem to be enforced at all.

Personally, I don't care how much I wanted to go see a concert or any event, I'd never buy a ticket from anyone scalping. The tickets should be available at the fair, set price to everyone and I'm not going to provide a profit to someone who has purchased tickets they don't intend to use so they can charge a real fan more and make a profit for themselves.

Some must make a profit, but I'm always happy when they're stuck with tickets close to the show date and have to sell them below face value.