ticket resale - anyone have experience with this?

[ewitty]

I've somehow stumbled onto season tickets on the glass (100 level, row A) for a Canadian NHL franchise. I'm intending to resell them on the internet, and wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with online ticket resale.

-What's the best site to use? Stubhub? Ebay? Craigslist? Something else?
-When are tickets worth the most money? I don't want to sell them too early and sell myself short, but I also don't want to cut it too close and end up unable to deliver tickets on time.
-Are these tickets good enough to sell themselves? What should my starting price be (relative to face value)?

I have other questions, but those are my biggest concerns right now.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I worked for one of the largest ticket brokers out there. Bottom line "you can't go broke taking a profit". Too many guys get out of control, thinking they can get double face, hold out till the end and then end up with tickets "going dead". Don't do that. Take small profits (its a long season) and stay in it for the long term (multiple years).

 

[Railbird]

game by game is lots of work, maybe whole sale the season package to broker. If you dont mind the work Stubhub sucks, Craigs list way better.

 

[artiesliver]

I would suggest Craigslist.

 

[prodigy]

stubhub is a complete joke. they spend the most to advertise and make themselves visible but they are going to be playing catchup to other companies in the near future. very poorly run.

 

[G.MONEY]

I have had season tickets for over 20 years to the Bulls..I called a broker and have sold my tickets to this guy for years, and he has been more than fair with me. It beats putting them on any website, and all I do is bring them in and get my cash. Could I make more selling them myself, probably, but not worth the hassle to me.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I have had season tickets for over 20 years to the Bulls..I called a broker and have sold my tickets to this guy for years, and he has been more than fair with me. It beats putting them on any website, and all I do is bring them in and get my cash. Could I make more selling them myself, probably, but not worth the hassle to me.

That's actually pretty solid advice. Many people do this just to hold on to the tickets and the right to buy. When the All-Star game or playoffs come to your stadium, and you have first pick as a season holder, that's where you REALLY make the money. Of course, this takes plenty of patience.

 

[prodigy]

sent you a message ewitty.

 

[SportSavant]

it does make a difference which franchise.

If you are talking the leafs then that is completely different than other cities.

 

[DarrylParsons]

Best place to sell hockey tickets is ticketmaster I've found. You would need online access to the season ticket holder account. Your team also has to make this option available as not all teams do.

Best time to sell is 2-3 months before the game. Ever try agreeing with someone to do something fun in 2-3 months? They usually say yes and are excited about it, then they usually cancel in the last couple of weeks because something came up. Plenty of tickets go on the market in the last couple weeks for these reasons and so prices drop around that time.
Got to take advantage of that psychology.

For a good idea of price, spend about an hour trying to shop for similar tickets at all places on the net. The BEST price you can find MINUS about 5% is what you should be listing them for. If you're not offering the best deal out there, you probably won't sell. Those brokers with inflated prices make very few sales. Most buyers shop around.

Divide your games into three categories.

Top category:

Opponents like Detroit, Pittsburgh should be in the top category. Make sure to price these nice and high. You might not want to give the 5% reduction on these. Usually Toronto and Montreal have a big draw too, because these teams have so many fans. Price these games individually.

Next category:

Weekend games should all go here plus a few weekday games against decent teams, especially ones from outside the division as these will only make one visit. Price these by taking an average example and using the same price for all.

Bottom category:

All other games. Take a typical example and use the same price for all. You may even take a loss on these, but you should more than make up for it on the top two categories. The key here is to actually sell the tickets.

 

[ewitty]

Best place to sell hockey tickets is ticketmaster I've found. You would need online access to the season ticket holder account. Your team also has to make this option available as not all teams do.

Best time to sell is 2-3 months before the game. Ever try agreeing with someone to do something fun in 2-3 months? They usually say yes and are excited about it, then they usually cancel in the last couple of weeks because something came up. Plenty of tickets go on the market in the last couple weeks for these reasons and so prices drop around that time.
Got to take advantage of that psychology.

For a good idea of price, spend about an hour trying to shop for similar tickets at all places on the net. The BEST price you can find MINUS about 5% is what you should be listing them for. If you're not offering the best deal out there, you probably won't sell. Those brokers with inflated prices make very few sales. Most buyers shop around.

Divide your games into three categories.

Top category:

Opponents like Detroit, Pittsburgh should be in the top category. Make sure to price these nice and high. You might not want to give the 5% reduction on these. Usually Toronto and Montreal have a big draw too, because these teams have so many fans. Price these games individually.

Next category:

Weekend games should all go here plus a few weekday games against decent teams, especially ones from outside the division as these will only make one visit. Price these by taking an average example and using the same price for all.

Bottom category:

All other games. Take a typical example and use the same price for all. You may even take a loss on these, but you should more than make up for it on the top two categories. The key here is to actually sell the tickets.

Thanks that's really helpful. I had thought that prices would go up as gameday approaches, rather than down. Looking around online I don't see many tickets on sale right now at all (except for the marquee/top category games you mention).

Prices on stubhub seem much higher than on ebay. The 'Completed Listings' option on ebay is very helpful because I can see what people actually paid rather than what sellers were asking for.

I'm pretty worried about getting stuck with tickets and taking a loss on it. At first I thought these tickets were good enough that they'd sell themselves, and that I'd be able to make a sizeable profit on all but the weakest games. Now I'm not so sure.

 

[ewitty]

That's actually pretty solid advice. Many people do this just to hold on to the tickets and the right to buy. When the All-Star game or playoffs come to your stadium, and you have first pick as a season holder, that's where you REALLY make the money. Of course, this takes plenty of patience.

Can anyone suggest a broker that I could talk to?

 

[prodigy]

ewitty- sent message this morning.

 

[DarrylParsons]

Thanks that's really helpful. I had thought that prices would go up as gameday approaches, rather than down. Looking around online I don't see many tickets on sale right now at all (except for the marquee/top category games you mention).

Prices on stubhub seem much higher than on ebay. The 'Completed Listings' option on ebay is very helpful because I can see what people actually paid rather than what sellers were asking for.

I'm pretty worried about getting stuck with tickets and taking a loss on it. At first I thought these tickets were good enough that they'd sell themselves, and that I'd be able to make a sizeable profit on all but the weakest games. Now I'm not so sure.

Yeah it's not as easy to make money on this kind of thing as it once was. A lot more tickets go on the market with the advent of these online sites.

The venues are getting smarter about pricing too. They have more price categories than before and often the premium locations are way overpriced because they figure the corporate types will buy them anyway. They throw in a bunch of perks but those don't have much market value. Market price depends on opponent, date and seat location and that's about it.

Another factor is the economy. Prices coming down everywhere just because people have less money for entertainment.

You're right about completed listings on ebay, that's an excellent place to get pricing info. for sure.