How I did with those Hamilton Chicago tickets

Introduction

I had written a while back of how I bought some Hamilton Chicago tickets.  Oh wait, I never wrote about them for some reason.  Anyway, I haven’t sold any NY ones yet, but I had bought 2 pairs for Chicago.  One of those pairs was for the Friday after Thanksgiving matinee showing.  I figured that’s when families were together and so it would be a good time for people to take their moms or whomever to a play.

Which tickets to buy

Having learned my lesson from the Beyonce tickets fiasco, I chose not to buy the most expensive tickets for Hamilton Chicago.  There was a $600 tier and then a $200 tier.  I decided to pick the “best” $200 tickets.  Thus, I bought some Orchestra center (sorta in back) tickets (see map below) on 6/13 for $477 for the pair.

Listing tickets

I procrastinated but finally listed the tickets on 9/6, which gave me 2.5 months to sell these things.  I chose to list them on Ticketmaster since others were having more success selling them back on TM than SH.  I think it’s because people are scared of fakes on SH, so are willing to pay more on TM.  My initial price was $2700 net after fees which probably was over $3,200 for the buyer.  I knew this was ludicrous, but other seats around me were that high.  I knew the chances of selling these tickets at that price was very low, but I was okay with it since I knew that the best price for tickets is about a month out.

I then waited until about mid October (knowing I was within the month range) and finally logged in.  I looked at the prices of nearby seats, and saw 3 seats a row behind mine for about $800 gross and $600 net.  That’s what I changed my price to be.  The next day I got this email:

Hi Vinh, congrats, a fellow fan bought these Hamilton (Chicago) tickets (listing #xxxxxx):

Section ORCH-C, Row yyyyyyy

Section ORCH-C, Row yyyyyyy

Amount we’ll deposit into your bank account once it’s verified: $1,200.00

Conclusion

Of course I could look back and say I could have sold for more, but I was happy to have gotten rid of them.  My net profit was $723 (an ROI of 151%.)  Talk about some serious pajama points!  As I am typing this a week after my sale, it looks the venue opened up more seats and now you could buy a pair of seats FIVE ROWS CLOSER for $600 a ticket versus the $800 that my buyer paid.  See, that’s why I was glad to have sold them when I did.  Take that Beyonce!