A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Tool Denver 2nd show ticket flip opportunity. I figured I should write about how I did on them. Well, they SUCKED! But not because of weak demand. The 2nd show “sold out” pretty quickly. I put it in quotes because Tool actually held back a shit ton of seats. How much is a shit ton? I’d say at least 25% of the venue. Here’s a screenshot from the night of 10/15 for the 10/16 show.
All the blue dots are standard priced tickets. And TM has this way of not letting you sell below a certain threshold, which I haven’t figured out yet. Meaning Ticketmaster won’t let you sell below $75.44, but standard tickets are listed at $75. Thus, a potential buyer will always pick the $75 price point over $75.44. So you have to sell your tickets on Stubhub, which usually sells for less than TM. Some folks have figured out how to list for $75 as well, but I haven’t figured that out yet.
So how much did I lose? A nasty -51% ROI. I mean, all those blue dots were as of last night, but if you look at it from the days and weeks before, there were more blue dots elsewhere. I don’t know if Tool did this on purpose to screw with the resellers, which they may have, but at the end of the day, if those blue dots aren’t sold, then that’s money left on the table for them. Another crucial lesson learned here is – rarely do you make money on 2nd shows. The capacity usually meets demand. I really should have just stayed away from this one.