Introduction
An IRL buddy of mine who I told to resell Taylor Swift tickets for a profit and who then told me to resell Seattle Comic-con tickets for a profit as well, told me a couple of months ago that he thought Beyonce tickets would be a hot reselling ticket. At first, I told him I didn’t think the Jazy Z / Beyonce show was sold out when it was here in 2014. The reason for that is because they were [and she is now] playing at CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. That stadium is pretty massive! Even I was hesitant when Taylor Swift decided to perform at CL Field this year.
Anyway, he convinced me to buy tickets since 1) his wife wanted to go and 2) the presale in San Diego sold out quickly. Since SD sold out quickly, I figured Seattle would do the same. Let me stop right here and say – ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR GUT! If you aren’t 100% confident in a reselling item, just pass. There will be many more opportunities down the road.
Buying 8 tickets
I decided to buy 8 tickets (I can hear you shaking your head.) The problem is that if you look at the floor map, sections 1-10 were priced at $313 per picket, post fees. Sections 11 on were $185 each. That’s a pretty big difference. It’s an even bigger difference when you want to resell it months down the road and normal customers are wondering why one floor ticket costs so much more than the other (and decide to just buy the cheaper floor tickets.) Protip – when buying floor tickets, buy the cheapest floor tickets to resell. It’s like buying the shittiest house in the richest neighborhood. I honestly don’t know why Beyonce priced the closer floor seats $130 more than the other row; that Beyhive premium is too much for casual fans. Anyway, I had 6 seats at $313 and 2 seats at $185. Ugh; I want to vomit just reading that.
Reselling the tickets
After buying the tickets, I immediately tried to resell them on TM. I would have done Stubhub, but my account was blocked because I stupidly added an AGC as my credit card (and keep forgetting to delete it.) I sold the 2 $185 tickets for basically break even (the buyer probably paid $50 more due to TM’s outrageous fees. The other 6 were still listed.
Fast forward 3 months and 2 weeks before concert
I didn’t pay attention to the listings collecting dust. Eventually, my Spidey sense went off, so I could look into the tickets. I checked on Stubhub and sure enough, floor ticket prices plummeted. They were going for about $250 to the buyer (which means $225 to the seller.) I was lucky to offload 2 tickets to a Facebook friend at $250 a piece (ate the $125 loss on that pair.) I then went to fix my Stubhub account since TM’s fees are just way too high. I have the remaining 4 listed at $250 a piece as well and hoping they move. If they don’t, I may attend or go really deep and move them for $200 a piece. At this point, I just want to get out of these damn tickets. This will surely negate my Occulus profits.
Lessons Learned
Buy the cheapest floor tickets to resell and trust your gut!
Good. Down with scalpers.
I bought Beyonce – Seattle tickets during the AMEX presale for upper level to resell as well. Man those prices fell so quickly! Luckily I was able to sell them off at a 1% loss to a random college student via my school’s Facebook page.
Nice. Yeah, she overpriced her tickets, especially for the venue.
You couldn’t pay me to see Beyonce in concert, but I might see Jay-Z.
BNTW, what was wrong with your account?
SH apparently doesn’t like you using a prepaid card like an AGC as a backup funding source (you know, in case the buyer makes a claim you sold bad tickets.)
So they took more $$$ from you per sale?
Yeah I think if the buyer makes a claim that they can’t get in, they then fully charge your cc for the amount you received from the initial sale.
I bought 8 presale tickets for her concert at the ravens stadium. I was able to sell them all in less than a week on SH for decent profits. These were tickets in the 100, 200, and 400 sections. Couldn’t even get floor seats! I priced wisely, because checking now, there are are so many seats available at a much cheaper price in the same sections. Didn’t want to play the waiting game.
I think if my Stubhub account wasn’t broken at the time, I think I could have cleared maybe ~$50 per ticket at the beginning. It was my own fault for waiting this long and now taking a loss on these tickets.
I bought 16 tickets at Qualcomm, 8 in Los Angeles, and 8 at Citi Field. I was able to sell them all easily with the exception of the Floor Seats in San Diego. My gut told me not to buy $300 tickets in San Diego so I only purchased 4 and purchased the other 12 for a little over $100 each. I still have two of the $300 tickets in San Diego and plan on using them myself if I cannot sell them before tomorrow night. Yet, the other tickets were quite profitable so I can only smile when I reflect on the experience.
Wow congrats. Yeah, I should have bought the cheaper floor tickets. The $300 ones are just so overpriced.
Ouch should have bought Adele tickets instead…would have made bank there. Where there only 2 cheaper floor seats left? Just wondering why you didn’t get all the cheap ones.
Dude I tried, but no go. Secondly, here in Seattle, she was going to require ID to match up with ticket upon entry. That would have been bad as a reselling item.
Wow that would have sucked if you didn’t know that before the purchase. I would think that would be a huge PITA for everyone to get into the concert. How would that work for gifts etc…designate the person on the ticket? I can see why she would want to do it….her shows sell like crack!
I don’t know if it’s a scare tactic or if they’re actually going to check. But I was concerned about it.