Introduction
If you have a teenage daughter (or son even,) then I’m sure you know who Ariana Grande is. Well I had a chance to buy tickets to her current concert tour. If I recall, a lot of shows went live at the same time, so I had to choose among them. I don’t remember why, but I decided to buy the Chicago show. Maybe it’s because that’s the only show I was able to procure FLOOR tickets. Row 11 in section 5 to be exact. Cost was $375 all in for the pair.
Reselling
I had bought the tickets on Sept 20. I then took my sweet time (don’t do this) and waited until 12/7 to list the tickets on TM. I priced it so I’d net $500 after fees for the pair, which means each ticket was probably around $300 to the buyer. Then dust collected.
On Jan 10, I decided to list them on Stubhub where I’d net $378 FOR THE PAIR, which means I’d make a whopping sum of THREE DOLLARS. I’m sure the buyer price was close to $225 per ticket. I believe this is also when I lowered my Ticketmaster price to net me $380. More dust collected.
Finally Sold!
On Feb 2, I got the email that the tickets sold on Ticketmaster and I’d net $380 for the pair.
Lessons Learned
I thought Ariana was a sure bet! I thought FLOOR TICKETS to Ariana was an even surer bet. What do I think happened? I think it’s because the United Center is too big. She doesn’t have the draw yet like Taylor or Adele who can sell out a football sized stadium and still get nice reselling margins. Or maybe the market didn’t want to pay $200+ for a floor ticket in Chicago…
If I could do it again, I’d look at the capacity of every venue in every big city. If the artist is playing at a 10,000 seat venue vs a 20,000 seat venue in similar sized cities, pick the 10,000 seat venue. You could go even deeper to see where their fan base is bigger (country singers probably do better in the South.) The good news is that with every ticket I resell (win or lose,) I learn new information and will hone in on better flips down the road.
Ah, makes me so glad I don’t have children. No effin way would I allow (let alone pay for) any teenagers waste that much money on an idiotic concert.
Idiotic concert because? Seems you haven’t learned music is subjective.
Good for you – making no money and wasting your time. I’m so tired of having to pay extra for people that make a business out of ticket reselling or people buying tickets then changing their mind and trying to make profits on top of that!
$3 for about 2 hours of work! Yay!
U mad bro? Get them presale and pay ticket price if you don’t want to deal with aftermarket prices.
Nothing stopping you from buying during the presale. He assumed the risk. Sometimes it pays off sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all about the price and demand and isn’t as easy to do (profitably) as you think.
You also fail to recognize scalpers sell many event tickets at a loss. I’m sure you have no issues buying from them in that situation.
I’ve also noticed that even in smaller venues, floor tickets not in the front section do not tend to do very well. Loge tickets located the same distance from the stage as the floor section sell faster and for more since people are able to see the stage better with the stadium seating.
Hey Vinh, did you by these presale or were they already open to the public?
I bought these on presale a long ago.
I think the demographic of her fans may have something to do with it. She may be up and coming but her fans are young and may not have the disposable income such as the fans of Beyonce/Adele. Imagine your teenager asking you for $250 for a ticket to see her and how would you feel?
Yeah but teenagers ask for Taylor Swift tickets too.
But it helps that parents like Taylor Swift also. I’m not about to take my 14yr old to an Ariana Grande concert.
What is your pricing strategy as you get within 1 week of an event and still hold tickets? Do you see an uptick in sales right before the event?
http://mikerazar.com/chart-it/2015/09/29/when-is-the-best-time-to-buy-or-sell-a-concert-ticket/
Thanks. I’ve actually read that article, really well done. I haven’t been able to find any data set that just shows ticket sale volume. # tix sold per day from release to event date, or by hour <24 hours out.
How are the kaskade tickets coming ?
Not good. He added a 2nd show in Seattle once all the presales sold out, thus pretty much tanking the resale market.