How I did on those Lindsey Stirling tickets

Introduction

I realized 95% of you guys just said, “Who?!?”  Yeah, I said the same thing.  A friend of mine had posted her presale tickets on Facebook, and while a few friends “liked” her post, it wasn’t A LOT.  Anyway, I watched this Youtube clip of her and I was bored after 30 seconds (sorry, I’m not that cultured.)  Even then, the Viet gambling blood in me decided to buy tickets anyway since you had to preregister as a verified fan, which I clearly am, and I’m sure some people would be too lazy or don’t know how to do it (and I was right since my other friend didn’t do it.)

Buying tickets

On the day of the presale, I got a text message with my unique verified fan (cuz I am!) code.  I was able to snag 2 floor seats row T, which is about mid floor, for $165 all in.  I then bought another pair of the ‘cheap best seats’ which was 5 rows from the back in the mezzanine for $88 all in.  I initially picked electronic tickets, but soon realized those were QR code tickets, which I can’t flip, so I paid the $3 to change the tickets to paper tickets.  I stopped after those 2 pairs.

Two days later, when the regular sale opened, my buddy asked me to buy him some tickets.  Instead, I bought more tickets myself since he was able to buy his own.  I bought 3 tickets on the floor that cost me $217 all in.   I stopped there since there was an 8 ticket limit.  Almost an hour after the public sale launched, there were still seats available.  CRAP!  Did I gamble wrong?

Selling tickets

I immediately posted the tickets on Stubhub because I wanted them available to people who couldn’t buy the tickets once the concert sold out.  A day later, the 3 top sold on SH for $259 net (a $42 gain and 19% ROI.)  A day later, the nose blood  seats sold for $135 net ($47 gain and 53% ROI.)  Then a few days after that, the 2 premium floor seats sold for $270 net ($105 gain, 63% ROI.)

For all the tickets, I made $194 and 41% ROI.  Not too bad for a week’s worth of pajama points.

Lessons Learned

As I’m typing these, apparently Portland seats are still available.  I’m not sure if it’s because Seattle is a bigger city or if there are just more fans here, but clearly location matters.  Also it seems the ‘best seats in every price tier’ matters since my mid floor tickets gave me the highest ROI.  They were the first ones I bought immediately when the presale opened.  I played with 2 seats vs 3 seats since I considered 3 friends wanting to go together vs the typical couples going together.  While the 3 top yielded a similar dollar value gain, the 2 top in nosebleeds returning a much higher ROI.  So the lesson learned here is – while 3 friends could go to this concert, it seems the majority of ‘fans’ would be going together as a couple.