Introduction
If you recognize the name, then you already know how badly this went. I’m not even sure why I even signed up for him since I didn’t even know who he was (you’d think I’d say to never resell something you don’t recognize, but I’ve made lots of money from things I’ve never heard of before.) This was a TM verified event, and he was playing big theaters (not arenas.) Looking back, this was a 3 on the risk/reward scale.
Tickets
I had some friends help me buy the Seattle tickets too. In all, I bought 13 pairs for about $1,800 (at least I went for cheap balcony seats), an average price of $140 a pair. It took me 2.5 weeks before I posted the tickets (this was probably issue #1. I had no bites. I lowered the price after a month and again the 2nd month. Eventually, it was the week of (which at that point it’s game over.) Eventually I sold 11 pairs at about a 75% loss per pair. I then burnt 2 pairs because even my friends on FB didn’t know who he was (and I was giving them out for free.) Total loss – 75% or about $1400.
Lessons Learned
The thing about ticket flips is you never know how they’re going to do. If they are like Pink or Ellen earlier this year, the prices will go up over time. However, if they are like Beyonce, you have to dump FAST to catch the rabid fans. Once you miss them, then prices slowly fall over time. So what’s today’s lessons learned? One, don’t go ‘too hard’ on a 3 (I should have bought only 1-2 pairs,) even though it’s a TM verified fan. Secondly, since they were 3’s, I should have dumped fast vs waiting the 2.5 weeks. Third, don’t ever try to flip Bob Weir. The one downside is if I had bought 1-2 pairs, I prob would have listed them immediately and probably made a small gain or a slight haircut. It’s when you start to scale and buy 13 pairs is when you truly realize how well a flip is going to do. So you HAD BETTER BE CONFIDENT IN A SHOW (aka a 4 or higher) if you’re going to buy that many tickets.