Author Topic: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)  (Read 16033 times)

GuitarStv

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #50 on: July 05, 2016, 07:59:18 AM »
its not unessesary for the person who wants to buy last minute tickets to a sold out show.

Letting the rich skip the line to buy a ticket is an unnecessary service.

i think quite the opposite is true given the market for it - stub hub was purchased for 292MM in 2007 by ebay.  you can hate it all you want but there is a market for the service which would not equate to it being unnecessary.

Just because there's a market doesn't mean that a service is necessary.  There was a market for beanie babies, pogs, and hammer pants in the 90s.

Vanguards and Lentils

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #51 on: July 05, 2016, 08:04:49 AM »
@mustachianaccountant

Re: But would anyone need to be "first in line when the ticket booth opens" if the scalpers weren't buying up all the tickets in the first place? Or have scalpers simply created the problem they purport to solve?

 Yes to the first question. The speed/time to line up becomes a factor any time that
 # of people who want to attend at a given price > # of tickets available.

In my opinion, price is the way solve any demand > supply problem unless there are serious negative consequences (people starving, being forced from their homes, or the environment being degraded) in letting the invisible hand work. What would you propose otherwise, which would address the issue of fans who are unable to line up/log on, but still want to attend? Maybe the artists could have a scholarship contest for fans to prove how devoted they are?

undercover

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #52 on: July 05, 2016, 08:36:11 AM »
It depresses me that people are arguing that bands should be forced to take more money from their fans or face the consequences. What kind of world do you people live in? :-/

I live in a capitalist world. What kind do you live in?

I live in a world where humanity, equality and fairness is more important than desperate, naked greed. I like mine better.

Sounds very communistic. Ironic, considering the city you lived in. If the world agreed with you, then no one would buy inflated tickets. Yet, they do, because they can afford them and they feel like the price is worth it.

Bottom line: people buy the tickets. If they didn't, scalpers wouldn't exist. People act like concerts are once in a lifetime experiences. I mean, they can be, and that's partly why there are so many scalped tickets; but ultimately, there will be more concerts.

JLee

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #53 on: July 05, 2016, 08:56:40 AM »
its not unessesary for the person who wants to buy last minute tickets to a sold out show.

Letting the rich skip the line to buy a ticket is an unnecessary service.

Not to mention the event wouldn't be sold out as quickly if scalpers hadn't bought any tickets.

boarder42

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #54 on: July 05, 2016, 09:35:48 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

GuitarStv

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #55 on: July 05, 2016, 09:50:48 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

If your mom was a big fan of a concert pianist would you get tickets to see him for her . . . and then only hand them over if she paid you twice the purchase price?

boarder42

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #56 on: July 05, 2016, 10:06:52 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

If your mom was a big fan of a concert pianist would you get tickets to see him for her . . . and then only hand them over if she paid you twice the purchase price?

this is a terrible analogy.  you're talking about the purchase of tickets with the intention of gifting them.. i can tell you what i would do though. If the concert was going to be that hot i'd buy 20 tickets giver her 2 and sell the rest to off set the cost of those tickets as well as make some cash.

JLee

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #57 on: July 05, 2016, 10:10:23 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

You are more than welcome to hold your own beliefs - just recognize that some people will view you with disgust and disdain.  When your goal is to make money by fucking people over, that'll happen.

justajane

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #58 on: July 05, 2016, 10:11:59 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

If your mom was a big fan of a concert pianist would you get tickets to see him for her . . . and then only hand them over if she paid you twice the purchase price?

this is a terrible analogy.  you're talking about the purchase of tickets with the intention of gifting them.. i can tell you what i would do though. If the concert was going to be that hot i'd buy 20 tickets giver her 2 and sell the rest to off set the cost of those tickets as well as make some cash.

Considering I know you live in the same city as I do boarder42, now I'm wondering if you have the tickets I want for October. Hmmm....this is getting personal.

boarder42

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #59 on: July 05, 2016, 10:14:32 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

If your mom was a big fan of a concert pianist would you get tickets to see him for her . . . and then only hand them over if she paid you twice the purchase price?

this is a terrible analogy.  you're talking about the purchase of tickets with the intention of gifting them.. i can tell you what i would do though. If the concert was going to be that hot i'd buy 20 tickets giver her 2 and sell the rest to off set the cost of those tickets as well as make some cash.

Considering I know you live in the same city as I do boarder42, now I'm wondering if you have the tickets I want for October. Hmmm....this is getting personal.

doubtful.  royals playoff tickets arent out yet.  i dont really do the whole concert thing. i'd like to just havent researched it enough and dont know the market like i know baseball.

justajane

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #60 on: July 05, 2016, 10:15:10 AM »
i feel like the arguement against it is a boo hoo arguement.

You are more than welcome to hold your own beliefs - just recognize that some people will view you with disgust and disdain.  When your goal is to make money by fucking people over, that'll happen.

This is precisely my point. You can do this all you want, but scalpers seem to want to make a lot of money and want for people to either #1 think they are providing a valuable service or #2 at least not think they are jerks.

Not gonna happen. Lots of people think scalpers are jerks for doing it. Get used to it, if that's how you want to make a buck.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #61 on: July 05, 2016, 10:20:00 AM »
Ignoring the moral debate (because it's pointless), I will say I've dabbled in this before and it's no easier than picking stocks.

I've been to 100+ Ohio State games and thought I generally could get a read on buying and selling tickets at a profit. I'm batting around .500 and have had some huge losses.

In 2014, for example, I bought tickets for face value for our game at Penn State. PSU's schedule was soft before our game and I thought they would probably be undefeated when we played there, which would have been a huge game. Turns out they lost two in a row before the Ohio State game, and I ended up selling those tickets for a  significant loss.

Same thing happened for a Bruce Springsteen concert. I'm a big fan, bought two tickets and wanted to sell two others. The venue was so big (22k) that I actually ended up selling barely at face value.

I have hit a few winners (including the Ohio State v. USC game in 2009), but they are few and far between and they cause a lot of stress.

After dabbling in this, the only advice I can give is to get some sort of "in" to get face value tickets for surefire big events. Things like the Ohio State v. Michigan game, the SEC Championship game, NFL playoff games, huge music acts, etc. Otherwise it's a loser's game.

RonMcCord

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #62 on: July 05, 2016, 10:50:19 AM »
One of my co-workers bought tickets to one of the practice days for the US Masters.  You have to sign up for a lottery and the winners are allowed to buy up to 4 tickets for $65.  Right now they're going for over $400 on StubHub.  So I guess if you can regularly luck out on buying exclusive event tickets it wouldn't be a bad side hustle, but not something you can do regularly unless you're the type willing to bash F5 until TicketMaster opens up sales. 

boarder42

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #63 on: July 05, 2016, 11:10:16 AM »
Ignoring the moral debate (because it's pointless), I will say I've dabbled in this before and it's no easier than picking stocks.

I've been to 100+ Ohio State games and thought I generally could get a read on buying and selling tickets at a profit. I'm batting around .500 and have had some huge losses.

In 2014, for example, I bought tickets for face value for our game at Penn State. PSU's schedule was soft before our game and I thought they would probably be undefeated when we played there, which would have been a huge game. Turns out they lost two in a row before the Ohio State game, and I ended up selling those tickets for a  significant loss.

Same thing happened for a Bruce Springsteen concert. I'm a big fan, bought two tickets and wanted to sell two others. The venue was so big (22k) that I actually ended up selling barely at face value.

I have hit a few winners (including the Ohio State v. USC game in 2009), but they are few and far between and they cause a lot of stress.

After dabbling in this, the only advice I can give is to get some sort of "in" to get face value tickets for surefire big events. Things like the Ohio State v. Michigan game, the SEC Championship game, NFL playoff games, huge music acts, etc. Otherwise it's a loser's game.

yeah you really have to know your market.. i have an in with opening day tickets ... with MLB its super easy b/c you can undersell better seats than the team has left and its pretty easy now with dynamic pricing to see what games are selling out and to just call up group ticket sales and buy blocks of tickets.  Example would be they had single tickets priced at 45 bucks per ticket plus fees making them 50bucks.  i can buy group tickets for 23 bucks with no fees then sell for 40 and make an easy profit.    (note they dont like this for obvious reasons so you have to use CL or other word of mouth means to sell)  how this isnt a service to people is beyond me for all you screaming moral shame.  so then every store that bulk purchases product and then sells it at a cheap price while still making a profit is morally wrong?  i dont really care what other people think about it i make money doing it and i enjoy doing it.

Jaguar Paw

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #64 on: July 05, 2016, 01:27:02 PM »
One of my co-workers bought tickets to one of the practice days for the US Masters.  You have to sign up for a lottery and the winners are allowed to buy up to 4 tickets for $65.  Right now they're going for over $400 on StubHub.  So I guess if you can regularly luck out on buying exclusive event tickets it wouldn't be a bad side hustle, but not something you can do regularly unless you're the type willing to bash F5 until TicketMaster opens up sales.

For Adele, my wife and I had 5 Internet devices up trying to buy tickets. After hitting the refresh over and over, one machine finally got through.

boarder42

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #65 on: July 05, 2016, 01:57:40 PM »
One of my co-workers bought tickets to one of the practice days for the US Masters.  You have to sign up for a lottery and the winners are allowed to buy up to 4 tickets for $65.  Right now they're going for over $400 on StubHub.  So I guess if you can regularly luck out on buying exclusive event tickets it wouldn't be a bad side hustle, but not something you can do regularly unless you're the type willing to bash F5 until TicketMaster opens up sales.

For Adele, my wife and I had 5 Internet devices up trying to buy tickets. After hitting the refresh over and over, one machine finally got through.

yeah its completely worthwhile just dont expect people to approve of the practice.  You're more likely to find an american recommending his EJ financial advisor to you and how great they are vs telling you your scalping holds value.  b/c 90% of the time it doesnt hold any real value for the end consumer but just be ok with that and make your money and let the others whine and complain about how unfair/immoral it is. 

I'd say we rank just better than non fiduciary financial advisors when we're scalping tickets.

FIRE me

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #66 on: July 05, 2016, 03:56:31 PM »
And is it really much different than buying a stock low and selling high? The person that buys Apple now is obviously getting the short end of the stick compared to an individual that bought 15 years ago. I just had the vision that investing in Adele was going to be worth more later..

I think it's a nasty thing to do. There are only so many tickets and they are already overpriced. It is far different from stocks. Stocks are meant to be bought and sold. No entertainer that I know of goes on tour with the hope that the scalpers will make money.

This part is false. There's a difference between high priced and overpriced. If they were overpriced, they would not sell out five minutes after going on sale.

A thing does not have to fail to sell to be overpriced.

Actually, it does.

I'll leave it as an exercise for you and seattlecyclone to Google up the dictionary definition of “overpriced” if you care to do so. Either way, I'm done arguing the meaning of the word "overpriced".

MustachianAccountant

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Re: Does anyone use event tickets as investments? (Or a hobby?)
« Reply #67 on: July 07, 2016, 05:06:06 AM »
Quote from: mustachianaccountant
But would anyone need to be "first in line when the ticket booth opens" if the scalpers weren't buying up all the tickets in the first place? Or have scalpers simply created the problem they purport to solve?

 Yes to the first question. The speed/time to line up becomes a factor any time that
 # of people who want to attend at a given price > # of tickets available.

In my opinion, price is the way solve any demand > supply problem unless there are serious negative consequences (people starving, being forced from their homes, or the environment being degraded) in letting the invisible hand work. What would you propose otherwise, which would address the issue of fans who are unable to line up/log on, but still want to attend? Maybe the artists could have a scholarship contest for fans to prove how devoted they are?

It was a rhetorical question. You're assuming that there are more people who actually want to go to the event than there are tickets available, and therefore assume there's a demand > supply problem to be solved.

I'm saying that's often not the case - scalpers are simply creating an artificial supply shortage by buying up tickets. If the scalpers weren't buying up all the tickets so quickly, there wouldn't be a demand > supply problem in the first place.

I'm sure rare exceptions exist.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2016, 05:10:26 AM by MustachianAccountant »