Everything You Need To Know About Presale Passwords

Presales are great ways to gain access to tickets before the general public, but in order to have access to them, you’ll need a password.

I will cover each presale more in depthly in the coming articles, but for now here is a summary of them:

There are 8 main types of presale passwords. Most of which can be found if you do a little digging, so I am going to explain all of them and where they can be found…

Venue: Venue presale passwords are put out by the venue hosting the event. You have to go to their website and sign up for their mailing list to receive the password.

Radio: Same thing as venue passwords. You have to go to the radio station’s website and sign up for their mailing to list to receive the password. It’s to your advantage to sign up for as many of these as you can. Radio stations will always announce concerts ahead of time so it’s good to stay informed and check your email!

American Express: For Amex presales you must actually have an American Express card. You can get away with using the generic password “ingold” or the customer service phone number on the back of your card “8002973333“ for the Gold presales, but for it to work, you actually have to buy tickets with an Amex card. Definitely sign up for one of these as every ticket broker needs one! You can sign up here: Sign up for an American Express card. Or check out a list of current Amex presales here: Events in Canada / Events in the USA

Citi: For Citi presales you can usually get away with using the last 4 digits of your card number “542418“ and purchase tickets with any credit card. Occasionally they have been known to cancel orders if you don’t use a Citi card though. Even if you don’t want to sign up for their credit card, just visit a Citibank location and open up a checking account. You can still use the number on your debit card to access the presale. Check out the current list of Citi presales.

Nokia Ticket Rush: LiveNation/ Nokia Ticket Rush usually have a lot of presales for popular bands. The password will be the same for a month then they change it. You can find a list of presales and the current website at this site: Nokia Ticket Rush.

Fan Club/ Season Ticket Holder: These presale codes are often unique and you either have to buy a fan-club membership or be a season ticket holder to have access to them. You can usually find these unique passwords on Ebay anywhere from $10-$100+. So if you aren’t a member, either become one or prepare to pay second-hand for these passwords if they are available.

Ticketmaster Promo: Sometimes Ticketmaster will put on presales/discount offers. The presale password (for now anyway) will always be “tmdeal”. You can view a list of current offers at this site: TM Ticket Deals.

Miscellaneous: Too many random presales to list here, but sometimes the promoter will put on a presale, or any organization associated with the event. You basically have to keep your eyes open for these and sign up for their mailing lists to get the passwords.

I think that about covers it for now! Stay tuned for more info about each type of presale password in coming articles. In the mean time, sign up for as many venue/radio mailing lists as you can to stay in the know about the latest concerts and presale passwords!

Why Higher Priced Tickets Sometimes Sell First On Stubhub

Have you ever wondered why your higher priced tickets on Stubhub sell before someone else’s? Not that it’s a bad thing, but you have to wonder if people don’t shop around and just buy the first pair of tickets they see.

There’s actually another reason for it. Some customers don’t actually buy from Stubhub’s website. Instead, they phone a representative and that rep will do a search for them. Obviously it’s to Stubhub’s and the rep’s advantage to sell the higher priced tickets because they earn a higher commission.

The rep also bases their decision on how fast the seller confirms orders and their drop rate (how many times you have declined an order.)

Soooo…it’s to your advantage to price your tickets high from the start, and to respond and fill your orders as fast as you can. Stubhub reps can view your seller stats and if they are good, you will have an advantage over other sellers.

Ticketmaster Captcha Screen Tricks

Captchas are the little things Ticketmaster makes you type in after you’ve searched for tickets to verify that you are actually a human being, and not using an illegal automated program like a “spinner.” They annoy us all, and especially the people who can’t type very well, so I’ve put together a few little tips to help you get through the captcha screen a little faster…

The system doesn’t know the identity of both words, so technically you can get away with typing one word correctly and still pass the test. It assumes if you get one of the words correct then the other one will be correct as well.

Anytime you see a number mixed in with the word, or a whole string of numbers, you can ignore it and just type the other word. Usually you can skip the smudged words as well.

If you can’t read either word just hit enter and try another one instead of wasting time trying to figure it out.

Here are some rules of thumb for typing in Ticketmaster’s captchas. They’re not foolproof, but they work the majority of the time:

1. Always type the longer of the 2 words
2. Ignore any word of 3 or fewer letters
3. Ignore numbers (either strings of numbers, or mixed words and numbers.)
4. Ignore any words that contain symbols (hyphens, commas, weird random squiggly lines etc.)
5. Ignore illegible words (the ones that look smudged.)

Pros And Cons Of Selling Tickets On Ebay

Pros

• Very quick turnaround on tickets. On average the fastest way to sell your tickets.
  
  
• Requires nothing but a Paypal account and credit card.
  
  
• Fees are cheaper than Stubhub
  
  
• (This one could be seen as a pro or a con depending on the seller.) You can “window dress” your auctions to stand out and increase exposure unlike Stubhub.

Cons

• Buyer expectations combined with over-saturated competitive sellers tends to yield lower ticket prices.
  
  
• You have to contend with non-paying buyers.
  
  
• You have to contend with “tire-kickers” and annoying buyer emails.
  
  
• Auction-style listings mean that you must re-list your tickets if they don’t sell so timing becomes very important.
  
  
• Anyone can see your user ID on your auction listings and use it to find information about you.

Overall

• Both large and small brokers use Ebay to sell their tickets. It’s biggest strength is the fact that you can pretty much guarantee you will get something for your tickets if you need to unload them.
  
  
• It is also the best site to do your marketplace research.

Ebay is probably the best place to start if you are new to reselling, or if it close to show time and you need to unload your tickets in a hurry. Stubhub is the better alternative if you are going to seriously get into selling tickets.

How To Search For High Demand Events

You can usually tell if an event is in high demand by what tickets are coming up during the onsale.

If you can pull a “sec 324 row k” in one window and then 30 seconds later pull a “floor row 26” in another window, that’s usually an indication that tons of people are searching that event and tickets are always being thrown back. If you can basically pull the same row and section consistently, chances are there aren’t many people searching it and the concert is in low demand.

This is why it is a good idea to search even if you aren’t planning on buying anything. You’ll get a feel for what’s selling and what’s not.

Presales are also a good indication of whether a show will do well. If the presale sells out quickly then the show will probably be hot and you should definitely be searching the onsale and planning to buy.

How To Get Super Bowl Tickets At Face Value

Here is some helpful information on getting Super Bowl tickets:

The NFL keeps tight control of tickets and distributes them according to a strict formula.

The two conference championship teams playing in the Super Bowl each get 17.5% of the tickets. The host city’s team gets 5% of the tickets. Another 35% go to the other teams in the league, and the NFL keeps about 25% to give to its sponsors, VIPs and for promotional events.

So how can an ordinary person get tickets? You can start today by entering the NFL Fan Lottery. Each year the league holds a lottery to award about 1000 pairs of tickets to ordinary fans. The lottery is held around Labour Day, so you need to enter about a year in advance of the game. To enter, send your request to:

Superbowl Random Drawing

PO Box 49140

Strongsville, OH

USA

All Super Bowl requests must be sent in by certified or registered mail. If you are selected to buy tickets, you will have the chance to purchase only two and you won’t know where your seats are until they arrive. Expect to pay at least a few hundred dollars each, but remember you can sell them for thousands.

About 30,000 fans enter the lottery so your chances of winning are about 1 in 30. Remember, winning the lottery does not give you free tickets; it just gives you the opportunity to buy them at face value!

Check out the official Super Bowl website for more info.

How To Be A Ticket Broker

How do I become a ticket broker?

This question gets asked a lot so I’ve complied a list of common questions and answers to help you decide if you want to become a ticket broker.

Q: What do I need to be a ticket broker?

A: Lots of hard work, a credit card, Internet connection, mailbox and lots of patience. Be prepared to research lots of events each day before you find profitable ones.

Q: How can I start out without a lot of money?

A: You can get the ball rolling with buying your first set of tickets, so an investment of $100-$200 can get you into the ticket industry. Be careful not to put tickets on your credit card unless you can afford to pay it off right away. The last thing you'll want to do is be paying interest on a pair of tickets that haven't sold.

Q: What tickets do I buy?

A: Do a 10-page report on each concert before you buy and you should never lose money. That means researching the artist, when the last time they toured, completed sales on Ebay, venue capacity, seating chart and the market/demographics for starters. Sound easier said than done? Then you may want to check out The Ticket Broker Guide - they'll teach you exactly how to become a ticket broker and start selling tickets on Ebay and Stubhub for big profits.

Q: How much should I sell my tickets for?

A: That all depends on the market and what the buyer is willing pay. Thankfully, Ebay and Stubhub both show you completed listings for how much tickets sold for, so before you invest in any event, you should always check the completed sales history. If there are no completed sales for the event you want to sell tickets for, check if the event has sold well in other markets. Some events are sure-fire winners in some markets, while they make tank in others. If you're unsure what markets are hot, and what ones are not, you can always check out the Market Predictions report for the Top-50 Markets across North America, if you are just learning how to be a ticket broker.

Q: What is an undercutter?

A: An undercutter is a panicky seller who feels the need to price their tickets lower than the already lowest price, which in turn drives down the whole market value resulting in lower profits for everyone. GA concerts are usually a haven for undercutters because everyone has the same ticket.

Q: Where do I sell my tickets?

A: Long answer short, If you are anxious to sell your tickets and look forward to receiving lower profits, Ebay is the way to go. If you are patient and like making money, then check out Stubhub. If you like to deal with tire kickers and people looking strictly for bargains, then by all means sell on Craigslist.

In all seriousness, if you want to become a ticket broker be prepared to do lots of research and stick with it! 

You're not in this alone, there is an actual guide (the #1 ticket resale guide), The Ticket Broker Guide that will teach you how to be a ticket broker, one step at a time. So if you're interested in selling tickets on sites like Stubhub and Ebay (not outside of a venue), and are looking for a work-at-home-opportunity, definitely check out The Ticket Broker Guide and tell them Broker Buzz sent you!

10 Reasons Why Ticketmaster’s Paperless Tickets Won’t Work

It appears the oh so clever Ticketmaster has yet another bright idea:

Why not introduce paperless tickets so they never change hands and at the same time make it harder for scalpers to profit?

Let me give you a quick rundown of how it would work…

After buying your tickets online, you would show the credit card used to purchase them and a piece of government ID to enter the show. No tickets to remember, nothing to forget, no worries right?

Ticketmaster thinks they are doing a favour to the consumer by implementing this new service, but I think this is one issue that consumers and brokers could both agree is a bad idea.

Here are 10 reasons why paperless tickets won’t work:

1. I bought the tickets so why don’t I have the right to resell them? Since when did Ticketmaster take ownership of my tickets? I should be able to sell them if I want, just like anything else I own.
   
   
2. Ok so the option of selling my tickets is gone. What happens if I can’t make it to the show? I would like a refund then. But wait, that won’t work because there is no way the promoter is going to allow refunds on ticket sales…so I guess that means I’m basically screwed?
   
   
3. The majority of fans still prefer ticket stubs as a memento. When I purchase tickets to a show I want to be able to hold them, show them off, frame them or whatever I feel like, not just look at my credit card statement and try and remember what that $200 charge was for. I want to wave my ticket stub around and brag to people that I got to sit in the 1st row.
   
   
4. What if I don’t want to bring my credit card to a show because I know I’ll get drunk and think it’s a great idea to spend $50 on a crappy t-shirt and buy everyone else beer. I would rather just bring enough cash thanks.
   
   
5. What if I used a prepaid credit card to buy my tickets? Or what if the credit card I used to purchase my tickets expired, or I have a spending problem and I decided to cut it up and throw it in the garbage? How are they going to scan that?
   
   
6. This service would be yet another excuse for Ticketmaster to charge us another “convenience fee.” Oh wait, I guess that’s not a reason why paperless tickets wouldn’t work, it’s just another reason for fans to hate Ticketmater.
   
   
7. Because I purchased the tickets on my credit card that means I’m the one that has to show up to the concert. What happens if I want to buy the tickets as a gift and give them to someone else?
   
   
8. Tickemaster is publicly trying to get rid of scalpers so they appear trustworthy to the consumer but we all know that’s not the case. They are going to try and play off this service as an attempt to win over the consumer by doing them a favour but we all know Ticketmaster is in the ticket scalping business themselves with the purchase of TicketsNow.
   
   
9. Ticketmaster claims that their new paperless ticket system will eliminate the waits in line to purchase tickets, but really how many of us actually wait in line the night of the show to buy them anyway? This new system claims to eliminate that, but it won’t.
   
   
10. Stubhub, Ebay and other major secondary ticketing sites are not going to put up with this. Ticketmaster is trying to eliminate scalpers, but where do we sell? We sell on these huge websites. No scalpers means no profits for them and trust me, they’re 10 steps ahead of everyone else. Let them take care of everything and paperless tickets will either be a fad, or a thing that never was.

Hard Tickets vs. TicketFast

There is great debate over “hard tickets” and “Ticketfast”. In the end, it’s up to you what you want to use, but here are the facts about them:

Buyers generally feel more comfortable with the legitimacy of hard tickets, but Ticketfast is stress free because you get them instantly and you can email them to the buyer up until the last minute. (Note: if you have to email Ticketfast tickets right before the event, still make sure to print of a copy and ship them normally. It won’t matter if the shipped tickets arrive after the event is taken place. If the buyer tries to dispute they didn’t receive their tickets, you will still have a confirmation number saying that you did and in most circumstances Paypal will not look into the matter that far to see if they arrived before the actual event took place. Having the confirmation number will be enough proof for them.)

A lot of buyers are wary of buying Ticketfast tickets because it is fairly new technology and they can easily be copied. Some buyers like hard tickets because they keep the stubs as keepsakes, so they may not be happy to receive a piece of paper instead. It doesn’t help that a lot of Ebay auctions stress that they have hard tickets, which gives the impression that Ticketfast, is bad.

Hard tickets come with free delivery whereas Ticketfast charges a $2.50 fee. (Anybody else wondering why Ticketfast costs money when you have to use your own ink and printer to print the things off?)

If you do sell Ticketfast tickets make sure you state this in your auction. Customers will be expecting hard copy tickets, not a piece of paper printed off from your house. You will have far less headaches telling your customers this up front. They also don’t feel like paying $15 in shipping charges for something they could have printed at home themselves.

In the end it comes down to personal preference. I always choose hard tickets because that’s what I would want if I were the customer, but if it was for an event that was really close, I would choose Ticketfast and at least relieve a little bit of the stress knowing I’ll have more time to ship them.

How To Determine Your Connection Speed To Ticketmaster

There is great debate as to how Ticketmaster distributes tickets during a sale. Some people say they release the nosebleed tickets to get rid of them first, then they start offering the better seats later on.

Some also think that it’s completely random and pretty much a crapshoot the first few minutes.

And then there’s the theory that the faster you get in, the better seats you will get.

I am going to focus on the last one. Now don’t get me wrong, connection speed isn’t everything. There are lots of varying factors in obtaining good seats and the more experience (and luck) you have the better off you will be. And after you’ve been in the business a while, you’ll learn when Ticketmaster drops tickets days after the general onsale so connection won’t matter at this point.

Having a good connection speed certainly does help though, so I am going to show you a trick to determine your connection speed to Ticketmaster.

Go to:

> Start
> Run
> Type “cmd” and hit enter
> You should now be in the MS DOS screen
> Type “tracert Ticketmaster.com” (without quotations)

This command will show the time and hops it takes to connect to Ticketmaster.

The last number in the right hand column will be your connection speed.

The lower the ms number the faster you will connect to Ticketmaster. If your speed is 120ms your extremely fast connection is not as extremely fast as you think it is. My connection speed was .69ms at home and .23ms at the library.

Just because you have a 3.0+GHz system does not mean that your Internet connection is fast. The system may be fast but the connection speed to Ticketmaster really depends on how many switchovers your connection has to go though to get to Ticketmaster! Your connection speed to another site, maybe Yahoo or MSN, etc. may be much faster because you may not have to go through as many switchovers.

Traceroute is a utility that helps diagnose network congestion between your computer (ISP) and the destination server (www.domainname.com). Traceroute works by sending packets of information from your location to the destination and timing how long it takes to receive a response. In addition to tracking the time it takes to reach the final destination, you are provided with the times to each 'Hop' between your terminal and the destination. Each Hop is a separate 'router' that your information must pass through. By providing the times for each hop, we can often find the source of problems accessing a server.

You can do this at your house, work, friends, library, school etc. to see what one connects the fastest. Try this out and see if it makes a difference when you pull tickets for the next event.

- Thanks jimmy120 for the tip!

A Ticket Broker’s Guide To The Best Credit Cards

Let me start off by saying that if you can’t afford to pay off your credit cards in full every month then it’s not worth getting into this business. Don’t begin to invest in tickets when you’ll end up paying interest on them

That being said, hopefully none of you will get into situations where you purchase tickets on your credit card and then have to dump them by the end of the month just to pay off your bills.

There are a ton of credit cards out there but lets look at the ones that benefit ticket brokers the most:

• Every ticket broker should have at least one of each; a Visa Signature, Citi, American Express and Mastercard, as some presales will be for that card only. (And yes I know you can you can get away with using the Citi presale without the card, but the other presales will actually require you to use their specific card. The citi presale password is the first 6 digits of your card. 414720, 426690 or 408161 should all work.)
  
  
• Points and cash back rewards are both good, it just depends on personal preference. Points are worthless if you don't use them, but can be quite beneficial if you end up with freebies you'd regularly use anyways. Cash back is always good and generally what I go for.
  
  
• You should be getting back at least 1% rewards either way, and if you’re not, you should definitely find another credit card that does.
  
  
• The problem with hotel/airline credit cards is that usually you need to accumulate a ton of points to be eligible for anything. They make the number of points for a free night stay equivalent to the full rate which no one every pays, so the actual value of each point is very low. Your best bet would be to shop around for deals rather then waste time with these cards. Additionally, you’ll find they have a lot of blackout dates so you won’t be able to redeem your points at certain times.
  
  
• If you’re starting out small, I’d go with the American Express card. It seems like they have one of the best reward programs out there and there are lots of Amex presales to take advantage of so I’d definitely choose this one over anything else. Take a look at the American Express website and find out which one is right for you. (And note that you don’t need an American Express gold card to access the gold presales. Any Amex card will work – just use the password “ingold”)
  
  
• Try to have each credit card linked to a different name and address so you can get around any ticket limit restrictions. You can use your house, parents, friends, and UPS PO boxes.

That should help you out for now and if you want to continue your research, check out this site: CreditCardGoodies.com. It compares all the major credit cards and their reward programs.

Pros And Cons Of Selling Tickets On Stubhub

If you're interested in learning more about selling tickets on StubHub, head on over to The Ticket Broker Guide for a complete walk-through tutorial.
(Updated Jan 29, 2013)




Stubhub definitely outranks Ebay as far as selling tickets goes, but lets take a look at some pros and cons to help out the new brokers.

Pros

• It’s free to list your tickets. You only pay a fee when they sell so you can keep them up as long as you want.
  
  
• You won’t rack up a bunch of listing fees like your tickets don’t sell like you would on Ebay.
  
  
• Stubhub usually produces higher profits than Ebay if you price your tickets right and are patient.
  
  
• Shipping is a no-brainer. If your tickets sell, you receive a confirmation email and a link to print the label. Just slap the label and the tickets in a FedEx envelope, drop it off at a Fed-Ex drop off location and you’re done.
  
  
• No dealing with questions from buyers, unlike Craigslist and Ebay.
  
  
• Confidentiality – you never actually talk to the customer because Stubhub is the mediator. They use generic return addresses on the FedEx label so buyers can’t tell where they actually came from.
  
  
• It’s a lot faster to list your tickets as opposed to Ebay
  
  
• Stubhub has a large sellers program that you can qualify for if you have an average of 20 listings at a time. The nice thing about this program is you have access to a large sellers rep that can help you out with many things including historical data. The other benefit is that you get your sellers fees reduced from 15% to 12.5%.
• Last Minute Services allows you to list your tickets until a few hours before the event.

Cons

• Huge fees. They will take a 15% cut of each ticket you sell, so you have to incorporate this into your pricing strategy.
  
  
• Payment delay time – Stubhub will send you your money about a week after your tickets have arrived to the buyer.
  
  
• FedEx only shipping - which can be inconvenient if you live in a small town or aren’t close to a FedEx drop box.
  
  
• Your listings don’t stand out as they would on Ebay.
• Completed sales are only shown if you create a new listing, so it's not easy to tell how much tickets have sold for. (However there is a little trick to see completed sales in a certain section. Just create a fake listing and go through each step until the completed sales show up. It will show about the last 5 sales in that section. Once you've looked at them, make sure to cancel your listing though.)