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!

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.

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.) 

A "Newbie's" Ticket Broker Glossary

If you are new to ticket brokering and aren’t familiar with the lingo, or just in need of a laugh then this is the guide for you!

• Beer money – when college kids are happy they made a $20 profit on tickets, just enough to buy beer with.
  
  
• Club seats – ridiculously overpriced tickets that offer fans cushier seats and a guaranteed loss on the secondary market for sellers.
  
  
• Craigslist – a place to dump your tickets and contend with tire kickers.
  
  
• Ebay – a place to check out the market value and scoop up under priced tickets from panicky sellers.
  
  
• General admission concert – undercutting war.
  
  
• Hannah Montana – glorious profits, buy a new house!
  
  
• Hannah Montana Vegas – complete and utter chaos, sell your house!
  
  
• Hot Seat Packages – Ticketmaster’s “clever” way of scalping its own tickets.
  
  
• Pullers – friends, family or college kids who ticket brokers pay poorly to buy tickets for them.
  
  
• Residency restrictions – pain in the ass, hassle to change billing address.
  
  
• Scalper – must be a shady character who stands outside the venue waiting to prey on unsuspecting buyers and guaranteed to sell fans fake tickets. Comes complete with a mustache, sunglasses and trench coat.
  
  
• Section 216, Row R – something a soccer mom would buy and wonder why she lost money.
  
  
• Soccer Moms – people who get into this business, have no idea what they are doing, lose a bunch of money and quit.
  
  
• Stubhub – yields the highest profits and service fees. Company barely scraping by with a 25% profit on each ticket bought and sold.
  
  
• TicketExchange – another place for Ticketmaster to scalp its own tickets.
  
  
• Undercutters – people on Ebay who start auctions at 0.99 cents and drive down the market.