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.

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.

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.