the GOOD side of ticket touts on ebay

alooof

there has been SO much debate about ticket touts online, and on ebay
virtually everything i've heard has been negative, and i know they're planning on changing the laws to outlaw this, but when it happens i think i will be slightly upset


at the moment, touts are somehow getting their hands on tons of tickets, ahead of real fans, to top gigs and selling them for a silly profit on ebay. the biggest gigs will sell out quick and the price will go high immediately. so unless you can afford it, you will miss out

BUT, tempted by the easy money, a lot of people invest in tickets and it isnt a guaranteed moneyspinner.
i have noticed some trends which may help you to save a lot of money when buying tickets off the bay

remember, demand will always be highest immediately after they go on sale/sell out and also close to the gig, in the weeks leading up to it.

take the take that gig as an example. right now, its fresh in everyones minds, people are searching and bidding like crazy. likewise, in the weeks leading up to the gigs in november, a lot of people will be looking for them, so prices will go high.
but in the inbetween months? most people have forgotton about it, so you will have much less competition for your bids.

as a rule though, i never buy tickets this early off ebay. your seller protection only protects you for about 30days or so, but gig tickets are not send from the promoter til closer to the gig. so you have no way of knowing if your seller is genuine or not by the time your protection expires

but the single best tip i have picked up is last minute sales - because of the nature of ebay (minimum auction length 24 hours, plus time for delivery) and the time-sensitive nature of tickets, you can find yourself cut price tickets for a lot of gigs in the day or two leading up to the event.
search for an event on the last day or two, and watch a few auctions to get an idea of how much the tickets are fetching. then find an auction that you would like to win, and contact the seller in advance to arrange ticket collection. chances are they will be willing to meet you outside the venue (especially if these are spares and they are going themselves) or somewhere else convinient. it also means you can pay cash on collection, so you cant get ripped off.
the reason this works is a lot of people have last minute cancellations and need to sell their tickets quick, or they have bought extra in anticipation of making a buck on ebay, but once they realised this isnt happening they have to cut their loses and accept whatever they can get

in my experience, i have gone to a lot of gigs on a last minute whim, never paying close to face value and often getting tickets for half price or less

stick it to the ticket touts and enjoy as many cheap gigs as you can until the rules change!

pulliptears

I normally take the kids to Leeds Festival, its £150 a ticket, and one child is 14 so needs his own ticket.
I waited until the thursday before last year, searched within 50 miles and picked up 3 tickets for a total of £150.
Drove to collect, paid cash and then went home to pack the tent! A fab weekend was had by all.

Ive done it that way a couple of times now

marky_p

alooof wrote:

at the moment, touts are somehow getting their hands on tons of tickets, ahead of real fans, to top gigs and selling them for a silly profit on ebay. the biggest gigs will sell out quick and the price will go high immediately. so unless you can afford it, you will miss out

the thing I love is the belief that 'touts' have some secret knowledge that they're using to rip off the general public, as exhibited by your "somehow getting their hands on tons of tickets". it's simply that touts are organised, whereas Joe Public isn't. if people just checked the 'coming soon' section of seetickets every week, or signed up to a few mailing lists, they'd get face value tickets easily.

what gets my goat is people moaning about "OMG i'm their BIGGEST FAN and i couldn't get tickets 3 days after they went on sale, it's not fair", and all this crap about how 'real fans' are getting ripped off.

but to be fair, you've given some good advice, getting things last minute is a sure-fire way of getting cheap tickets. even going to the venue and negotiating with the touts before the gig can get you tickets for less than face value.

alooof

marky, i'd heard that ticket touts have bots that get into the website and get them to the front of the queues? i know things sell out very quickly but it is always touts that emerge with tickets and genuine fans left without.
i also heard they have multiple usernames etc to buy the maximum of 2 or 4 tickets many times over, which is obvious when you see ticket touts websites selling over 50 tickets for a single gig

ticket agency websites cannot rely on the offchance that they are one of the ones to get through, they always seem to get their hands on tickets even when demand is crazy, which makes me believe that they have unfair advantages

Tout_or_Businesswoman_?

Hi alooof

Thanks for your thread, a lot of useful tips there for buyers. It's refreshing too that you've made a fair point without agressively slagging touts off, thank you.

Often, we have no more 'advantages' than those offered by 'genuine fans'. Like marky p says, it's often that we prepare more for the onsale date/time. We're practiced too, so it doesn't take as long to type in addresses, card details etc and we don't suffer from the nerves that 'one off' ticket buyers might suffer from as the clock strikes 9.00am.

Seriously, I just sit at 8.55am like everyone, refreshing the page. Most of the time I strike lucky, maybe front row, sometimes I don't get any at all. No worries if I don't though, I know the tickets will be onsale again soon. Then it takes all the patience ( and boredom ! ) in the world to refresh and refresh for days, weeks and even months to get hold of tickets.

marky_p

Tout_or_Businesswoman_? wrote:

Seriously, I just sit at 8.55am like everyone, refreshing the page. Most of the time I strike lucky, maybe front row, sometimes I don't get any at all. No worries if I don't though, I know the tickets will be onsale again soon. Then it takes all the patience ( and boredom ! ) in the world to refresh and refresh for days, weeks and even months to get hold of tickets.

Exactly my point, I sell tickets on eBay and I just 'join the scramble' like everyone else. 99 times out of 100 I get the tickets I want, without any secrets.

pulliptears

Most of the bands Ive been desperate to see Ive got tickets on pre sale to fans anyway, My Chemical Romance and The Darkness being prime examples. Ive got tickets for those a few times, and always got good seats near to the stage (Have to have seats sadly for 9 year old DD).

I think i would be upset if I couldnt have got the tickets on the first day, despite what i said about the Leeds tix I would have lost the ability to think rationally if Id missed out lol

patriciaellen

I'm glad that a few of you have mentioned patience. Last year I made a big profit on a high demand gig. Originally I missed out when the tickets went on sale, but I knew it was just a waiting game before more tickets were released. Someone I knew wanted tickets (a "Genuine Fan") and I told her that the tickets would go back on sale but she had to stay on-line and hit refresh until such time as more tickets became available. I took my own advice - it took me 4 - 5 hours of solid refreshing (and I don't mean multi-tasking - I mean dedicated, focussed, refreshing) but eventually I got what I was after.

My acquaintance, the "Genuine Fan" just was not prepared to do what I did. She wanted a quick fix - and sometimes there just aren't any quick fixes - just patience and persistence – solid hard work.

4 – 5 hours of refreshing is not a record for me by the way – the record for me is 13 hours solidly staring at a screen before being rewarded with a prize.

kennyward

some fantastic info here and i have got myself into a bit of bother on e-bay i think can anyone advise me?

i had a few beers and went onto e-bay to see if i could get a couple of tickets for the take that tour as a present for mothers day for my wife and the mother in law.i did this and committed to by two tickets on e-bay for £300 but for some reason my laptop wouldnt allow me to complete the transaction as it wont reccogise my ebay identity.having read the above info i am concerned that these tickets may never materiailse particluarly as its the last gig in manchester on the 23rd of dec.please can anybody advise me if i can withdraw from this after i have pressed the committed to buy tab and won the auction.kind regards to all. kenny

i_love_it

Have you paid? If not, of course you can withdraw, by not paying. You might want to send the seller an email stating your concerns, you'll get a negative feedback.....and keep your 300 quid. If you don't do much trading on ebay, that will stay visable should you later decide to bid for more tickets, you will probably be excluded from autions of futher tickets if future sellers say a non paying bid negative against your name...

pulliptears

My acquaintance, the "Genuine Fan" just was not prepared to do what I did. She wanted a quick fix - and sometimes there just aren't any quick fixes - just patience and persistence – solid hard work.

Exactly. And Im with you, Ive done it. Sometimes you have to commit yourself. I think some people expect the band to come knocking on the door and give them a free ticket!