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Tips, Secrets & Musings of a Former Ticket Broker

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How To Become A Ticket Broker

So you want to become a ticket broker but you don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place - this is a work in progress guide on how to become a ticket broker, written by a successful former ticket broker.

I’m starting with an outline, but I’ll continue to update with more information on starting a ticket brokerage and becoming a ticket broker.

What/who is a ticket broker?

A ticket broker is someone who buys event tickets and then re-sells them, ideally for a profit. Ticket brokers generally buy tickets on the primary ticket market and re-sell them on the secondary ticket market. The primary ticket market involves the initial sale of a ticket by either the venue or a primary ticketing agent to a purchaser. The secondary ticket minvolves the reselling of tickets to a new buyer. If a season ticket holder sells some of their tickets for example, they would be participating in the secondary ticket market.

What do I need to start?

The first thing you’ll need is access to capital, or money to purchase tickets so that you can later re-sell them. The following are a few types of capital that you can use to finance your ticket business.

  1. Cash - It’s best if you have some money tucked away that you can use to start buying tickets for resale. You can use a debit card to buy tickets and the funds will be pulled from your bank account at the time of your purchase, or you can use credit cards and use your savings to pay off the credit balance each month until your ticket sales start to over all the ticket costs.
  2. Credit Cards - Alternatively, you can also use one or more credit cards to help finance your ticket purchases. Credit cards can help you get started, but be very careful not to spend beyond your means. It’s tough to make a profit when you’re paying 20%+ in credit card finance charges each month.
  3. Creative Financing - There are other means of getting capital to start your ticket brokerage, below are a couple ideas:
  • Loan from family/friends - If you need money to start buying tickets, you may be able to convince your family or close friends to help you out with a loan to get you going. You could write a business plan to help convince them, or offer to make them a partner in the business and share a certain percentage of your profits until you repay the loan.
  • Small business loan - You can take out a small business loan from your bank, or you can borrow online at sites such as Prosper.com, a terrific peer-to-peer lending and borrowing service.

 

 

Computer and Internet Access
The next thing you’ll need is a computer and internet access to buy tickets online. Buying tickets online is much more effective than over the phone as the ticket representatives on the phone have the same access to tickets that you do on your computer. It’s much faster to pull tickets on your computer than it is to sit on hold for an operator, tell him/her what you want, and wait for them to search - you can do it better yourself. So what do you need?

  1. A basic computer - You need access to one basic computer (or more computers as you get better at pulling tickets and/or get people to work for you to pull tickets). The computer doesn’t have to be anything special, though I do recommend the following:

 

    • The computer should have 512MB to 1GB RAM to make sure that your computer responds quickly when you’re working to pull tickets.
    • Few to no other programs should be running while you’re trying to pull tickets. Other programs can slow down your web browser and every fraction of a second can count when trying to pull tickets.
    • No spyware/adware. Like the above two items, spyware/adware can slow down your computer so make sure you don’t have any.

    1. Web browser(s) -

    1. Firefox

    2. Internet Explorer

    3. Netscape

    4. Safari

    5. Opera

    iii. Broadband high speed internet access

    1. DSL, cable, T1, T3

      1. Ticket broker license

    i. Licensing is by state

    1. Link to ebay state licensing laws

    2. List states that do not require any license

      1. Online seller accounts

    i. eBay

    1. Seatdata

    ii. Stubhub

    iii. Craigslist

    iv. RazorGator

    v. TicketsNow

    vi. Ticketmaster TicketExchange

      1. Shipping access

    i. Convenient FedEx (required for Stubhub), USPS, and/or UPS locations to ship tickets

    ii. Safe/secure location(s) to receive ticket shipments

    1. Research events
      1. Ticket sales channels

    i. Ticketmaster

    1. Browse regions, genres

    ii. eBay

    1. Browse sold listings

    2. Add reputable ebay sellers to your ‘watch list’ – see what they are selling to give you an idea

    iii. Stubhub

      1. Newsletters/email lists

    i. Venues

    ii. Regions

    iii. Artists

    iv. Others

      1. Industry Websites

    i. Pollstar

    ii. EventExperts

    iii. Presalepasswords.net

    iv. Showsonsale.com

    1. Choosing events
      1. Research early tour sales

    i. See if shows at comparable venues have done well or not

      1. Research venue capacity

    i. Search to find the venue capacity and compare to other prior shows

    1. Buying event tickets
      1. Ticketmaster

    i. Basics

    ii. More advanced strategies

      1. Tickets.com & other primary sites

    i. Basics

    ii. More advanced strategie

      1. Fan clubs

    i. Artist

    ii. MusicToday

    iii. Ducatking

      1. Season tickets
      2. Group tickets
      3. Industry connections
      4. Spinner programs

    1. Selling event tickets
      1. Places to sell
      2. When to sell

    1. Inventory management
      1. Excel (Google docs) spreadsheet (can post empty spreadsheet for download)

    1. Tracking performance & sales history
      1. Excel (Google docs) spreadsheet (can post empty spreadsheet for download)

    There is a lot more detail to come, and by the time this guide is finished I expect it to be the most comprehensive and insightful guide to becoming a ticket broker on the web. Please check back soon…

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