I get the question “when is the best time to sell my tickets?” a lot, and while it’s not an exact science, I thought I’d take a stab at answering it.  Ticket brokerage is really all just simple supply and demand.  To maximize your price, you want to sell when supply is low but demand is high.  It’s hard to control the supply portion of the equation, so let’s focus on the demand aspect.

So the question is really, when is demand for my tickets the highest (so that I can sell them for the most money)?   For big shows that sell out quickly, the demand is generally highest immediately after it sells out.  Rabid fans who came up empty during the primary sale at Ticketmaster are most likely to get caught-up in the moment and start searching for tickets on Stubhub, eBay, or other secondary ticket outlets.  These die-hard fans are more likely to be willing to pay top dollar for your tickets.  Since these fans are likely to go directly from Ticketmaster to Stubhub or other ticketing sites, it’s incredibly important that you list your tickets for sale IMMEDIATELY after you purchase them.  Time to market is crucial here and the faster you get them in front of people who want to buy them, the better.  After all the die-hard fans buy their tickets, demand generally flattens or declines up until the event date which is why I think it’s better to sell them sooner rather than later (not to mention that you get your money back faster which you can reinvest into other tickets).

There are occasional cases where prices go up as an event approaches, but they are not all that common.  One example would be that a concert for a hot new band sells out, but the band keeps getting more popular as the show approaches which leads to higher demand, this higher ticket prices.  Another example where prices may rise is when there isn’t much supply to begin with, and most brokers sell their tickets quickly leaving very limited supply in the market.  With low supply, but equal or greater demand, ticket prices will rise.  It’s very difficult or impossible to predict these two scenarios which is why I think it’s best to sell the tickets quickly after the event sells out, and then move on to the next opportunity.

I hope that answers your question of “when is the best time to sell my tickets?”  Again, it’s not a perfect science but after years of experience I’ve found this to be the best general strategy.