How to Become a Ticket Broker
Most of us have bought tickets for a hot concert, or a playoff game, or even given tickets as a gift at some point. Chances are, you bought those tickets from a ticket broker, because you wanted to get better seats, even though you didn’t hammer the ticket outlet, wait in line or own a season ticket. It’s not a bad trade off to pay a little extra to get great seats. But, buying and selling tickets can also put more cash in your pocket as well.
Being a ticket broker doesn’t have to start off as a full time gig, but you it is possible to pull in some pretty decent profit right away. With minor investment, some brokers start making 50% on their money and many even profit as much as 300%. It has the added benefit that you can work from home, and some ticket brokers break six figures annually. However, it should be stated that starting out, a goal of a few extra thousand dollars would be more realistic, but on top of the steady income that you control, you also don’t have to worry about anyone else firing you on a whim.
A ticket broker is anyone who buys tickets for an event and then sells them on the secondary market, usually at a profit. The key is not just buying tickets to any event, but knowing which tickets are going to most likely rise in price, and everything should be approached as a business when buying and selling tickets. If a ticket broker buys tickets that they cannot sell, they may try to sell them at face value or even take a loss to recoup some of the money. However, the best method is to learn to be patient and buy when the chances of success are higher. More on how to do that is discussed later.
If you are interested in taking a stab at making money as a ticket broker, you should know that you cannot expect to rush out, buy tickets at any price, mark them up like crazy and sell them immediately on eBay. Just like real estate, retail, or selling hot dogs from a cart, you have to know when to buy, when to sell, what to sell and how much to sell it for. It takes some inside information, but don’t sweat that too much, we’ll get into how you can get up to speed quickly.
The best position to be in is to have tickets to a hot show that you paid a low price for. Getting into the business of being a ticket broker can be done with very little investment, but like any business with a low barrier to entry, there can be a lot of competition. But, no money making business has no competitors. If you find a business with easy entry and no competition, that’s a pretty safe bet there’s not much money, but a lot of competition means there’s money to be made, and you can get around the competition.
Here’s a little side thought about ‘too much competition’:
Remember when Circuit City, Radio Shack and Sears dominated the electronics market? Even if you didn’t buy a television at Sears, you could pick from big box retailers such as K-Mart, Target, or big blue Wal-Mart. It sure would seem like suicide to try and carve out any market share against such heavily financed and entrenched players. But that’s exactly what happened when Best Buy decided to start selling the same electronics. And now, a relatively short time later, Circuit City is out of business, Sears and K-Mart went through bankruptcy, and who’s the big dog of consumer electronics? Best Buy. Remember, don’t be afraid of the competition. Make the competition afraid of you.
Taking on the competition is easier when you have something your competitors don’t have access to, such as experience in the industry. Unless you already have worked as a ticket broker or you’ve got a partner who has and is willing to show you the ropes, you should invest a few bucks in the Ticket Broker Guide, a cheap but valuable way to get insider’s knowledge, from an insider in the business. The book breaks down years of experience such as how to get cheaper prices on tickets, which tickets to buy and how to sell them once you get your hands on them.
The Ticket Broker Guide sets about covering everything you need to know, such as how to pull the best tickets, to how to tell if an event is in high demand. Even if you are only looking at making a few extra thousand a month, this is still a business and you need to give yourself every edge to succeed over your competition. There is very little (good) information available to learn how to become a ticket broker because those who do it don’t want to share. This guide is a blockbuster of information and it’s like getting a season ticket broker looking over your shoulder to help you.
Breaking down regionally popular events is another trick you’ll need to learn if you want to grow your ticket reselling business. That means that a band that sells out in Chicago might not be as popular in New Orleans. You have to test and keep your ear to the ground about what’s going on in the industry as much as possible , and keep notes so you can recall how you did on certain events before. If you really want much more information on how to make money buying and selling tickets, check out the Ticket Broker Guide. It’s worth easily over $1000 in valuable profit making information and yet you can still get copies for less than $25.