My Answer To "Is this still a lucrative side hustle or is it getting harder and more saturated?"

I have been wanting to write about my experiences in ticket resale forever but it will probably be done piecemeal. I have a draft somewhere about my origin moment but maybe I can just go backwards. For awhile at least I was thinking of selling my expertise and all past sales records for $10,000 or so but I am sure that information would be of marginal utility now.

Flame away but keep in mind this blog and probably the entire collection, certainly mystery drive, might not exist if otherwise. I always considered the archive my real job with the ticket business as a means of funding it.

Q: Is this still a lucrative side hustle or is it getting harder and more saturated?

A: I am no longer really involved but it got a lot harder toward the end. Some people are insisting they are having their best years ever. I did xxxxxxxxxxxx (not really relevant) . Not just "too hard" but all the other associated hassles I got sick of. Still love following the biz and the odd same day flip to pay for my own ticket, doing only did 4 shows in 2024. But that's just me. A huge part of me just didn't want to do it anymore so there's also confirmation bias.

Q: interesting, which reasons did it get harder?

A:

I could write a longform article about "the end" and might still. Basically I am certain my unique strategy played an outsize role in creating Platinum Pricing. Also it's possible I really had no idea what I was doing, I just got lucky. For 7 years straight. I really only bumbled into this business after stumbling across a $100 front row center ticket for a major arena event and then built on that. At the time I didn't listen to popular music, don't follow sports, etc but caught on to some patterns real quick. This was 2014 when my gross (non-ticket) income was around $14,500. 2015 profits surpassed wages and 2016 I quit the McJob forever. 

 

How is it harder? Stuck in long cues only to not get tickets, verifed fan, platinum pricing, extortion fees in the form of autopricers, reliance on too many third party services and the like as well as the industry tightening the screws and smaller box offices becoming hypervigilant. Personally I got sick of the endless counter measures. I remember a (former) broker from NYC who used to do massive volume from the mid-1990's on telling me watch out for all the third party services, that shit will bankrupt you. 

 

Of course there were other outside factors. 

 

I actually got an awesome head start on the 2021 re-opening, made insane money the first half of the year, got too cocky and it fell apart horrifically when delta variant, antivaxxers and just too many events 

collided. Yet when the smoke cleared it was still my most profitable year. 

 

But two things really led me to say "fuck this shit." One was Insomniac quintupling their license fee just when I had to really start buying less tickets and The Weeknd cancelling the 2023 arena tour during which I had to give back profit in the 5 figures. Really demoralizing at a moment when I had a hard time coping with all life was throwing at me. I admit my brain was not in the best of the health so I figured it was okay to just give up and spend the rest of the year following the Rolling Stones. 

 

There are other factors such as mental health, burnout, discovering certain now legal substances after an extended period of sobriety that all could have played a part. 

 

Also it got to the point where the constant "someone beat you to these seats" was like getting punched in the face over and over again.

 

A few times I tried to ease back in but something would happen that would just confirm I made the right choice initially. 

 

Maybe if I was on the east coast I might have held on but I also got sick of waking up at 6am when I was still going to concerts several nights a week.

 

Anyway I have a 10th grade education, no job skills, no people skills and I am still in awe of what occurred. I basically got myself an extra ten years or so of life out of this. And I am not bitter. I never felt entitled to anything. I am so thankful for what I was able to do for myself. I got to go to the dentist! All my other 50+ wage slave friends are now almost toothless! 

 

I've always been a strong advocate of the secondary market, mainly because when I was working an almost minimum wage job, last minute secondary tickets were all I could afford and all I am buying now. Basically it means I missed Taylor Swift and not much else. That in itself could be a warning because it's catching on and I think might be a main motivator for primary markets to attempt to reign in the secondary. No one with a million dollar plus guarantee wants to see their tickets being sold for $10. 

 

Okay, all the successful brokers and flippers and people with something to sell can flame away because I flamed out. I have been living off the money I made for years and remain hopeful I can catch lightning again in some other field. The only negative is I missed the boat on just paying cash for a house by a year or two.

#tickets