How to Scalp Tickets

Scalping Tickets in Person

1. Determine whether a show will sell out. Especially if you're selling a ticket in person, you need to make relatively sure that there will be a demand for the upmarked tickets you're trying to sell. There is only a promise of demand if the event sells out. You can usually have a decent idea whether or not a show will sell out based on other shows that artist or team have put on. Look online to see if earlier events sold out.

   1. Artists who charge the least for tickets are your best bet as a prospective scalper.^[8]
   2. It's a good idea to look up on the artist performing as well, specifically their history for pricing. Some artists may charge as much as they can for tickets, while others will purposefully undercharge with the hopes of capitalizing on merchandise sales once their customers are inside the venue.^[9]

2. Aim to buy higher quality tickets. Unlike selling online, you are probably not going to be able to sell to a large amount of buyers while scalping in person. Realistically, a dedicated scalper may only sell to a few parties in one night, so it's important to make those sales count with higher quality tickets. Buy your tickets early, and make sure the tickets themselves are part of a tier that's bound to sell out fast.

3. Get to the venue early. It doesn't hurt to get to the venue early. After all, fans who are desperate to get tickets aren't going to wait around to head over. For the highest demand events, you may have all of your tickets sold hours before the show starts. Getting to the venue will also give you a time to gain some selling momentum before the majority of ticket-holders show up and things begin to get chaotic.

4. Make sure the buyers have the cash beforehand. Because of the illegality of scalping tickets, you won't be able to go to the police if you're cheated by a prospective buyer. Before handing anyone your tickets, make sure they actually have the cash to pay for it.

5. Be loud. You don't exactly need to have a brilliant marketing scheme when it comes to scalping tickets, but you do need to make people aware that you're selling them. Be loud, and shout what you're selling. including the type and number of seats. You can repeat this information loudly. If there is a demand for what you're selling, people will eventually come up to you and ask.

   1. For example, if you were selling great tickets to a sold-out Dream Theater concert, you could say something like this: "Dream Theater, front row! Pair of tickets."
   2. You don't need to shout out the price as part of your repeated mantra. Some people who approach you may be more likely to accept a price once they've already opened a dialogue with you, as opposed to hearing a high price before approaching.

6. Make the exchange. Once the interested buyer has agreed to your price, its a simple matter of exchanging the tickets for the cash. The exchange itself should be fast and painless. There may be reason to be suspicious if the buyer is procrastinating or wasting time. In the vas majority of cases, buyers looking for scalped tickets are in a rush to get inside the venue, so an interaction shouldn't take very long once the price has been agreed upon.

   1. Don't expect the buyer to show much in the way of gratitude. Scalpers are looked down on, and although they technically getting into a sold-out show because of you, the opportunism isn't going to get you into anyone's good graces.

7. Lower your prices if necessary. Like so many things in business, there is an element of financial risk in scalping tickets. Sometimes, a show will not sell out near as much as you thought you would. The tickets you are selling may not be quite as demanded as you had hoped for. If you're having bad luck, don't be afraid to lower your ticket prices. If there is no hope of selling them for a profit, you should cut your losses and sell the tickets at face value or below. It will be a defeat, but nowhere near as much as if you let the tickets go to complete waste.

   1. On a brighter note, selling tickets at their face value is completely legal, so you won't have to worry about infringing upon the law if it turns out you have to lower your prices.^[10]