1/4 Of My Household Income

comes from the turn and burn, buy & sell, get what you want, eBay & Craiglist super markets of the modern digital uprising. I will not give up all my secrets but if done right I could make easily 75% of what my salary is now. I choose to carry a real job because it does pay more and it is directly related to what I love to do (Design).

There are 3 main areas that work for me because my knowledge in those areas allow me to make good buying decisions. I will outline each area individually in separate entries so each can be absorbed equally.

First is the event ticket market, specifically music and comedy. Going to concerts & shows is something I have been doing for a long time now and at some point learned that if you are inline or online first when tickets go on sale you can get the best seats in the house. As everyone probably knows great seats sell often for as much as 3x what you pay, so I started buying extra tickets to the shows I wanted to go see and selling the extras to pay for my tickets to the show. After doing this for about 3 years I knew what bands sold out, what venues were the most popular and most importantly where I can sell my tickets (eBay & CL). Rap concerts never sell as good unless its Jay-Z, Snoop, Dre, all the big names do fine but they still do not sell out nearly as fast as rock shows. Seattle is one of many states (38) that ticket brokering is legal as long as you are not reselling the tickets on the venue property (Door scalping) and you must also pay your taxes.

Rather then talk about the ethics of this market I want to focus on feeding my family while enjoying life. To do that I will focus on the details to make it possible. You need the following, high speed internet, not an iPhone or DSL, you need Cable or above. I don't even use my wireless network at home because you will loose the necessary band width needed. Stay wired. I even pay the extra $10 a month to get the juice boost from Comcast. Next you need to know the pre-sale password. You will always get the best seats through fan club pre-sales or other pre-sales like it. This password, 9 times out of 10, gets sent by email after you sign up for the artist fan club, promoting companies or venues. I have a few favorite venues and promoting companies that do me right every time. And the final ingredients are, be signed up to and logged into whoever is selling the tickets. For example get a Ticket Master account and be logged into that account. Also have a credit card on file to use. When its says tickets go on sale at 10am start refreshing your screen at 9:59:50 (Make sure your clock is right). Then type like hell and navigate your way to the pay screen. Speed counts. If you follow all these things correctly you will get good seats.

Once you have good seats do your research and find the market value. I do not like to sit on tickets so I undercut market value by 5% so they sell quick. You might have to adjust that number a few times until the market finds a balance. The best place to sell your tickets is Craigslist because there are no fees involved but that off sets itself by people being unreliable. Sometimes its just easier to pay eBay and Paypal to make things go smoothly. I once met a girl on CL that showed up with a check written to half of the amount. She claimed it was her only check. She was attractive so maybe she was thinking I would give them to her for half price. HELL NO BITCH I'm married and I need the money. I wanted to go getto on that ho and scratch her eyes out (click here),but kept my composure and had her cross out and rewrite the check. "Initials please" is what I said before she handed to me. The check looked like my 2 year old went to town on it. I took a risk and the check was good so I did not have to cancel the tickets (An option if you tell the seller you lost them). I did give her $10 off just because I did not want her to drive away. Anyways lesson learned, always go over the price with the buyer on the phone and in an e-mail so its clear.

This quick overview is not the end all be all of ticket brokering but it is a good place to start. My next entry will go over buying and selling products for profit.