Adventures in concert ticket reselling for points (NOT for me, this is terrible!)

Ugh. I have a huge pit in my stomach. Inspired by hopes of quick points and miles, I went all-in on tickets for the upcoming Travis Scott tour. Like, alllll in.

I bought blocks of them, thinking I’d resell at face value right away. Well, they’re not moving and I can’t tell whether I’m in over my head, not the right type for this, or profoundly irresponsible (especially in light of my ongoing FIRE journey). Or just way too impatient.

Come on Travis, do your thing

I bought the tickets last week and the tour begins next month (October 11 in Charlotte). My first show tickets are for October 20 in Kansas City.

Since I bought them, all I’ve been doing in my spare time is refreshing the seat maps. I’m already thinking: Do I have to take a loss? Why did I do this? How else can I offload these things? 

There are all sorts of ways to earn extra miles and points. For this one, I jumped in feet first wayyy too soon.

Travis Scott ticket reselling

I have all these theories about how this tour and ticket reselling opportunity appealed to me psychologically.

I’m recovering from trauma, and that can manifest in all sorts of ways, including extremely irresponsible behavior.

And yet—I really thought this would be a quick way to buy tickets, let the tour sell out, and earn easy points.

It hasn’t even been a week and I am not keeping my cool at all. In fact, I’m going rather mad about the whole thing. What a fine mess I’ve made—and alllll that means about where I am in life.

If you’ve ever wanted a schadenfreude experience from me, this might be the one.

Thanks.

I can’t tell if I’m having shame or guilt about this. Or if I’m just spinning my wheels having all these Big Feelings and should take a chill pill and relax. I guess I’m not the “relaxing” type.

How I thought it would go

There’s also some expectation vs reality going on. I thought:

The tour would sell out in a dayI’d list the tickets for saleAnd resell them the next dayViola!

Instead:

The tickets are sitting thereI’ve priced them as low as I can to recoup what I spent (face value and nothing more)Am already thinking about taking losses, why did I do this, etc.I will absolutely never do this again

The other surprising thing to me is how hard I went with this. For maybe the first time in my life, not even kidding, I felt possessed and out-of-control as I was doing this. I just kept buying them. Like, yup, OK, buy buy buy.

I was thinking about earning points and making a few quick bucks.

How it’s actually going

I am like, tortured over all of this. Like how was I planning to float the cost when I have so little experience in this arena (pun intended)?

Plus, tbh, I really don’t know anything about Travis Scott except that I wanted his tour to be a juggernaut a la Taylor Swift or Beyonce earlier this year.

I’m refreshing my listings, hoping to get an email that someone bought them and that I can pay it all back and move on.

Also experiencing a lot of “omg why did I do this?” which doesn’t feel helpful or productive in case that isn’t already clear.

Takeaways so far

Let’s say the tour sells out and I resell the tickets and make it all back and life goes on. That would be my best-case scenario.

Even with that, waiting for these tickets to sell is actually painful. It has an element of gambling and “wait and see” that I don’t find exciting. I have quickly discovered this avenue is not for me.

The worst-case scenario is that the tickets don’t sell, or I sell with a huge loss. In that case, I’d be kicking myself over this for a long time.

Either way, I am learning a huge lesson and won’t soon touch this method again soon, if ever.

My plan

I have the tickets listed on Ticketmaster, Stub Hub, and Cash or Trade. Even if I could wait and realize profits later, I’d rather sell at face value and move on. The waiting is terrible for me.

I’m trying to be as calm as possible, and also fast discovering that’s not easy for me to do.

For now, I’m going to sit and wait. Then, a week or two before the shows, I’ll see where prices are and drop them as low as I have to go just to make anything back.

Typed out like that, it sounds like a terrible plan. Ugh. What tf was I thinking?

Ticket reselling bottom line

This ticket reselling has been the ultimate “hot oven” moment for me. I have touched it and quickly learned.

I’m also thinking I’m a scalper, I deserve this, it’s people like me that ruin the system, what did I actually expect with next to no experience?

Allll that. I have genuinely resold tickets before when plans had to change, but in those times I was prepared to lose cash and pleased when they sold. The wait was nothing. This time, the stakes feel so much higher.  I found out what my limit was—real fast.

Also, I will absolutely never touch this particular oven ever again.

Have you ever had an experience like this? Like you thought you could handle something (for the points or whatever), but then it just felt so totally not good? Uggggh. I feel like I really effed up this time.

Soooo… if anyone out there wants a block of Travis Scott tickets, get at me. All I want is face value and to never be in this situation again.

It has kicked up some really profound feelings of distress that signal I still have a lot of healing to do, and also that the process is starting. For that, I’m grateful. Now, get these tickets outta here!

OUT AND OUT - Out for points. Out for money.