OK, fess up. How many Yankee ticket holders were pressured into buying plans they didn't want and took a blood bath in the after market when selling their tickets?
Took a substantial loss
Took a small loss
Broke even
Made a small profit
Made a large profit
OK, fess up. How many Yankee ticket holders were pressured into buying plans they didn't want and took a blood bath in the after market when selling their tickets?
I have two sets of season tickets, Main Outfield and Jim Beam Suite. Fortunately, the Main Outfield gains made up for the Jim Beam losses. I came out a few hundred bucks ahead for the season on the games I sold. My mistake was to buy some extra tickets for a couple of premium games in premium locations that wiped out those gains so I finished just about exactly even for the regular season.
I can't complain but sometimes I still do. - Joe Walsh
I have a pair in 413, very low cost seats, sold some of the premium games for $50-$100 each, not bad for $20/tiks. Sold a couple other non-premiums for face or even just under. We upgraded a few times buying main or field level seats on SH a few hours before the game. Best deal we bought was sect 121 for $85 back in May and had 218 for $65 back in August for Saturday games, bath for the seller, but good for me.
made my money back but not like in the past, last year selling the ASG was a goldmine.
I only sold seats to people I know, co-workers and friends. I sold seats at face to about 35-40 games that I could not attend. I did not have to eat seats to one game.
As a matter of fact, for some games I bought the seats next to me, or behind me, as my friends needed more than 2 seats for some games. So not only did I not lose money, but I helped others not lose money as well.
I have already begun selling seats for 2010, thanks to the early release of the Yankees schedule. I will either keep my seats, or move in towards 3b, but everyone loved my seats this year, and trusts my seats will be as good or better next year.
I was in section 131. Hoping for 129.
I destroyed the market this year with my bleachers for 5 bucks a game! no complaints for obst view but my seats are close to aisle on right field side
made about 4,000 reg season and post season for sellind alds 1 and 2
with alcs 1 and 2 is 875.00
I was presured into buying a 12 game weeknight plan that I didn't want only to be offered what I really wanted, a Sunday plan, 2 weeks later. The weeknights are in 419, the Sunday in 307. I only was able to use the last 3 games on the weeknight plan due to a work schedule change for me. I sold 7 of the first 9, two via StubHub at a profit, got stuck with the game against the Nats, and sold the rest to friends and family at face value. I was also able to sell some of the Sunday games at or above face to my 307 neighbors or SH, while missing 2 games out there due to some last second issues.
I did not get into the two plans to be a ticket broker but I made out okay. Probably broke even, maybe made a small profit.
Whats wrong with making money and going to games i dont understand? The yankees are the biggest scalpers with 538-1500 legend seats
not to mention 300-481.00 prices for field level with out food!
Thank goodness I didn't fall for the Yankee's pressure. I turned down my initial 15 Game Saturday Plan allocated seats and was offered 3 choices in the Pool, one which I accepted.
How many of you bought a Full Season Plan thinking that you wouldn't get a Partial Plan of your choice?
I did break even on the games I didn't attend but it wasn't worth the hassle of being a ticket broker.
I only bought a full season because I was told by my rep that I had 0% chance of getting my weekend plans. I was offered everything from 2nd Row Behind Home Plate Legends to Terrace (Grandstand and Bleachers were sold out). In the end, I decided that Main Outfield was my best financial choice for location. Only $5 more expensive than Terrace and I'm significantly closer to the field, and within home run territory? Why not?Originally Posted by Jeter_the_Leader
But I'll also admit that these aren't exactly the seats I wanted, and tremendously more games than I could afford and go too, so I looked to sell any that I could. I looked to make as much of a profit as I could from any games that I could to help lower the cost of the games I did want to go too. In the end, I ended up making a substantial profit, allowing me to go to all the games I wanted to go too, as well as upgrade my seats from Main Level to Field Box. This year, I probably attended ~20-30 games at Yankee Stadium, and only sat in my seats 3x. And I had no difficulty selling the tickets. I only ate 1 game, and only had 10 other games sell below face value.
If someone wants to get into the ethics of this, feel free to PM me for a further conversation.
I don't want to get into that, but I will add that no one that I've ever encountered has had any qualms about offering me less than face value for a ticket but people sometimes do get teed off about paying over face value.
I've offered tickets for sale, generally for less than the prices on StubHub, eBay or other commercial ticket sites and people will ask what I paid for them. It really doesn't matter what I paid, it is what YOU want to pay for the opportunity to attend a game. I will eat a ticket before I'll accept a ludicrous offer.
Question for all those who bought tickets because they felt 'pressured' to do so. After seeing what the market was like this year, do you plan on buying a full season package next year if you only plan on attending a handful of games?
I would. I generally make it to 15-20 games. I could see myself making it to 25-30 next year with a full season. There was enough interest from friends, family, and co-workers that I shouldn't have to list on StubHub too often. If I can convert my seats in 419 from a 12-game to a full season, I'd sign up today. My Sunday seats in 307 SUCKED and I wouldn't renew them for anything.
I bumped up from a partial plan to the full season a few years ago anticipating that in the move to the new stadium I might get screwed, and also because they took away our postseason games guarantee on the plan I was on and the "pre-sale" thing was such a disaster.
I have upper deck behind home plate, section 421. I took a small loss on this year's tickets. I did most of my reselling through Stubhub which meant in April and May and even June when the weather was horrible the seats went unused many many times. Made up for that almost entirely with selling the hot Saturdays and Sundays in auctions on Stubhub where people bid them up to pretty high prices. There won't be auctions oN SH next year though (they're discontinuing the option) so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
I would have lost about $2000 last year except with the All Star Game and selling my tickets to the last game ever at OYS, I made up the difference, but didn't make a profit.
Ultimately I look at the loss each year as my "postseason guarantee tax."
Author of FIFTY GREATEST YANKEE GAMES
Editor of the Maple Street Press YANKEES ANNUAL
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A lot it is just knowing the market.
I had a Sunday plan at the old stadium and wanted a Saturday plan. They offered me a 12 game weekday plan. I knew that those games don't sell well. So I sold some games at face to friends. I also bought some premium games in the regular season presale. Sold them for well above face value and it subsidized my plan.
Honestly, I think I would have made money if I had a 41game or full season plan. You could go to 1 Boston and 1 mets game each time they play them. Sell the others. Sell weekend games at a premium.
Keep 1 playoff game per round and sell the others. You can make back money. For the LCS and WS, you can even keep 1 game and keep game 7. Sell the other 2.
Being that you know where your seats are, you can sell tickets well in advance and make really good money.
Not every game will get back face value. As a whole, someone shouldn't lose money. Games where you know you'd lose money on Stubhub like April, May, and Sept games...sell to friends, family or co workers at face value or a little less than face value.
I'm tempted to try and upgrade to 41 games next year, but it's a lot of money up front. Thus, I'll take a Saturday or Sunday plan if I can get it.
The season sales felt bad, but I surprisingly made a slight profit.
I checked off "took a substantial loss" and I was wrong. I just went through all my ticket records, and I surprisingly had a small profit that allowed me to have almost a 3 game profit. Even with the Red Sox coming to town in September, September was easily my worst month. Had a slight loss in April. Barely made anything in May. June, July August is where I made a few $$$. Won't make much money on the playoffs because I am enjoying going to the games. And frankly, the market, at least for ALCS game 2, was severely depressed. Hope it does not go to game 6, but if it does, family/friends will enjoy going because no way am I competing with about 10,00 tix for sale.
formerly busyspaetzel
I was offered section 409 last row sunday plan, they upgraded me to section 103 41-plan. The games I couldnt attend, I sold for about 75 cents on the dollar except the premium's were I did ok. But yesterday I am at the game sitting next to a guy who bought two seats to the game for 60.00 each on SH, face value is triple. I'm tempted to not renew and buy the ones I want on SH next year since its not the inaugural year, I might even get them for half price if I wait till the day of the game.
Unless the Yankees play the Mets or the Red Sox in the post season I dont see how I wont lose money if I sell a game or two on SH, but it did feel nice to give a game or two away.
The secret is to sell early. Also, location matters. Having the first 3 rows is definately better than having the last 3 rows. Same price for most parts of the stadium (not field box), but people are willing to pay more to be closer, even if it's only by rows and not section. To sell early, just undercut everyone else. I'm talking the entire section (Grandstand Infield, Legends, Main Outfield, etc), and not just your own particular section. Yes, if you know the market, you can raise the price depending upon where your exact location is, but this requires a little more knowledge.
As I'm one of the people who's been pressured into buying a full season which I couldn't afford, making a profit was the only advisable choice. Remember, you purchase in January, and at best you don't get any money from StubHub until March. That's 3 months of interest added onto your several thousand dollar investment. Also, as doing such, I've monitored StubHub prices very closely throughout the year, and monitored the sections.
If you undercut everyone else, and sell early, you can't fail to make a profit. Forget holding off games you really want to attend. Sell everything, and depending upon how much money you get, be patient and purchase those games separately later. If you do everything right, you can even upgrade your section.
Remember, even though many people hold off until the last second, and many other people are learning to do so, there are always people who will purchase tickets. There wasn't one section type (Main, Field, etc, not the individual sections), which lacked at least one purchase per day. If you have the lowest price in that section, you're almost guaranteed to be the ticket purchased. And prices tend to be higher earlier on before more people are able to get tickets, such as partial planners, individual tickets, etc.
IE: I had Main Outfield. Total Cost: ~$7300 for 2 tickets. As of January 21, undercutting EVERYONE on StubHub for every game by $1 grossed $16458. After fees, that's around $13500 with a net profit of $6200. After taxes, you're still talking around $4000 profit. Remember, while you still are price gouging, you're the best deal on the market for people who can't wait or don't have friends and family to purchase tickets from. This is compared to Day of Game Sales from StubHub which for Main Outfield brought in a grand total of ~$4100 (this even includes Opening Day and Jeter's Record Breaker which are 2 of only 8 games the entire season which didn't have more than 5% of tickets under face value). That's a $12000 fair market value depreciation of possible sales over the season for $7300's worth of seats.
Also, the amount of money possible to make lowers percentage wise the better seats you get. The absolute highest percentage payout was Bleachers, while Field Box Dugout and Legends ended up actually still losing money on Stub Hub. I'm not saying that you can't make a profit with those seats, but you need a tad bit more knowledge on how to sell seats rather than just take a Walmart approach to sales.
[quote=BehindTimes]The secret is to sell early. Also, location matters. Having the first 3 rows is definately better than having the last 3 rows. Same price for most parts of the stadium (not field box), but people are willing to pay more to be closer, even if it's only by rows and not section. To sell early, just undercut everyone else. I'm talking the entire section (Grandstand Infield, Legends, Main Outfield, etc), and not just your own particular section. Yes, if you know the market, you can raise the price depending upon where your exact location is, but this requires a little more knowledge.
...
Thanks, i will try this next year.
how good do you think opportunities are in moving up in row location within particular sections are for the following year is?
Depends what section you're trying to move up too. Unfortunately, I don't think moving to anywhere in Grandstand or Bleachers will be realistic. They're the best seats for us regular folks.
Anywhere else though should be doable. You'll have to be careful though in the upgrade process as you'll most likely be offered Legends from Grandstand in the upgrade process rather than something more realistic in your budget.
And while a decent amount of people made profits, a huge amount of people lost money. Many of these people probably purchased from pressure, and some thought they could make profit, but didn't really have much business savy. Both these groups are significantly large imho, and I can see a large amount of people not renewing.
I only hope the people in front of me don't renew, but thanks
Does anyone really pay taxes on Stubhub profits?!
Absolutely yes. If you treat selling your Yankees tix as a business, and do most of it on StubHub, you better be paying taxes on your profits. StubHub records are just too darn detailed. They're great for the fan, and also great for the IRS. Sooner or later the IRS is going to obtain sales/customer info from StubHub, coordinate it with taxpayers' returns, and then the bills will go out.
formerly busyspaetzel
[quote=BehindTimes]The secret is to sell early. Also, location matters. ....
If you undercut everyone else, and sell early, you can't fail to make a profit. Forget holding off games you really want to attend. Sell everything, and depending upon how much money you get, be patient and purchase those games separately later. If you do everything right, you can even upgrade your section.
Remember, even though many people hold off until the last second, and many other people are learning to do so, there are always people who will purchase tickets. There wasn't one section type (Main, Field, etc, not the individual sections), which lacked at least one purchase per day. If you have the lowest price in that section, you're almost guaranteed to be the ticket purchased. And prices tend to be higher earlier on before more people are able to get tickets, such as partial planners, individual tickets, etc.
IE: I had Main Outfield. Total Cost: ~$7300 for 2 tickets. As of January 21, undercutting EVERYONE on StubHub for every game by $1 grossed $16458. After fees, that's around $13500 with a net profit of $6200. After taxes, you're still talking around $4000 profit. Remember, while you still are price gouging, you're the best deal on the market for people who can't wait or don't have friends and family to purchase tickets from. This is compared to Day of Game Sales from StubHub which for Main Outfield brought in a grand total of ~$4100 (this even includes Opening Day and Jeter's Record Breaker which are 2 of only 8 games the entire season which didn't have more than 5% of tickets under face value). That's a $12000 fair market value depreciation of possible sales over the season for $7300's worth of seats."
I am a little bewildered and simultaneously very impressed. Did you really sell your tix just after you paid the invoice, but before you had possession of them? Did you really sell most of them by Jan. 21, or is that just a theoretical profit? Looking for some guidance on timing of listing/selling in order to maximize profits like it was easy to do in 2008. Thanks.
formerly busyspaetzel
For someone doing this as a business its a no brainer to take obstructed view seats for $5
This is setting off the BS detector. This guy averaged 2x face for 81 games when there were maybe 10 games all season that were sellable for 2x face. And he sold mid-week Royals/Mariners/Orioles/etc. tickets in January? Extremely hard to believe.
Of course I didn't sell all my tickets on Jan. 21. That was just theoretical. But due to my financial situation, and also where I'd like to sit in the future, I kept very detailed records from StubHub. Some games I sold for higher than the lowest price in my section, but most games I admit I was the lowest price. I also have pretty awesome seats though in the right field Main Outfield, so that helped a lot.
You can't judge this year on 2008. It was practically impossible not to make a substantial fortune in 2008 if that was your goal. And with the economy the way it is, you have to play accordingly.
As yankeefan122 stated, it's about knowing your market. As a fan, where would you like to sit? As an economically depressed person, where can you afford to sit? As a gift or special occasion, where would you like to sit? Now, ask the same for timing. As a person who lives in NYC, when would you buy tickets? If you're coming from across the country, when would you buy tickets? Etc.
Unfortunately, yes, you will have to start selling tickets before you have them in hand. By the time you acquire the tickets, I was looking at probably only making $1000-$1200 in profit. Most people have this idea that for games you want, you should buy early, but after looking at this years numbers, that's definately not the case. Not saying that purchasing last minute is the best thing for the fan overall, as some real deals do appear every so often on StubHub if you're quick enough.
I never stated I made that much. I said that if you happened to sell all your tickets on that date, that's how much you could potentially make. I also never stated I sold all my tickets. I will admit though that I did make a profit.
*EDIT*
Also, not all tickets are sellable for 2x face value. I never stated that either. But certain games such as Opening Day and the Sox & Mets series really offset the balance. If you want to know the truth, I wanted to go to Opening Day, thus it was priced higher than what I posted a possible Game 7 World Series game to be worth. 13 hours before the game time, it did sell, forcing me to do last second ticket searching for Opening Day.
i am a little surprised this site allows folks to discuss scalping.
dumping tickets for face i understand. buying tickets to flip for profit is pretty shady, in my opinion..and no i don't need to PM anybody to voice an issue with it.
I think you give too much credit to selling early and too little credit to this statement. Even having seats a little off/too far back can kill you resale value.
Right but at the same time, what about all those tickets you sell below face? Do you get a refund? Obviously not. There are too many outlets through which you couldve made a profit or taken a loss. It's tough bringing it all together. I sure don't plan on declaring anything for this season.
I didn't treat my tickets as a business. I only sold what I couldn't use, but I did make a profit (less than $1000)
One persons treasure though is another persons trash. I personally dont care for seats upstairs or in the "outfield designated" seats.
Merely buying in that section does not guarantee that someone will make a killing so for those of you who may have read this and got a new business idea, let the buyer beware.
I had a midweek 12 game plan, those tickets were worth almost nothing on the open market. Most times I sold my $20 for around $8. Thankfully there were only a handful of games I couldn't make.
I even tried to give away tickets two times on the boards here and I never had any takers.
"Owning the Yankees is like owning the Mona Lisa." - George Steinbrenner
27!
Major League Baseball officially sanctions ticket reselling via StubHub. You don't think they expect that everyone will resell for a loss do you?
Actually, legalized "scalping" (if that's what you want to call it) helps the clubs sell tickets. They leave a little money on the table (presumably) in order to drive up demand for season ticket sales. Not many people attend 81 games per season. If not for the possibility of reselling some of those tickets for at least break-even if not a profit, who would buy them? Some would, of course, but many would not.
The clubs would rather have lots of season tickets sold versus not having them sold. Providing some incentive (theoretically underpricing them relative to "the market" for them) allows them to get them sold and in return for the opportunity to purchase "below market" tickets, the buyers assume the risk that they won't be able to resell them.
Whether you believe that every fan should always be entitled to a "face value" ticket or not, the present system works to the benefit of just about everyone involved. Sure, the fan who wants to go to one Yankees - Red Sox game per year will pay more, but then again, he doesn't have to invest any money up front for season tickets and he bears no risk. In addition, he pays only an amount that he finds acceptable.
Ram Man, I believe he's talking about scalping in regards to this site, and not the legal ramifications of it. This site states that selling tickets above face value is not allowed. As such, I respect their opinion, and do not list the majority of tickets on this site.
Having stated that, I can agree with him on the majority of his opinions, as I do share the opinion on scalping for the most part, but circumstances regarding ticket prices have placed me in a situation in which morality does not equate to necessity.
Still, I believe a civil discourse on topics, even topics which are viewed negatively by the community as a whole, can prove to be beneficial, if kept within a respectful tone. NYYFans.com, while they can moderate this site, can not moderate actions nor opinions outside of the site.
Areas to help others fans learn how to recoup losses, how to pay taxes, etc., are required for many of us, even if it may be frowned upon by the community. Should the moderators decide that such topics are inapporopriate, while I may disagree with the overall action, I will of course comply.
I don't know about Maryland but in NYS the resale of tickets for what ever the market will bear is legal. The only folks that are breaking the law are those that attempt to resell within 1500 feet of the venue (Yankee Stadium). Otherwise, not shady at all.
I made a nice profit on my tickets. One of my bleacher seats is considered obstructed by the Yankees, so I only have to pay $5 for 1 ticket. Great seats IMO with no major obstructions.
Well, I may have misunderstood the comment to which I responded. I understood it to be opposition for the resale of tickets above face value period, not necessarily the solicitation of such sales on this site.
Anyway, I don't think the topic itself is inappropriate. There are very few people who (1) have a season ticket package and (2) never need to get rid of some extra tickets. The discussion of how best to handle moving extra tickets is a good thing, IMO.
I am not in the "business" of selling tix, even if I do sell some. The usual disclaimer of check with your tax adviser, but you may be able to off set losses (selling below face value) against gains (selling above face value). Your net profit, your net income, is what you should be taxed on.
As for not reporting less than $1,000 in income, that's your decision and is totally between you, your book keeper/ accountant and the IRS.
formerly busyspaetzel
I could not sell a single game from my weekday plan in Sec. 209, but I really didn't try very hard. However, I have no intention of going back in for that plan next year. I had a Saturday plan previously and I could sell those tickets at a reasonable premium or at face within minutes - people would paypal me without even waiting for a response from a PM.
Negative. His cutter is not a human pitch, even he says he does not know why it moves like it does, says "God does it." I believe him.
I see JTL's market survey of ticket holders before buying continues
How much did you make on that game? If you don't mind me asking..
ASG wasn't the windfall people were expecting UNLESS you sold the game way ahead of time. Last minute sellers panicked and prices dumped. People also lost money on taco sunday and some even on the derby. I went to the games so I can't complain
Yeah, I went as well. I knew there would be a glut of tickets so I bought reasonably.ASG wasn't the windfall people were expecting UNLESS you sold the game way ahead of time. Last minute sellers panicked and prices dumped. People also lost money on taco sunday and some even on the derby. I went to the games so I can't complain
Negative. His cutter is not a human pitch, even he says he does not know why it moves like it does, says "God does it." I believe him.
I went as well taking a client to HR derby and my father to the ASG. The Softball game I sent my brother in law and my sister as those seats were unsellable,ASG wasn't the windfall people were expecting UNLESS you sold the game way ahead of time. Last minute sellers panicked and prices dumped. People also lost money on taco sunday and some even on the derby. I went to the games so I can't complain
Those who were selling all star game seats took a bath for the most part.
Im having trouble forwarding my tickets through email, does anyone know what # i should call
Season ticket Holder SECTION 418 ROW 5..SABATHIA IS MONEY!
If that is all you made, you could probably figure out expenses related to your "business" (losses on tickets, fees, computer, software, printer, Blackberry, food and transportation for game you did attend to visit the seats, office supplies, stamps, etc) and probably turn it into a tiny profit or even a loss, depending on what you want to show on your taxes.
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