Yesterday I had Shania Twain tickets for Philips Arena here in Atlanta. When I bought the tickets months ago I thought, this being her so-called farewell tour, that it would be a giant ticket. Boy was I wrong.
The show never sold-out and I had to go on the street with my last 6 tickets that I paid TicketMaster just under $158 a ticket. It was not pretty, I lost hundreds of dollars on this show, it happens, but I did have one fun moment.
It was a 7.30pm show and I decided I would leave as soon as I had sold all my tickets or at 9.30pm if they did not all sell. At about 9.10pm, I had three tickets left and up comes three guys looking for tickets. Unfortunately they were only there to meet girls and only wanted to spend $20 per ticket.
One guy ended up getting a free ticket from three girls coming up that had an extra ticket. It was a woman with her daughter and a friend of the daughter. Mom was probably 55 and the other two were probably in their early 30’s. It was funny watching the guy convince them to give him the ticket as the women were definitely more interested in the guys than the guys were in them. I especially enjoyed watching the one girl put on a show of shaking out her hair and putting her hairband back on, leaning over and showing off her lovely cleavage, horny women are always fun.
I was not going to take $20 per ticket as you simply never know when you may get lucky with a late big spender. It happens, some of my all-time best deals have been really really late ones especially after the box office has closed. Deals such as I just paid someone $5 per ticket for their seemingly worthless tickets and then Mr Late Drunk Big Spender gives me $250 per ticket as I am the only option. In this case, I was the only option for tickets as the box office had just closed and all the other scalpers had left.
At 9.30pm I walked off telling the guys to have a good night. At this point my only hope was that I randomly got lucky walking home or that the guys would play my bluff and spend some more money. I did not get lucky with anyone showing up late as I headed home but two of the guys chased me down, I was literally about half the way home, a ten minute walk, when they came running up, yelling for me to hold up.
At this time I knew I was going to take their money, it was just a matter of how much I would get from them. They were actually nice charming guys that had graduated from the University of Kentucky and not the usual jerks looking for a deal. Sure, they did the, but what else are you going to do with them dance, but they were not assholes about it. Usually people for some unknown reason will also insult you as they try and buy your tickets for next to nothing but these guys were cool and kept pointing out that they totally understood me trying to get my money back.
After chatting about UK and UNC basketball for a bit, I finally made my move, OK guys, my bottom line and only because you have been nice about all of this, is $50 a ticket. They tried to stick to their guns but one guy finally cracked and offered $30 per ticket. His friend lost it on him but finally said fine, $30 per ticket. I said no and started to walk away, I then stopped, turned around, and said, fuck it guys lets split the difference, $40 per ticket and only because I have enjoyed our conversation, take it or leave it.
It was pretty funny, the one guy was, no way, no way, we have missed half the show and we are only going in to meet girls and we promised each other we would only spend $20 per ticket but the other guy said, fine, and reached for his wallet. After a minute or two of the one guy saying no way, no way, and telling his friend he was crazy, he finally pulled out the money.
After paying me this same guy just started laughing, shaking his head and excitedly telling me, you would have taken the $60, you did not care about the money, you you would have taken the $60, you just wanted to win, I get this, you just wanted to win.
Yes, at that point, it was simply all about the hustle, having fun, winning a tiny little battle over the price of a couple of tickets. I gave them all three tickets in case they wanted to sit with their buddy and then went home. Sure, I won, I got $80 instead of $60 or $40 but it was not much of a win, I lost almost $400 on those three tickets. Such is the life of a ticket scalper.
The Consummate Loner 