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Hamilton Las Vegas – Huge Wins & Big Losses
Ticket reselling can be lucrative, but it can also be very stressful. In the past we have shared some of our successes and failures when it comes to hawking tickets. Sometimes a lot of work and research can go into getting the perfect tickets to resell and sometimes external factors kill your opportunity no matter how much work you have done. Then, sometimes you just get lucky.
Hamilton has been a show that has made a lot of people money. Reselling Hamilton tickets has been very lucrative, but the show has been around a few years and has also been making it to more and more cities. Still, there is some opportunity. Enter Hamilton Las Vegas.
Buying Season Tickets
About a year ago I made a calculated move. I could purchase season tickets to The Smith Center’s Broadway in Las Vegas Series for a decent price. By the time I came up with this plan only balcony (bad) seats were left, but I still took the plunge. I purchased 4 balcony seats for 7 shows (including Hamilton) for a total cost of $1,010 or $252.50 per seat.
Selling the Season Tickets
Over the course of the year, we used the tickets a couple of times, sold some of them for a modest profit and sold others for a small loss. The key takeaway is that if the Hamilton tickets didn’t sell well, then I would be out some money. This was a risk too, since my seats were towards the back of the balcony. Nosebleed to say the least. Here is what the view looked like when we saw Rent.
Hamilton on Sale
One interesting thing about the way they did ticketing for Hamilton is the timing. Season ticket holders got their tickets late last year, while the tickets didn’t go on sale to the general public until April.
This meant:
- The only people who had tickets to sell early were season ticket holders
- These people were more likely to want to use their tickets to see this hot show
- Only tickets for the first week of shows (season ticket shows) were available
- Very few tickets were for sale on Stubhub because most people were using them
In fact, for my Sunday evening performance, there were only a few sets of tickets. Some people wanted $1,200 for their Orchestra level seats and then there was me. I struggled with where to price, but ultimately decided on $499. And then the tickets sat…..and sat…..
After awhile I lowered my price to $479.89 and then in February, I got this amazing email!
How exciting! Those two tickets almost paid for the entire season ticket package. But I still had two more to sell. I immediately raised the price of my other two tickets to $550 and they sat for a couple of weeks. Since the public sale was coming up, I decided to drop back to $499.89 and boom! They sold quickly.
Counting the Profit
This turned out incredibly well. We got to see a couple of shows and just on the Hamilton tickets alone we made a $753.60 profit. We were in and out before the majority of the tickets were on sale to the public. And that turned out to be a very very very very good thing.
Hamilton Las Vegas Tanking
I remember the day when Hamilton Las Vegas tickets went on sale to the public. I saw the prices and decided to stay away from buying them. It didn’t matter anyway since the ticket website was slammed and I saw a number of friends/family complaining about not being able to get tickets. Demand seemed to be through the roof. Indeed there was a lot of demand, but not apparently from people going to see the show.
The past couple of weeks I have been tracking Hamilton Las Vegas prices since I wanted to take some of that profit and see the show in much better seats than I sold. First, there is a TON of inventory. Second, prices are terrible. For example, seats better than the ones I sold in the balcony section are commonly selling for $80-100.
The cheapest seat I have seen is $44. This seat is 4 rows in front of the ones I sold! Ouch!
Upgrading My Seats
Since Hamilton Las Vegas runs for four weeks, I have been trying to decide when to buy tickets. I don’t have a great desire to sit in the balcony, but I don’t want to spend too much either. I have seen back Orchestra seats drop to about $200 including fees, but I decided to wait.
Then, last night some front row Box Tier seats opened up for $94 each. After fees and using an Amex Offer, my final cost was $113 per ticket. (Stubhub fees are no joke!) These boxes are fairly close to the stage and since we are in the front, we should have a decent view. Not as good as being Front Orchestra, but better than even Rear Orchestra in my opinion. And what a price! (I believe what I paid is significantly less than face value.)
Conclusion
Sometimes you just get lucky. This is one of those cases where timing was everything. In the end, I made about $500, upgraded my Hamilton seats and saw a couple of other shows. I’ll put this one in the win column, but I suspect for the vast majority of ticket resellers, it was a loser.
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I am personally against scalping, but not why I’m commenting. I saw this show last Thursday on Broadway. My husband and I left scratching our heads as to all the hype. it was ok, but we only paid box-office price and even that seemed too much for this show. Highly overrated in my opinion.
It is all about supply and demand.Smart people buy tickets early in tune with their plans.All retailers are scalpers in that sense.What is the demand for the supply…..its that simple…All retailers and resellers…shops …etc…turn a profit…I think that is awesome…I have made a bit and lost often on concerts Where I have sold my personal tickets.I Had front row off center tickets to Van Halen 2 1/2 years ago. Bought for 450..Sold for 450….Go figure?
It may be legal, and you can call it whatever helps you sleep at night, but in the end you’re still a scalper. Someone who sells tickets above face value is, by definition, a scalper. You avoided the question so I’ll ask it again – what if we all just stopped trying to rip each other off?
As with any other discretionary purchase, The market sets the price. The secondary market buyer is not part of a captive audience, they are free to determine the intrinsic value of tickets and purchase them for that subjective amount in $$$. I recently purchased a single $500 ticket to a concert on stubhub and since I decided that seeing Alanis Morissette from the fifth row at Palms was well worth $500 to me, it would be really hard to call that type of purchase a rip off. Where do you draw the line? $500, $40”, face value? Many people think concert tickets are overpriced in the first place, then you have surcharges and fees. It’s a very slippery slope. I’m thankful for the opportunity to purchase tickets on the secondary market, back in the day you’d have to sit on the phone and redial Ticketmaster for an hour until you got through. Then they’d tell you the tickets were sold out, now at least we have the option.
So you’re a scalper, Shawn? Bravo. What if people just stopped trying to rip each other off?
I’m a season ticket holder who sold his tickets. Something that is completely allowed and within the rules at this venue. In fact they have a deal with Stubhub that most show tickets can be linked and sold from your account directly.
[…] How I KILLED It Selling Hamilton Las Vegas Tickets While Most Got Slaughtered! by Miles to Memories. I get stressed out just reading about ticket reselling. […]
[…] How I KILLED It Selling Hamilton Las Vegas Tickets While Most Got Slaughtered! by Miles to Memories. I get stressed out just reading about ticket reselling. […]
Shawn: You said, “After fees and using an Amex Offer, my final cost was $113 per ticket. (Stubhub fees are no joke!).” Are you saying you used an Amex Offer in conjunction with a purchase from StubHub? If so which offer are you referring to? I ask because I use StubHub on a daily basis – usually as a seller but occasionally as a buyer – but I’m not familiar with any Amex Offers that is/were applicable to StubHub.
Just Google it, there have been multiple Amex Offers for StubHub in the past.
I think think is one for $15 off of $75 right now if I am not mistaken
That’s correct. It is highly targeted, but I had it on a few personal cards.
Hamilton played last April in St. Louis at the nearby Fox Theartre. Hamilton and a few other shows were part of US Bank Broadway Series. I did think about purchasing series tickets, except nothing was close to the stage. My guess is that the regulars get early access. Also there was a no trade policy on a Hamilton ticket.
Even before the road show, NYC Hamilton ticket prices was raised. The reason was to provide more free tickets for disadvantage NYC public high school students.
Well done. I’m happy for you that you were able to see some great shows. And made some extra spending $$ too. We love seeing the shows at Pantages Theatre in LA.
Awesome
For the run of “Hamilton” in Charlotte, NC, they didn’t mess around with profiteers like this: the venue would “buy tickets listed on resell sites, void that sale in their system, contact the credit card company to report the ticket was ill gotten and has no value, then made that ticket available to the public.”
IS that legal???
If they have it in their terms and they refund the money then I do believe they have that right.
I’ve never heard of anything like that, so I found it crazy.
“profit off of scare supply for entertainment events?” What is wrong with that? it’s entertainment events… if some stupid people are dying to throw away money at a pair of tickets to a show, so be it. It’s not like hogging an essential medical supply and profit of of poor dying people. No one forced these people to pay $500 for these tickets.
I would hope there is better way to earn a dollar than profit off of scare supply for entertainment events? Time to unfollow this blog if this is what it stands for. I don’t want to contribute to your google ad revenue anymore.
Hey Don. Sad to see you go. We publish 5-7 posts a day showing readers how to travel, earn miles & points, save money, maximize rewards and yes resell and earn a profit. I think if you have read the site for awhile you certainly have learned a lot of valuable information.
Seriously? This is basic supply and demand. If Shawn didn’t buy them, someone else would. Stories like this are why a lot of us read Boarding Area blogs.
You know what would be really cool? If 10% of your profits went to the performers or the backstage crew.
Will they cover 10% if he loses money? He took the risk.
Why would he give money from reselling to cast/crew? They get paid from the original ticket sales.
Kudos!!! I think the timing certainly helped you as well. Ever since bluebird and redbird went away, I’ve mainly fulfilled my cc min requirements through ticket reselling and have been successful.