Bonnaroo!
I opened internet explorer this morning and saw the new funky google logo. What's up with that? Those crazy folks at gooogle must be high.
Bonnaroo(www.bonnaroo.com) starts tomorrow. My good friend and sometimes ticket hustling partner, Uncle Mike, will make the journey with his girl Angie. They will travel in Mike's old Toyota van and camp in the baking sun for three days to witness some of the best music being made on earth. Looks like the weather will be hot, muggy, with lots of thunder storms. Back when Bonnaroo started in 2002 we were one of the only brokers in the country that new what it was or that it may be a good ticket. We bought up as many of the tickets as we could get and made an enormous mark up and they sold like wild fire. In 2002 we were practically the only game in town so we set the price and got what we wanted out of them. Hell, I went out and bought two new lap tops with some of the profits from that Bonnaroo. In 2003 we bought as many as we could get and even more than in 2002, they sold like wild fire and we did quite well with them, but not as well as 2002. You might ask, now why was that? The band list was good and it was sold out so why did we get less? The answer is simple, but all of you anti-scalper/broker folks are not going to like it. The reason we did not do is well is because there was no more mystery about the event, the word was out that Bonnaroo was a ticket to buy and make fabulous profits with. Instead of 2-3 brokers making a market in Bonnaroo tickets like we had in 2002, we probably had thirty brokers making markets in Bonnaroo tickets in 2003. With all the extra brokers and all the extra inventory you had all the more competition. Now I know competition is either a word that the anti-scalper/broker people can not understand or maybe they just shy away from competition, but competition brings prices down. What I am saying is, we were not able to get as much for the tickets because there were more brokers to compete with offering lower priced tickets. As the story goes, we sold more tickets for bonnaroo in 2003 than in 2002 but we actually made less money. When the 2004 Bonnaroo was announced I decided to take a different approach. I decided that while the band list was better than ever, with the exception of my beloved Widespread Panic(www.widespreadpanic.com) not playing because they were on haitus, I thought that the shine had worn off and that people just would not be as excited about the event that year. In 2004 we bought no Bonnaroo tickets up front, instead we short sold it into oblivion and did quite well with it. The end result of 2004 was that the market tanked and we were buying the tickets at less than face value. We sold less tickets than in 2002 and 2003 but we made a greater margin. The interesting thing about 2004 was that while the market was a total bomb for the most part, it actually heated up in the last week and we saw prices go up well above face at which point we had already covered all of our orders and were going the other way. Now here we are at 2005, the fourth annual Bonnaroo Festival. This years band list is the best ever with Panic playing two nights, Trey Anastasio Band, Drive By Truckers, The Gourds, Jack Johnson, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Old 97's, John Prine, etc. etc.. We decided to buy no tickets up front and short sell the event again, and we sold ZERO general admission tickets and about ten VIP tickets. We did quite well with the VIP tickets, but it was a small amount. We tried to sell the general admission tickets but to this date the event is still not sold out so we had to compete against the box office. If we would have been willing to be a little more aggressive with our price we probably could have sold some and covered profitably. A nice trade would have been to undercut the box office and sell at $170, $5 below face, and then turn and cover them all on ebay this week at prices between $75-$125 making a nice profit. My wife and I used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country in our younger days, I grew up with Widespread Panic having attended an SEC school, and of course we have seen Phish and Trey Band many times also. In many ways I envy those of you who are about to embark on your long strange trip. I guess I am just too old for that shit anymore. When you have two kids and your own business it sort of gets in the way of totally cutting loose and having fun. To quote AC DC, "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You!"
Until Tomorrow - Adios
Bonnaroo(www.bonnaroo.com) starts tomorrow. My good friend and sometimes ticket hustling partner, Uncle Mike, will make the journey with his girl Angie. They will travel in Mike's old Toyota van and camp in the baking sun for three days to witness some of the best music being made on earth. Looks like the weather will be hot, muggy, with lots of thunder storms. Back when Bonnaroo started in 2002 we were one of the only brokers in the country that new what it was or that it may be a good ticket. We bought up as many of the tickets as we could get and made an enormous mark up and they sold like wild fire. In 2002 we were practically the only game in town so we set the price and got what we wanted out of them. Hell, I went out and bought two new lap tops with some of the profits from that Bonnaroo. In 2003 we bought as many as we could get and even more than in 2002, they sold like wild fire and we did quite well with them, but not as well as 2002. You might ask, now why was that? The band list was good and it was sold out so why did we get less? The answer is simple, but all of you anti-scalper/broker folks are not going to like it. The reason we did not do is well is because there was no more mystery about the event, the word was out that Bonnaroo was a ticket to buy and make fabulous profits with. Instead of 2-3 brokers making a market in Bonnaroo tickets like we had in 2002, we probably had thirty brokers making markets in Bonnaroo tickets in 2003. With all the extra brokers and all the extra inventory you had all the more competition. Now I know competition is either a word that the anti-scalper/broker people can not understand or maybe they just shy away from competition, but competition brings prices down. What I am saying is, we were not able to get as much for the tickets because there were more brokers to compete with offering lower priced tickets. As the story goes, we sold more tickets for bonnaroo in 2003 than in 2002 but we actually made less money. When the 2004 Bonnaroo was announced I decided to take a different approach. I decided that while the band list was better than ever, with the exception of my beloved Widespread Panic(www.widespreadpanic.com) not playing because they were on haitus, I thought that the shine had worn off and that people just would not be as excited about the event that year. In 2004 we bought no Bonnaroo tickets up front, instead we short sold it into oblivion and did quite well with it. The end result of 2004 was that the market tanked and we were buying the tickets at less than face value. We sold less tickets than in 2002 and 2003 but we made a greater margin. The interesting thing about 2004 was that while the market was a total bomb for the most part, it actually heated up in the last week and we saw prices go up well above face at which point we had already covered all of our orders and were going the other way. Now here we are at 2005, the fourth annual Bonnaroo Festival. This years band list is the best ever with Panic playing two nights, Trey Anastasio Band, Drive By Truckers, The Gourds, Jack Johnson, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Old 97's, John Prine, etc. etc.. We decided to buy no tickets up front and short sell the event again, and we sold ZERO general admission tickets and about ten VIP tickets. We did quite well with the VIP tickets, but it was a small amount. We tried to sell the general admission tickets but to this date the event is still not sold out so we had to compete against the box office. If we would have been willing to be a little more aggressive with our price we probably could have sold some and covered profitably. A nice trade would have been to undercut the box office and sell at $170, $5 below face, and then turn and cover them all on ebay this week at prices between $75-$125 making a nice profit. My wife and I used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country in our younger days, I grew up with Widespread Panic having attended an SEC school, and of course we have seen Phish and Trey Band many times also. In many ways I envy those of you who are about to embark on your long strange trip. I guess I am just too old for that shit anymore. When you have two kids and your own business it sort of gets in the way of totally cutting loose and having fun. To quote AC DC, "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You!"
Until Tomorrow - Adios
posted by www.alphatickets.com at 9:30 AM
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