If you are ever in a situation where you’ve sold the tickets but it’s too late to ship them or it is really close to the event and your buyer tells you the tickets were lost in the mail, there is a solution!

This can be fixed by phoning Ticketmaster and telling them you haven’t received your tickets (note: don’t try this until 48 hours before the event.)

Tell the Ticketmaster rep that you haven’t received your tickets and they were a gift for a friend/family member/co-worker etc. 99% of the time Ticketmaster will place the tickets at the will call box office to picked up the day of the show. From there, you need to specify that since these were a gift, you won’t be attending the show since you don’t live in the area.

Kindly ask for an alternative pickup name and give them the buyer’s name.

Talk to the rep and find out exactly what the buyer will need to pick up their tickets on the day of the show. Usually it’s the following:

1) Valid ID

2) The Ticketmaster confirmation number

3) Credit card number used to purchase the tickets

For #3 you can either fax a copy of the credit card used or take a picture of it and email it to your buyer so they can print it off and bring it. (MAKE SURE YOU SCRATCH OUT ALL BUT THE LAST 4 DIGITS, THIS IS ALL THEY WILL NEED!)

   

Presales are great ways to gain access to tickets before the general public, but in order to have access to them, you’ll need a password.

I will cover each presale more in depthly in the coming articles, but for now here is a summary of them:

There are 8 main types of presale passwords. Most of which can be found if you do a little digging, so I am going to explain all of them and where they can be found…

Venue: Venue presale passwords are put out by the venue hosting the event. You have to go to their website and sign up for their mailing list to receive the password.

Radio: Same thing as venue passwords. You have to go to the radio station’s website and sign up for their mailing to list to receive the password. It’s to your advantage to sign up for as many of these as you can. Radio stations will always announce concerts ahead of time so it’s good to stay informed and check your email!

American Express: For Amex presales you must actually have an American Express card. You can get away with using the generic password “ingold” or the customer service phone number on the back of your card “8002973333“ for the Gold presales, but for it to work, you actually have to buy tickets with an Amex card. Definitely sign up for one of these as every ticket broker needs one! You can sign up here: Sign up for an American Express card. Or check out a list of current Amex presales here: Events in Canada / Events in the USA

Citi: For Citi presales you can usually get away with using the last 4 digits of your card number “542418“ and purchase tickets with any credit card. Occasionally they have been known to cancel orders if you don’t use a Citi card though. Even if you don’t want to sign up for their credit card, just visit a Citibank location and open up a checking account. You can still use the number on your debit card to access the presale. Check out the current list of Citi presales.

Nokia Ticket Rush: LiveNation/ Nokia Ticket Rush usually have a lot of presales for popular bands. The password will be the same for a month then they change it. You can find a list of presales and the current website at this site: Nokia Ticket Rush.

Fan Club/ Season Ticket Holder: These presale codes are often unique and you either have to buy a fan-club membership or be a season ticket holder to have access to them. You can usually find these unique passwords on Ebay anywhere from $10-$100+. So if you aren’t a member, either become one or prepare to pay second-hand for these passwords if they are available.

Ticketmaster Promo: Sometimes Ticketmaster will put on presales/discount offers. The presale password (for now anyway) will always be “tmdeal”. You can view a list of current offers at this site: TM Ticket Deals.

Miscellaneous: Too many random presales to list here, but sometimes the promoter will put on a presale, or any organization associated with the event. You basically have to keep your eyes open for these and sign up for their mailing lists to get the passwords.

   

Have you ever wondered why your higher priced tickets on Stubhub sell before someone else’s? Not that it’s a bad thing, but you have to wonder if people don’t shop around and just buy the first pair of tickets they see.

There’s actually another reason for it. Some customers don’t actually buy from Stubhub’s website. Instead, they phone a representative and that rep will do a search for them. Obviously it’s to Stubhub’s and the rep’s advantage to sell the higher priced tickets because they earn a higher commission.

The rep also bases their decision on how fast the seller confirms orders and their drop rate (how many times you have declined an order.)