I am interested in starting up an on-line ticket broker company to sell tickets to different events and venues such as sports, concerts, etc... I haven't the slightest clue where to begin my search or where to direct my efforts. People who are successful in this business already obviously wont want to reveal their sources, and I don't know how I would go about obtaining an inventory, which in this case would be large numbers of tickets at low cost.

Do you have any piece of advice for me? I don't expect someone to reveal a secret product source to me, I just need a plan of attack or a way of making progress and moving forward with this idea.

Thanks,

This is an excellent idea and I have done a small amount of research into this very thing.

Here's the bad news. You'll need to spend LOTS to get into this business. A website, agencies for the outfits that you'll sell for, staff to take calls. It just isn't easy or really a small business.

But, for what it is worth here's some of the references you'll need.

ASTA is a UK outfit and I'm sure there will be a US equivalent. Google it. But by having a look at the UK outfit you'll get an idea of what you need to do.

ASTA
Founding member of ASTA UK - Association of Secondary Ticket Agents.

There are just squillions of events around the world, everywhere, every day. It's amazing the number of large and small events.

The ticketing business can be divided up into several categories. Music (the big bands and singers), major sports, minor sports, cultural (opera, plays, classical concerts), outdoor festivals and games (Olympic, Commonwealth, Asian, American etc., etc.).

The ticketing biz deserves a bit of specialization now as it is so massive.

Here's a LITTLE overview of just one aspect I looked at;

Australian Grand Prix, Malaysian Grand Prix, Bahrain Grand Prix, San Marino Grand Prix, Spanish Grand Prix, Monaco Grand Prix, European Grand Prix, Canadian Grand Prix, US Grand Prix, French Grand Prix, British Grand Prix, German Grand Prix, Hungarian Grand Prix, Turkish Grand Prix, Italian Grand Prix, Belgian Grand Prix, Brazilian Grand Prix, Japanese Grand Prix, Chinese Grand Prix.

As you can see just the GP is HUGE and that is NOT ALL of them. Then there's the major horse racing events and carnivals, surfing, yachting etc.

Another method to get going is in the 'secondary ticket market', often called scalping but when legitimized to an agency it becomes the harmlessly named secondary ticket market.

If you have serious money sell primary tickets. If you don't then get into the secondary market in whatever way you can. You can sell tickets on the secondary market obtained from 'ahem' whatever source. Just don't reneg on a refund if your client fails to get into the event.

eBay is the big place for secondary tickets, of course.

Let us know what you think.

Yes, the primary ticket market I would imagine takes a very large capital investment.

I am more interested in the secondary ticket market, which you mentioned. Now you see why I was so focused on "sources" of tickets. This does become the major issue. I can imagine a few sources of tickets, but they don't seem very lucrative. One would be buying from Ticketmaster for high demand events... problem with this is you have to live in the same state as the show, plus there is a limit on the number of tickets per person. Also, any retail source might involve paying sales taxes, which could destroy profit margins... Buying on stubhub.com and re-selling wouldn't make much sense. Street vendors usually only sell on the day of the show... So I'm at a loss...

any advice?

I took the trouble to go and meet 'scalpers' during the Olympic games here in Sydney. I was curious how much money they made from the tickets and I learned it was a LOT. I met the boss of one outfit of ENGLISH (obnoxious types at times) who, though routinely offensive did answer my questions and introduced me to some of his 'employees'. He was making a lot of money by placing his people in queues, buying tickets and organising his other people to sell them. He was making $1000 daily, his employees about $400 each. They travel all over Europe and the UK doing this. They are professionals at it.

It's not illegal but it is somewhat unethical.

Most of the ticket sellers sell on eBay or elsewhere. But there is a better way to get money out of the secondary market.