Ticket Resale Glossary

The words and KPIs ticket resellers, brokers and the live-events industry use every day — on-sales, restocks, pricing, seating, sales and artist metrics — explained in plain English.

Ticket KPIs

ATP (Average Ticket Price): ATP, short for average ticket price, is the average price at which tickets for an event have sold. Resellers compare today's ATP with its value 1, 3, 7 or 30 days ago to see where prices are heading.
Available Tickets: Available tickets is the number of tickets currently on sale for an event — on the primary seller's site, across resale listings, or both — at the moment it's measured.
Average Listing Price: The average listing price is the average asking price of the tickets currently listed for sale for an event — what sellers want, not what buyers have paid.
Average Sale Price: The average sale price is the mean price at which tickets for an event have actually sold on the resale market, over a period — not the price they are listed at.
Average Tickets per Sale: Average tickets per sale is the average number of tickets in one resale transaction: tickets sold divided by listings sold.
Daily Sales: Daily sales is the number of tickets sold for an event on each day (or month), shown as a bar chart over the life of the sale.
Get-In Price: The get-in price is the lowest price at which you can currently buy a ticket for an event — the cheapest available listing, the price of 'getting in the door'.
Highest Sale Price: The highest sale price is the most that has been paid for a single ticket to an event, across completed resale transactions.
Listings Available: Listings available is the number of separate resale listings on sale for an event right now. One listing can hold one or several tickets.
Listings Sold: Listings sold is the number of resale listings that have sold for an event — the number of transactions, as opposed to the number of tickets.
Median Ticket Price: The median ticket price is the price in the middle: half of the tickets (listed or sold) cost less and half cost more.
Primary Availability: Primary availability is the number of tickets still on sale from the official primary seller's own inventory, excluding resale tickets listed by fans or brokers on the same site.
Primary Percentage Sold: Primary percentage sold is the share of an event's capacity already sold on the primary market, calculated as capacity minus primary tickets still available, divided by capacity.
Resale Booking Window: The resale booking window is how far before the event resale tickets get bought — typically split into more than 30 days out, 7 to 30 days out, and the final week.
Resale Price Percentiles: Resale price percentiles describe the spread of prices resale tickets sold for: a quarter sold below the 25th percentile, half below the median, three quarters below the 75th and one in ten above the 90th.
Resale Rate: Resale rate is the typical share of a venue's capacity that gets resold for one event — the median across the venue's recent events with resale sales.
Sales Velocity: Sales velocity is the speed at which tickets for an event are selling — typically measured as tickets sold per hour or day, such as tickets sold in the last 24 hours.
Sales-to-Available Ratio: The sales-to-available ratio compares the tickets sold for an event with the tickets still available: tickets sold divided by available tickets.
Section Availability: Section availability is the number of tickets still on sale in each section of the venue, usually shown with the section's capacity and the share already sold.
Sell-Through Rate: Sell-through rate is the percentage of the tickets released for an event that have been sold: tickets sold divided by tickets sold plus tickets still available.
Stock and Sales Development: Stock and sales development is the pair of time series that shows, for one event, cumulative tickets sold and available tickets over time.
Stock Delta: Stock delta is the change in an event's available tickets between two checks: positive when tickets were added (a restock), negative when they were removed or sold.
Ticket Inventory: Ticket inventory (or stock) is the number of tickets available to buy for an event at a given moment — on the primary seller's site, or across resale listings.
Ticket Price Distribution: A ticket price distribution (or price histogram) groups the tickets sold for an event into price ranges and shows how many sold in each, from the cheapest range to the most expensive.
Ticket Sales Volume: Ticket sales volume is the total value traded for an event — the number of tickets sold multiplied by their average sale price — expressed in money rather than tickets.
Ticketmaster Offer Types: Ticketmaster offer types are the different kinds of tickets on sale for one event — standard, Verified Resale, Official Platinum, VIP packages and others — each with its own quantity and price range.
Tickets per Listing: Tickets per listing is the average number of tickets in each resale listing for an event, calculated as available tickets divided by listings available.
Tickets Sold Last 24h: Tickets sold last 24h is the number of tickets sold for an event in the past 24 hours, usually shown with its percentage change compared with the previous 24 hours.
Total Tickets Sold: Total tickets sold is the cumulative number of tickets sold for an event since sales began, counted per market: completed resale transactions on the secondary market, or tickets gone from the primary seller's inventory.
Venue Capacity: Venue capacity is the number of people a venue can hold for an event. It depends on the configuration: the same arena holds fewer people for an end-stage concert than for a centre-stage show.

Artist metrics

Artist Career Stage: Artist career stage places an artist in one of three tiers — emerging, developing or mainstream — based on the size of their fanbase, their overall standing and how fast they're trending.
Artist Scores: Artist scores are Eventory's ratings of an artist: a fanbase score for the size of their audience, a trending score for how fast it's growing, and an overall score that combines them.
Fans-to-Population Ratio: The fans-to-population ratio is an artist's estimated fans in a country as a percentage of that country's population — a measure of how saturated each market is.
Spotify Monthly Listeners: Spotify monthly listeners is the number of unique people who played an artist on Spotify over the last 28 days.
Spotify Popularity Score: The Spotify popularity score is a number from 0 to 100 that Spotify calculates for every artist from how much their tracks have been played recently.
Total Fans: Total fans is an artist's combined audience across platforms — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Deezer, SoundCloud and others — added up into one number.

Buying & on-sales

Extra Date: An extra date is an additional show added to a tour or run, usually in the same venue, because demand for the original dates outstripped the tickets available.
General Sale: The general sale (or public on-sale) is the moment tickets go on sale to everyone, after any presales have closed. No code or membership is needed — only an account on the ticketing site.
On-Sale Date: The on-sale date is the date and time tickets for an event are released for purchase. An event usually has several: one for each presale and one for the general sale.
Presale: A presale is a limited ticket sale that opens before the general sale and is restricted to a specific group of buyers — fan club members, credit-card holders, venue newsletter subscribers or fans registered for a programme such as Ticketmaster Verified Fan.
Presale Code: A presale code is a password that unlocks access to a presale on the ticketing site. Without it, the presale tickets are hidden or locked until the general sale.
Purchase Limit: A purchase limit (or ticket limit) is the maximum number of tickets one customer can buy for an event, typically between 2 and 8, set by the organiser and enforced by the ticketing site per account, payment card and address.
Ticket Drop: A ticket drop is a release of new tickets for an event on the primary seller's site — a new batch of inventory that appears at a given moment, often after the event had sold out.
Ticket Holds: Ticket holds are seats an organiser deliberately keeps off sale — reserved for the artist, the promoter, sponsors, the label, the press or the production team — and either used, released for sale later, or 'killed' if the seats can't be used.
Ticket Restock: A ticket restock is when tickets reappear on the primary seller's page after an event looked sold out — new inventory released, abandoned baskets returned to sale, or seats freed up after a production change.
Verified Fan: Verified Fan is Ticketmaster's registration-based presale. Fans register for a tour ahead of time, Ticketmaster screens and selects registrants, and the selected fans receive a unique access link or code for the presale.
Virtual Queue: A virtual queue is an online waiting room that ticketing sites put in front of high-demand on-sales. Buyers are placed in line and let into the purchase page a few at a time so the site isn't overwhelmed.

Resale market

Fan-to-Fan Resale: Fan-to-fan resale is official resale run by the primary seller or an approved partner, where fans who can't attend resell their tickets to other fans — often capped at the price the seller paid.
Primary Ticket Market: The primary ticket market is where tickets are sold for the first time, by the event organiser through its official ticketing partner such as Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventim, See Tickets or DICE, at prices set by the organiser.
Secondary Ticket Market: The secondary ticket market is where tickets are resold after their first sale, by fans or professional brokers, on resale marketplaces such as StubHub, viagogo, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, TicketSwap or the official resale of the primary seller.
Speculative Listing: A speculative listing ('spec tickets') is a resale listing for tickets the seller doesn't own yet, betting they can buy them later at a lower price and deliver before the event.
Ticket Broker: A ticket broker is a professional reseller: a person or company that buys tickets for live events, holds them as inventory and sells them to fans on resale marketplaces or through its own channels.
Ticket Reselling: Ticket reselling is the practice of buying tickets to concerts, sports and other live events and selling them on, usually through a resale marketplace, at a price set by supply and demand rather than by the organiser.

Pricing

Dynamic Pricing: Dynamic pricing is when the primary seller changes ticket prices during the sale according to demand, so the same seat can cost more at peak demand and less when sales are slow.
Face Value: Face value is the original price of a ticket as set by the event organiser on the primary market, usually excluding booking and service fees.
Marketplace Fees: Marketplace fees are the charges a resale site takes on each transaction: a seller fee deducted from the payout and a buyer fee added on top of the listing price.
Platinum Tickets: Platinum tickets (Ticketmaster Official Platinum) are primary-market seats whose price moves with demand, sold by Ticketmaster on behalf of the artist or promoter. They are not resale tickets, even though they can cost more than the standard face value.
Resale Margin: Resale margin is the profit on a resold ticket: the payout from the sale, after marketplace fees, minus everything the ticket cost to buy, including booking fees.
Resale Price Cap: A resale price cap is a limit on the price a ticket can be resold for, usually at its face value or a small percentage above it, set by law, by the organiser or by the resale platform.

Seats & tickets

Delayed Delivery: Delayed delivery means the tickets are only made available — transferred, emailed or shown in the app — some time after purchase, often days or hours before the event.
Floor Tickets: Floor tickets are for the main floor in front of the stage — standing or seated depending on the show. The pit (or golden circle) is the separate, smaller zone right at the front.
General Admission: General admission (GA) is a ticket that gives entry to an area without an assigned seat — usually a standing floor or lawn, where position is first come, first served.
Mobile Tickets: Mobile tickets are tickets stored in the ticketing site's app or digital wallet rather than printed or emailed as a PDF. Many use a rotating barcode — Ticketmaster's SafeTix is the best known — that refreshes every few seconds so screenshots don't work.
Named Tickets: Named (personalised) tickets carry the name of the ticket holder, and entry may require an ID that matches. They are used to curb unauthorised resale.
Reserved Seating: Reserved seating means every ticket is for a specific seat, identified by section, row and seat number.
Seat Map: A seat map (seating chart) is the plan of a venue that shows its sections, rows and seats — and, on a ticketing site, which ones are available and at what price.
Ticket Splits: Ticket splits are the quantities in which a resale listing can be sold — for example, a listing of 4 seats that can be sold as 2+2 or 4, but never leave a single seat.
Ticket Transfer: A ticket transfer moves a ticket from one person's account to another's within the ticketing system, so the new holder gets their own valid ticket in their app.
VIP Package: A VIP package is a premium ticket bundled with extras — early entry, exclusive merchandise, a lounge, a soundcheck or a meet and greet — sold at a higher price than standard tickets.

Market data

Event Demand: Event demand is how much people want tickets for an event relative to how many are available. It decides how fast an event sells and where its resale prices settle.
Sell-Out: A sell-out is when an event has no tickets left on the primary market: every seat released so far has been sold. On the ticketing site the event shows as sold out.
Ticket Listing: A ticket listing is an offer to sell one or more tickets for an event on a resale marketplace: the section, row, quantity and asking price a seller has put up.

Tools & automation

Cook Group: A cook group is a private, usually paid, Discord community where resellers share information: release and presale details, restock alerts from monitors, pricing advice and guides.
Discord Webhook: A Discord webhook is a URL that lets an external service post messages into a specific Discord channel. Ticket monitors use webhooks to deliver restock and drop alerts straight to a reseller's or group's server.
Ticket Bot: A ticket bot is software that automates buying tickets — joining queues, filling carts and checking out faster than a person can — often to get around a site's purchase limit and security measures.
Ticket Market Intelligence: Ticket market intelligence is the data and analysis resellers and the live-events industry use to decide which events to buy, how to price and when to sell: sales, availability, listings, resale prices and demand signals across events and marketplaces.
Ticket Monitor: A ticket monitor is a tool that continuously checks ticketing sites for an event and sends an alert — usually to Discord, email or a phone — the moment tickets become available, restock or match criteria like price, section or quantity.