Buying & on-sales · Ticket resale glossary
Presale
Also known as: Pre-sale, Early access sale
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.
Access usually requires a presale code or a registered account. Common types are artist (fan club) presales, card presales (e.g. Amex or Citi), venue and promoter presales, and platform presales. A big tour can run several presales back to back before the general sale.
Presales often release a large part of the best inventory, so for high-demand events they are where most tickets are actually sold. When presales go well, an event can sell out before the general sale even starts — a strong signal for resale demand.
Presales still run behind a virtual queue and enforce a purchase limit. Inventory that isn't sold in a presale typically carries over to the next sale stage.
Types of presale and who gets access
Most large tours run more than one presale, each tied to a different partner who wants to reward its own customers. The order and the share of tickets each one gets are agreed between the artist, the promoter and the ticketing company, and they vary from tour to tour.
- Artist or fan club presale: for newsletter subscribers or paid fan club members, usually the first and often the largest.
- Card presale: for holders of a partner bank or card brand, checked against the card number at checkout rather than a shared password.
- Venue and promoter presales: for people on the venue's or the promoter's mailing list, such as Live Nation or AEG presales.
- Platform and partner presales: run by the ticketing site, a mobile network or a streaming service for its registered users.
- Registration presales: fans sign up in advance and only selected accounts get access, as with Verified Fan.
How a presale week usually runs
A common pattern is: the tour is announced, a registration window opens for a few days, presales run on consecutive mornings and the general sale follows at the end of the week. Each stage has its own on-sale date and its own allocation, and what one stage doesn't sell normally rolls into the next.
Because each presale only releases part of the inventory, an event can show as sold out at the end of a presale and still have tickets in the following one. A 'sold out' message mid-week often means the current allocation has gone, not the venue.
Worked example: how a presale shapes supply
Take a 16,000-capacity arena show. As an example, the organiser keeps 1,000 seats as holds, gives 7,000 to the artist presale, 3,000 to a card presale and 2,000 to a promoter presale, leaving 3,000 for the general sale. The artist presale sells out in 15 minutes and the card presale in 10.
By the time the general sale opens, only 3,000 tickets are left for everyone who missed out. Resellers watching the presales already know demand is far above supply, and resale prices start to rise before the public on-sale has even begun.
What presales tell resellers about demand
The presale is the first hard data point on an event. How fast each stage sells, which sections are left and whether the general sale happens at all say more about demand than announcements or social media noise.
- Speed: a presale that sells out in minutes points to a fast sell-out and strong resale; one still on sale the next day points to a soft market.
- Remaining sections: if only upper tiers or restricted-view seats are left, the best inventory has already gone to presale buyers.
- Price changes: with dynamic pricing, rising prices between presale stages show the organiser is seeing demand too.
- Resale listings: early speculative listings and the first get-in price on resale sites show where the market expects prices to settle.
Tracking presales with Eventory
On Ticketmaster events, Eventory shows estimated tickets sold (capacity minus available), tickets sold in the last 24 hours and available primary tickets, so you can see how much each presale took out of the venue. Monitors alert you on Discord when tickets appear or restock during a presale, filtered by section, price and quantity.
Catch it with Eventory
Eventory shows upcoming events, their sale status and how many tickets were sold, and can alert you the moment tickets become available in a presale or general sale.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get access to a presale?
Sign up for the artist's newsletter or fan club, check whether your bank card is a tour partner, join the venue and promoter mailing lists and register for any platform presale before the deadline. Each one gives you a code, a link or card-based access for that stage.
Are presale tickets cheaper than general sale tickets?
Usually the price is the same, because both are sold at face value. With dynamic pricing, though, prices can rise between stages, so presale buyers often pay less than general sale buyers for the same seats.
Can an event sell out in the presale?
Yes. For high-demand tours the presales can absorb almost all the inventory, leaving little or nothing for the general sale. Released holds and cancelled orders can still put tickets back on sale later.
How many presales does a tour usually have?
There is no fixed number. Smaller shows may have one or none, while major tours often run three or four: artist, card, promoter or venue, and a platform presale, before the general sale.
Is it legal to resell presale tickets?
It depends on the country and the ticket's terms. Some countries cap resale at face value, and some organisers cancel tickets they find listed for resale. Using bots to buy in a presale is illegal in the US and the UK.