Resale market · Ticket resale glossary
Ticket Reselling
Also known as: Ticket resale, Ticket flipping
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.
Resellers buy on the primary ticket market during a presale or general sale and list the tickets on the secondary ticket market, on sites like StubHub, viagogo, Vivid Seats or SeatGeek. When demand for an event outstrips the tickets on offer, resale prices climb above face value; when it doesn't, they can fall below it.
Doing it well is mostly a data problem: knowing which events will sell out, how fast tickets are moving (sales velocity), what the cheapest seat costs (get-in price) and when new tickets are released (restock). Professionals who resell at scale are usually called ticket brokers.
Reselling is legal in most places but regulated differently by country and state. Some markets cap resale prices at face value, some require named tickets, and almost all ban the use of bots to get around purchase limits. Always check the rules of the market and the ticketing site you buy from.
How ticket reselling works, step by step
Every resale follows the same basic cycle. What separates a profitable reseller from an unprofitable one is how well each step is done, not which step is skipped.
- Research: pick events where demand is likely to outstrip supply, using artist reach, venue size, the number of dates and early signs like presale registrations.
- Buy: get tickets on the primary site during a presale, the general sale or a later restock, within the site's purchase limit.
- List: put the tickets up on one or more resale marketplaces with a section, quantity and asking price.
- Price and reprice: adjust the asking price as the market moves, using recent sale prices rather than other sellers' asks.
- Deliver: transfer the tickets to the buyer by the marketplace's deadline, which for mobile tickets often means a transfer through the primary seller's app.
Where resale profit comes from
The gross margin is the gap between what you paid, including the primary seller's booking fees, and what you receive after the marketplace's seller fee. That gap only exists when the market price clears comfortably above face value — which happens for a minority of events, not most of them.
The net result is decided across a portfolio. A reseller buying for twenty events might make most of the money on three or four strong shows, break even on a handful and sell the rest at a loss close to the date. Knowing your resale margin per event, and cutting losses early, matters as much as picking the winners.
Worked example: reselling a pair of arena tickets
A reseller buys two lower-tier tickets for an arena show at £85 face value plus £10 in fees each, £190 in total. A week after the sell-out, comparable seats are selling at around £180 each. Listing at £180 and paying a 10% seller fee (an example rate — fees vary by marketplace) returns £324, a profit of £134 on the pair.
Two weeks later the promoter announces an extra date. The get-in price drops and similar seats start selling at £110. The same pair now returns £198, a profit of £8. Timing the sale is part of the trade.
Risks every reseller has to manage
Most losses come from a handful of predictable causes:
- Overestimating demand: an artist's hype on social media does not always turn into ticket purchases.
- New supply: extra dates, released holds and restocks can flood the market after you have bought.
- Delivery restrictions: named tickets, delayed transfer and app-only tickets can make it hard or impossible to hand tickets to a buyer.
- Cancelled orders: primary sellers can cancel orders they consider breach their terms, for example orders over the purchase limit.
- Fees and payout timing: marketplace fees eat into margin, and many marketplaces only pay out after the event has taken place.
Ticket reselling rules by country
The legal picture varies a lot. In the US, the BOTS Act of 2016 bans using software to get around ticketing security and purchase limits, and some states add their own licensing or disclosure rules. In the UK, the Digital Economy Act 2017 made it an offence to use bots to buy more tickets than the purchase limit allows. Ireland bans resale above face value for most large events, and Italy requires nominative tickets for large concerts, which ties each ticket to a named holder.
Marketplace terms add another layer: some platforms block listings above a resale price cap in certain countries, and many primary sellers prohibit resale outside their own official resale.
Catch it with Eventory
Eventory tracks live demand for hundreds of thousands of events across the primary and resale sites: tickets sold, listings, average and highest sale prices, and real-time restock alerts so you can act before the market moves.
Frequently asked questions
Is ticket reselling legal?
In most countries reselling tickets is legal, but it is regulated. Using bots to beat purchase limits is illegal in the US and UK, Ireland bans resale above face value for most large events, and some markets require named tickets. Check the local rules and the ticketing site's terms before you buy.
How much profit can you make reselling tickets?
It depends entirely on the events you pick. High-demand shows can return a multiple of face value, while many events resell at or below what you paid once fees are deducted. Profit is best judged across all your purchases, not on the best single trade.
Is ticket reselling the same as scalping?
Scalping is the informal, usually negative term for reselling tickets above face value, historically outside the venue. Ticket reselling covers all resale, including selling at or below face value through official channels and professional brokerage on licensed marketplaces.
Where can you resell tickets?
Open marketplaces like StubHub, viagogo, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek let sellers set their own price. Official resale run by the primary seller and fan-to-fan platforms such as TicketSwap are safer for restricted tickets but often cap the price.
How do resellers know which events will sell out?
They read demand data: how fast the primary site is selling, how many tickets sold in the last 24 hours, resale prices and listings, and the artist's audience size. Eventory brings these numbers together per event, from the Ticketmaster and resale tabs to artist social metrics.