Selling those hard-to-get Eras Tour tickets could make you big money. But is it legal, ethical or safe? Here’s everything Swifties need to know about reselling concert tickets.
Over 2 million Taylor Swift tickets were snapped up during presales for her highly anticipated Eras Tour. With the massive demand far outpacing available seats, tickets disappeared in minutes – leaving many fans ticketless and disappointed.
Now a lucky few who did manage to score tickets are wondering – should I resell them for a profit instead of attending the show?
Reselling an extra ticket or two to help cover costs is one thing. But buying up tickets just to flip for hundreds or thousands above face value raises more complicated questions around laws, ethics and safety.
Here’s a complete guide examining whether reselling Taylor Swift concert tickets is truly worth it, and what fans need to consider first:
Why Are Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tickets In Such Crazy High Demand?
Taylor Swift has been a bonafide superstar for over 15+ years since releasing her self-titled debut album in 2006. But the singer-songwriter’s popularity and cultural impact have only skyrocketed in recent years.
Her last tour for 2018’s Reputation Stadium Tour became the highest-grossing tour in US history by a woman. And Swift has broken Billboard Hot 100 records with smash hits like “Anti-Hero” and “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” dominating the charts.
So expectations were already high for her first tour in five years. The Eras Tour concept looking back on her prolific career across multiple musical eras has sparked even more enthusiasm.
Add in pent up demand after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a years-long touring interruption, and it’s no wonder Eras Tour tickets are being snapped up in nanoseconds.
CNBC, reported an average resale ticket price of $2,183 even before Swift extended the tour with dozens more shows through 2024.
With face value tickets starting around only $49 to $499, it’s easy to see the temptation for fans lucky enough to score seats to want to cash in.
How Much Money Could You Potentially Make Reselling Taylor Swift Tickets?
Short answer? A boatload of cash – potentially anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands above face value per ticket.
StubHub has seen Taylor Swift tickets being resold for as high as $11,000 during initial sale frenzies. And those prices could climb even higher on secondary markets leading up to show dates in anticipation and excitement.
So let’s break down the math using some real examples:
- If you bought a ticket with a face value of $199, but manage to resell at $2,500 – that’s a $2,301 profit per ticket.
- For a pair of tickets, you’re looking at nearly $5,000 extra cash to line your pockets.
- If you really wanted to maximize profits as an unofficial ticket broker, scooping up 8 tickets for $1,200 total but flipping them for $20,000 would net an insane $18,800 return.
Now scale that to the dozens of shows Swift is playing across a lengthy world tour, and the resale market across hundreds of thousands of tickets could easily be worth over $100 million.
So there’s clearly no shortage of money to be made – at least on paper.
But the reality is far more complicated…
The Problem With Reselling Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tickets
While visions of making enough from ticket resales to pay rent for the year dance through your head, don’t get ahead of yourself just yet.
There are some pretty major downsides and risks to attempting to resell tickets that could quickly turn your money-making scheme into a nightmare:
unauthorized Resale Platforms Will Cancel Your Tickets
Ticketmaster has explicitly forbidden any reselling of Eras Tour tickets on unauthorized third-party sites – which rules out the majority of options fans are used to like StubHub or Craigslist.
The only official marketplace is Ticketmaster’s own verified resale platform, which charges resellers a commission fee. So your profit margins automatically shrink by ~20%.
And if you attempt to sell on prohibited resale sites like Viagogo or Tixel anyway, Ticketmaster has threatened cancelling all orders and tickets without notice.
So much for making that quick flip…
You Risk Buying and Selling Fraudulent or Invalid Tickets
Another massive problem with unauthorized resale platforms is a heightened risk of falling victim to fake, scam or otherwise invalid tickets.
Desperate buyers anxious for a chance to see Taylor Swift live are extra vulnerable targets for predatory scammers right now.
And if you accidentally sell fraudulent tickets unknowingly, you could lose the entire sale amount with no way to recover it.
Strict Regulations Against Price Gouging
Remember those visions of making an $18,000 killing on selling marked up tickets? Not so fast.
Many states and countries have enacted strict price ceiling regulations on how much tickets to “major events” can be resold and scalped for.
In New South Wales for example, resellers are capped at only 10% above face value. Fines for violating these consumer protection laws can stretch into the hundreds of thousands.
So realistically, if you want to legally and safely resell tickets, your potential profits are going to be much smaller than expected due to these tight restrictions.
The Wrath of Angry Swifties and Lawmakers Awaits
Let’s say you still decide you want to roll the dice and sell your tickets at an inflated price to whoever is willing to pay it.
Beyond just legal regulations, you also may have to deal with the intense social backlash of angry Swifties calling you out for price gouging. Some have already faced death threats over resales.
Several U.S. lawmakers have also doubled down on their criticism of Ticketmaster and the secondary ticket market, threatening increased regulations.
So even if you don’t care about upset fans, changes seem inevitable after this touring fiasco that could restrict the resale ecosystem further.
The reality is reselling Taylor Swift tickets involves far more hassles, barriers and risks than you might assume. There’s a ton that can go wrong, all while limiting your profit potential through hefty fees and price ceilings.
Ethical Dilemmas: Should You Be Reselling Taylor Swift Tickets At All?
If narrowly escaping legal trouble or pissing off fans don’t phase you, there’s still one more crucial issue to grapple with – the ethics behind reselling tickets in the first place.
Here are some moral implications to consider with your conscience before putting tickets up for resale:
You Could Be Denying Less Privileged Fans a Chance to Attend
Taylor Swift’s mantra has long been making tickets affordable and accessible to all fans. But huge markups on the secondary market now put tickets out of reach again for many lower income groups.
If your motivation is purely profit and not a love for Swift’s music, does that justify pricing out fans who have been waiting years for the chance to see their favorite artist live?
It Perpetuates a Broken Ticketing System
The chaos around Taylor Swift’s ticket sales has amplified criticism of Ticketmaster’s domination combined with Live Nation’s stronghold on tour promotion.
By reselling seats at extreme markups, you could be seen as complicit and enabling a system that consciously limits inventory and accessibility.
Music lovers argue this broken system desperately needs reform – but likely won’t receive proper attention and momentum for change if resellers keep playing into it.
You’d Be Going Against Swift’s Vision for Equity of Access
Taylor Swift has been unusually outspoken about her frustrations with the disastrous Eras Tour ticketing process.
In a scathing Instagram post, she wrote: “It’s really difficult for me to trust outside entities with these relationships and loyalties.”
Based on Swift’s reactions, it’s pretty evidently not her vision or values to have her fans priced out and pitted against each other just for a tour ticket.
By reselling tickets with substantially jacked up prices, you could be perceived as directly contributing to and enabling everything she spoke out against.
So before hastily listing your tickets the moment they arrive in your inbox, take a minute to carefully reflect first:
Are you staying true to the values that likely attracted you to love Taylor Swift’s music and art in the first place? Or has dollar signs and profit margins clouded your judgement?
There may not be a clearly “right” answer – but these ethical concerns are certainly crucial to weigh.
Key Takeaways: Is Reselling Taylor Swift Tickets Ultimately Worth It?
Given all the complex factors around ethics, regulations, fees and risk we just covered – is attempting to resell Taylor Swift concert tickets truly worth the hassle?
Here’s a quick cheat sheet summary to help decide:
Reselling Taylor Swift Tickets Pros
- Chance to profit $1,000+ per ticket
- Take advantage of red hot demand before it stabilizes
- Cover your costs so you can attend more shows
Reselling Taylor Swift Tickets Cons
- High fraud/cancellation risk on unofficial sites
- Price gouging backlash from fans and lawmakers
- Upholds inequity and broken ticketing system
- Contradicts Swift’s fan relationship values
Verdict:
- Reselling a small number at reasonable markup = Probably OK; helps offset costs
- Mass scooping up tickets to broker for 10-20X = Fraught with issues; unlikely worth it
Every fan’s situation is different. But following sound ethics grounded in principles of equity, sustainability and community seem to serve as the best guiding lights according to Swift herself.
As Taylor once sang wisely: “Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend.” So consider carefully whether your actions will bring fair winds or a storm of backlash!
Final Thoughts
Hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift tickets are still being resold, often for exorbitant black market prices. But upon closer examination, the risks and ethical pitfalls make it extremely precarious.
Instead of fretting over reseller profits, the easier path is simply focusing your energy on securing your very own ticket to Taylor’s magical show!
Set price alerts on trusted resale sites, enter every radio contest in your region, and say yes to any chance to see Swift shine live on stage during this monumental Eras Tour for the ages.
The odds may seem daunting – but for Swifties, impossible things happen all the time. Where there’s a will, there’s definitely a way!
