Hamilton @ Kennedy Center Tickets (sale, buy, costs)

[BadMom]

Tickets for Hamilton @ Kennedy Center go on sale for members tomorrow. The show runs from June 12 - September 16 at the Kennedy Center. If its anything like past high demand shows, it will be a total cluster. Tickets for Book of Moron on its first touring run sold out in 3 hours and scalpers claimed the lot of them.

Subscribers had first shot at Hamilton tickets and as a result there are limited seats available for Friday and Saturday nights throughout the summer.

Kennedy Center is limiting tickets to 4 per email address/household. They are using an internet line managing system this year, so you will get tickets depending on when you enter the queue. Prices range from $99 to $199 with premium seats (Center Orchestra) going for $625 per ticket. Scalpers already have a lot of orchestra seats available for $1000+ and balcony starting at $600+ on their websites. They have joined Kennedy Center Membership under numerous fake names and email address to they claim as many tickets as possible for resale!

If there are any seats left, they will go on sale to the general public (i.e. non-members) in March.

If you are lucky enough to get seats, please post what you got and how long you sat on line or on the phone. (People starting lining up at the KC box office on Saturday 2/24!)

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by BadMom

Tickets for Book of Moron on its first touring run sold out in 3 hours and scalpers claimed the lot of them.

Not true. The traffic did break the online system in the first few hours, but they did not sell out then. I bought mine 6 weeks later, directly from the Kennedy Center.

Originally Posted by BadMom

They have joined Kennedy Center Membership under numerous fake names and email address to they claim as many tickets as possible for resale!

So, scalpers are paying $60 for a membership for each fake email address, for the possibility of getting some tickets? I seriously doubt this is a widespread phenomena.

[hertfordshire]

Originally Posted by spencgr

So, scalpers are paying $60 for a membership for each fake email address, for the possibility of getting some tickets? I seriously doubt this is a widespread phenomena.

They’re all but guaranteed hundreds of dollars profit on each ticket. $60 doesn’t seem like much of an investment.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by hertfordshire

They’re all but guaranteed hundreds of dollars profit on each ticket. $60 doesn’t seem like much of an investment.

But you aren't guaranteed tickets as a member. So they are paying $60 for the chance to land 4 tickets? And $60 more for the chance to get 4 more?

[hertfordshire]

That’s the gamble they take. And it’s good business, so they’re okay with taking a few small hits for the big scores.

[BadMom]

Scalpers buy 10 memberships X $60 = $600. They set up fake email addresses and use stealth mode to mask their IP address. Even if they are only 40% successful, they have scored 16 tickets to the most in demand show in DC this summer. If they can only get $500 per ticket, that's $8,000. And trust me they will pass any costs associated with getting the tickets onto the fools that purchase tickets from them.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by BadMom

Scalpers buy 10 memberships X $60 = $600. They set up fake email addresses and use stealth mode to mask their IP address. Even if they are only 40% successful, they have scored 16 tickets to the most in demand show in DC this summer. If they can only get $500 per ticket, that's $8,000. And trust me they will pass any costs associated with getting the tickets onto the fools that purchase tickets from them.

10 memberships - $600
16 tickets - $1,600 - $3,200
Sales price @ $500 each minus 15% Stubhub fee - $6,800


So POTENTIAL profit is ( in your scenario) $3,600 - $5,200.


Question, then......if it is that easy, why isn't everyone doing it?

[boyd888]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Question, then......if it is that easy, why isn't everyone doing it?

Because the vast majority of Americans do not have $2500 lying around to spend on tickets? People that do have that money have better things to do than setup emails/mask IPs just to scalp tickets.

However, there are plenty of people whose full time gig is scalping tickets and yes they will be all over the Hamilton show in DC. Many tickets are also bought by bots and listed for resale everywhere within minutes of going on sale. I agree with the other posters that it could be a potential issue.

[spencgr]

Of the people I know who are in the queue for tickets, these are the queue numbers...


4,313
15,992
19,320
45,109
56,342

It's been open for 30 minutes and only about 1000 have been processed through.

Interesting, those in the queue are not logged in, yet. So their place in line is directly tied to their current internet connection. If you shut down or lose your connection....you are out.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Interesting, those in the queue are not logged in, yet. So their place in line is directly tied to their current internet connection. If you shut down or lose your connection....you are out.

ok, this isn't true.....just noticed an area where you an enter your email and they will email you when your purchase time starts. While that is good because I was starting to freak out about losing a connection....but bad because I was hoping the queue would move a lot faster because people dropped off.


An hour and 12 minutes down...about 3,200 people processed....