Question for the Ticket Guys

Autos4Alex · December 22, 2010 3:30AM

So I recently got interested in milestone tickets, but I don't know a whole lot about them. A few things I've noticed from e-bay/internet searches:

1) There's lots of ticket types available, is there much difference in value between the types? Is say a bleacher ticket significantly less valuable than one right behind home plate?

2) I know in card collecting, for some important cards there's worry of fakes, do tickets have the same worries (is it worth paying for something that's authenticated)? Are there commerative type tickets that are hard to distinguish? Any common ones to watch out for?

3) In searching e-bay and other places I see tons of tickets available for some games. An example might be if I search for "ripken 3000 ticket" I see all kinds of people selling fist fulls of unused tickets. Are these real tickets? Why are so many unused tickets available, and why do shops/etc have such large quantities?

4) Any good people/stores to buy ticket stubs from?

MeteoriteGuy · December 22, 2010 4:07AM

1. I prefer the basic ticket.

2. Mostly no, but there are some cases to watch out for. Super Bowl tickets are reportedly faked every year. There is a series of NCAA books with replica artifacts inside each including tickets.

3. The stadiums sell the unsold tickets to games to dealers after the events.

PS: I collect ticket stubs to games Steve Young played in, and then Heisman year stubs.

dontippet · December 22, 2010 4:32AM

Higgins and scott had a lot of (200) Ripken PSA 10 tickets a while back. Yes, Ripken tickets are easy. Once you get back into the 80's, tickets are relatively scarce. There are a bunch of Steve Carlton 300th win tickets, but some tickets are very very difficult. I have not come across any fake baseball tickets. As for which tickets are best, you definitely don't want ticketmaster tickets. In my opinion, season tickets are preferred. Also, in terms of which seats are best, I would prefer the ticket with the highest face value, but again, it doesn't really matter. Also, you are only going to have these kinds of choices on the newer tickets.

MLRMLEO · December 22, 2010 5:19AM

MeteoriteGuy and Dontippet are pretty right on. Not being that this is a PSA board but tickets in their holders (do to the label telling you about the game) do look sweet. Grade wise you need to look at the ticket a little closer than cards for the grading side is a little inconstant. I have seen 6s look like 8s and 8s that look like 6s. The fun thing with tickets is that their is a small number compared to cards and the market has yet to really take off. It gives you the opportunity to find some good stuff at reasonable prices (compared to cards) I do a little of everything with a keen interest in Baseball and Ravens. Older tickets in decent shape a tough 50s and back. Tickets were not meant to be a collectible but meant to be consumed. Happy Holidays !

jradke4 · December 22, 2010 5:20AM

i collect favre tickets. i prefer the season ticket holder tickets vs stadium issued tickets. psa will grade stadium issued tickets as long as they say the club name on them. psa wont grade ticket master tickets. i am under the impression that ticket master tickets can be faked. right now i have two that i am using as place holders for 2 different games.

that said i probably wouldnt pay a premium for a season ticket vs a stadium ticket. that is unless the season ticket is full and the other is a stub.

lately, not many teams tear tickets anymore. all have gone to the hand held scanners...even the packers started this in 2008. one of the last NFL teams to go to scanners. i am sure it makes their attendence counts more accurate than the old turnstiles. so most tickets from the 2000's tend to be whole now. many might not really be unused, which in my mind takes some of the luster off full tickets. for example a playoff game between the packers and the niners after the 96 season, is confirmed to have had only 4-8 no shows. therefore a full ticket from that game is quite rare. no every ticket from a packer game should be a full ticket. the only problem is that psa still weights that playoff ticket and 2010 full ticket as the same.

i know the ebay seller coverbunny (or something close to that) sells lots of tickets.

MeteoriteGuy · December 22, 2010 5:20AM

I have Revens tickets for trade...

MLRMLEO · December 22, 2010 5:30AM

I know this is the wrong form but I am looking for last year playoff ticket with the Pats. Have all the home games since day 1.

CrazyMind2017 · December 22, 2010 5:47AM

<< <i>lately, not many teams tear tickets anymore. all have gone to the hand held scanners...even the packers started this in 2008. one of the last NFL teams to go to scanners. i am sure it makes their attendence counts more accurate than the old turnstiles. so most tickets from the 2000's tend to be whole now. many might not really be unused, which in my mind takes some of the luster off full tickets. for example a playoff game between the packers and the niners after the 96 season, is confirmed to have had only 4-8 no shows. therefore a full ticket from that game is quite rare. no every ticket from a packer game should be a full ticket. the only problem is that psa still weights that playoff ticket and 2010 full ticket as the same. >>

Most likely there are more than 4-8 full tickets from that game floating around. People who ordered their tickets from TM and then reported them lost could have picked up full team-issued replacements from the box office, then used the TM tickets to get into the game and saved the full box office tickets.

byronscott4ever · December 22, 2010 6:05AM

I prefer season tickets and nowadays, you can find them all over the place as a previous post mentioned the scanning aspect (to keep the tickets unripped although perforations do make the ticket prone to bends) and online sales (so printouts are used instead of actual tickets). I email big ticket sellers on ebay to see if they'll sell me tickets after the game is done and sometimes it works out. I think I had one seller send them to me for free even! Some teams also sell off whatever tickets they have left for a big milestone game (Twins have done this). I think the unexpected milestones (4 HRs in a game, miraculous finishes, no hitter/perfect games, etc.) are the rarest out there because when people are close to hitting a milestone, dealers and fans are just waiting to buy tickets. For example, when Eddie Murray was close to 3,000, we watched the game from outside the Dome and then bought a ticket for a souvenir from the ticket office right after he did it.

aro13 · December 22, 2010 9:29AM

I collect tickets or stubs from games Pedro Martinez won while with the Red Sox. I prefer season ticket holder tickets, however, I also do not mind the regular issue tickets. Finding these stubs is pretty difficult as very few are listed on ebay. His big ticket items (200 wins - 300 striketouts, 3000 k's) are more available.

TheHun · December 22, 2010 11:42AM

I collect soccer tickets - from all over the world. Some of the tickets I've acquired make ticketmaster stubs look like Super Bowl VIP tickets.

But it is really interesting to see how tickets have evolved and the degree of printing to hologram issues differ around the globe.

I have other sports as well if anyone want to swap - hockey, football, baseball, basketball.

cheers

Dboneesq · December 22, 2010 12:01PM

<< <i>Some of the tickets I've acquired make ticketmaster stubs look like Super Bowl VIP tickets. >>

Yeah, but that ticket is friggin older than my dad! He was born in 1929! lol

TheHun · December 27, 2010 10:15PM

Yeah, Dbone - its pretty old, but still pretty. Almost like printed money.

Here is a nice modern one with US World Cup star - Landon Donovan - with San Jose in 2003 before he went off to the LA Galaxy.

Question for the Ticket Guys

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