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On the Run Tour: My $1200 Money Lesson

by Erika Torres
17 comments

I’m always quick to write about Eric’s money mistakes (he has a penchant for lending money to friends who never pay him back), so when I recently found myself in a money fiasco that was going to cost us more than $1200, Eric was sure to remind me that I better blog about it.

Because what is the purpose of marriage other than to have someone point out your mistakes?

Thanks, honey.

I kid, I kid. 

A while ago, I asked how everyday working people can afford to pay for concert tickets. I had really wanted to go to the sold-out Jay-Z-Beyonce On The Run Tour at the Rose Bowl, but couldn’t justify paying $500 per ticket to the sold-out show, based on resale value.

Coincidentally, the day after I wrote about it, I found out a second show had been added in L.A. and if you were a certain credit-card holder—which I was!—you would have access to special seats in a pre-sale.

Well, I yelled YOLO!, and heck, yeah I’m a DINK, and booked me some awesome floor seats for $204 a pop.

And then promptly proceeded to tell everyone I knew on Facebook about the amazing seats I had scored for the concert of the summer. Because it doesn’t count unless you post it to social media, right?

Well, a co-worker of mine saw the post, and asked how in the world I scored seats. When I told him about my handy dandy credit card with the secret seats, he was very impressed. Being the Good Samaritan I am, I offered to buy him seats with my card, and he could pay me back.

I’m so nice, right? Just helping out a fellow DINK.

He was grateful when I got him a set of floor seats (not as good as mine, but still good). And then…

He said “That’s amazing that you’re getting such great seats. You should buy more and then we can sell them for a profit and we’ll essentially be going to the concert for free!”

I told him I wasn’t interested, but he was insistent that if I bought the tickets, he would sell them, and we would split the profit: “Don’t you want to go to the concert for free?”

Well, of course.

Who wouldn’t want to have $400 tickets paid for? So, reluctantly, I agreed, and proceeded to purchase an additional six tickets, totaling $1200+ on my credit card.

And then…I hated it.

I hated having a purchase on my card, I hated not knowing if the tickets would sell or not, and I hated all this money risk. What had I gotten myself into???

After a few weeks, and consistently pestering my colleague to sell the tickets and he would then tell me that you can’t make profit until a few days before the concert (!!!), I finally realized the predicament I was in:

This guy was trying to turn a profit with my money.

There was no risk involved on his end, because I had paid for the tickets.

I seriously felt like a cartoon character where the light bulb suddenly pops and I felt like an idiot. How could I have been so stupid to get myself into this situation?

I finally wizened up and told him, if he wanted to wait it out until the week before the concert in order to make a profit, that was fine, but he had to pay me for the tickets now.

To which of course, he said, “nah, that’s okay, I’ll sell them.”

And then miraculously, he was having a hard time selling them. ALl his friends who had wanted the concert tickets before, now suddenly couldn’t go, or didn’t want to pony up the cash.

I spent the whole month of July wringing my hands and stressing over these tickets. It was definitely an unneeded stress.

In the end, all the tickets sold for the exact amount I paid for them. It was a scary, hand-wringing few weeks there, but I learned my lesson:

Don’t ever let someone else take control of your money and make you do something you don’t feel comfortable with.

I’m glad the story had a happy ending, and we had a fabulous time at the concert.

What’s a money mess you’ve gotten yourself into?

 

17 comments

Lindsay August 12, 2014 - 2:57 pm

Oh wow! The balls on that guy, huh? I would have totally been you in this predicament though. I always try to think the best of people and help them out. But hey, you learned a good lesson to share with all of us, right?!

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LisaVsTheLoans@gmail.com August 11, 2014 - 9:54 pm

Ahhh reading this gave me a mild case of anxiety! It’s funny, too, because this is exactly how I try to convince the BF to buy season tickets to the Golden State Warriors games! Your perspective definitely helped me see his point of view.

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Daisy August 8, 2014 - 6:46 am

Yikes. I am glad you ended up selling your tickets, even at the price that you bought them for; what an asshole move on your co-worker, though!

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Emily @ Urban Departures August 6, 2014 - 11:39 am

Yikes! I am always tempted to purchase things on sale and then sell at a profit. I have friends who’ve done it successfully and they reap in huge rewards! BUTTTT I’ve always been too chicken to take the risk because, as everyone else has noted, it can turn out real bad. I’m glad it worked out for you and you didn’t have to stomache any loss. And YAY to the concert; it must have been so much fun.

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Ej August 6, 2014 - 7:32 am

A couple of the last Beyonce concerts I was able to buy and sell my tickets at a profit, sometimes double the price relatively easy.

This time however, my bf tried to flip tickets and due to venue change (larger venue) and a second showing the tickets did not sell as well as mine did, We were panicking up to the last minute. One set sold right before the concert was about to begin. We ended up losing some money, and I actually used one set…3 sets were bought.

I am happy we learned this lesson tho, because he was thinking that this flipping concert tickets is something that we should consider, having experienced it for himself, he knows now it’s not that easy.

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Little House August 6, 2014 - 6:05 am

Concert tickets are so overpriced these days! I would have been livid if the tickets didn’t sell. Good to hear everything turned out just fine.

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E.M. August 5, 2014 - 5:47 pm

I’m glad everything worked out in the end! It stinks to get caught up in the excitement of possibly making a profit, only to have the consequences dawn on you later.

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Micah @ Unabashedly Me August 5, 2014 - 5:45 pm

That could have ended so much worse. Glad you got them sold.

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NZ Muse August 5, 2014 - 2:39 pm

PS – for some reason on your comment form it autofills all three fields with my email address rather than remembering my username, email and URL, and looks like it’s doing the same for other commenters too!

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debtandthegirl@yahoo.com August 5, 2014 - 2:37 pm

That could have ended way worse. Glad you got out of it when you could.

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NZ Muse August 5, 2014 - 2:37 pm

ARGGGH!!!! I feel your pain.

T is often talking about ways to buy and resell stuff for a profit (the most fun was ‘hey let’s buy that dirt cheap Porsche and sell it for thousands more!’ Yeaahhhh)

That reminds me – I need to harass him about something he supposedly sold to a buddy and hasn’t been paid for yet. And this is why I don’t like his schemes…

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donnica22@gmail.com August 5, 2014 - 2:23 pm

I ALMOSTTTTTTTT did the same thing. Lesson learned…LOL Ohhhh to be a DINK again! 🙂

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savvyfinanciallatina@gmail.com August 5, 2014 - 1:36 pm

Glad that turned out well and that you didn’t lose any money!

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Cece August 5, 2014 - 1:26 pm

That is super scary!!!! I’m sure I wouldn’t have thought about it myself in that moment but you should have made him pony up half the money if he wanted to do the resale thing. What an awkward thing to have going on with your co worker. Anyway, glad it worked out!! I have never heard of a secret seat sale for concerts. Pretty cool!

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Poor Fat Chick August 5, 2014 - 1:22 pm

My money story also involves concert tickets..
A few years ago a LA band was coming to Vancouver and my friends and I were excited to go see them. We had a friend of ours off work for the day and offered to go down and get tickets. He was supposed to get 6 tickets.. (for him his girl, me, my boyfriend, and another friend and his misses). As he was leaving his roommate as him to get one more ticket. But I guess the ticket buyer forgot and only bought six and when he got home his room mate was all over him for his ticket.. so one person in our group was left out.. somehow it was ME.. I was livid. I guess to we underestimated how popular this band was cause they sold out the show within the hour
My boyfriend and I spent the next three weeks searching for a ticket. The ticket was originally only $20.00 but I saw people selling tickets for 40, 60, 80 even 200 for a ticket.. every time I contact people about the ticket they were gone… and I wasn’t about to pay 200 for a ticket.
Eventually I found a ticket but it cost me 100 – 5 times the original price. I felt I had no choice at that moment. I really wanted to see this band and all my friends where going. What was worse is that the original friend who got the tickets didn’t even offer to help pay and then demanded that everyone by him a drink at the show because he was the one who took the time to get the tickets.. of course myself and my boyfriend refused because of his blunder in the first place
And just to add salt into the wound as we were heading to the venue scalpers were selling the ticket for $30.00..

Lesson learned I guess. Never rely on anyone to get tickets for a show you really want to see. Especially those who take time off work and it known to go out the night before completely forgetting who he is buying for

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Tonya@Budget and the Beach August 5, 2014 - 12:46 pm

Whew that could had ended badly! Of course my jaw is still dropping over the price of concert tickets these days. I honestly don’t think I like anyone enough to spend $200. I’ve gotten better, where money is involved, that if someone asks me to do anything or go anywhere involving money, I always take a day or two to think about it. If they pressure me, my answer is always no.

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Michelle August 5, 2014 - 11:49 am

ACK! That could have turned out badly. Glad it didn’t. I would have been worrying as well.

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