What is face value?That is a question we receive often.  The price printed on the ticket no longer really matters.  What can I afford is the question that should really be asked.Why doesn’t face value matter?
1. If face value is $500 for 2 tickets but your budget is only $300, you shouldn’t be buying these tickets anyways, even if that is what the band or team is offering them for.

2.  Promoters and teams often include value added options when selling premium seats.  A great example of this is when the Washington Redskins were selling lower level end zone seats to ticket brokers for face value if they purchased $300 clubs seats.  If the lower level tickets were selling for $175 but with a face of $75, that would enable the broker to sell $300 clubs at $200 and break even. So obviously the real value of the clubs is $200 not $300.  You wouldn’t be offering $300 a ticket for the club seats, just because it says $300 on the ticket.

When purchasing premium seats at concert venues, the promoter will often throw in lawn tickets for free.  When you’re buying those lawn tickets at half of the price that Ticketmaster charges, you don’t care that the face value on the tickets you’re buying is $0.00.

3. The majority of premium tickets now are priced at or way above their actual worth.  Whether the tickets are sold through premium packages on Ticketmaster, through the fan club, or the premium (season) seating department at the venue the show is taking place, the price paid for the ticket directly from the source is often a lot more than the price printed on the ticket.

4. Finally tickets are a luxury good.  Luxury goods are priced at what they are worth.  Do you walk into the Coach store and ask why they are selling leather for 100x what it cost them to buy?  Do you picket the Nike Store because they are selling shoes that cost them $4 to make in Vietnam for $150?

Unlike other luxury goods, premium tickets are unique in that they have a dollar figure printed on them. Generally, ticket professionals are selling at markup margins of 10%-25%.  Many will complain about this, despite the fact department stores and super markets markup items 100% or more than what they paid for it.  The only difference is they’re not transparent with how much they paid for that item.

When dealing with a ticket re-seller, these are things to keep in mind and all part of the business.  You wouldn’t ask a car salesman how much it cost him to buy his lot of Honda Civics.  Why ask a ticket re-seller how much he paid for his tickets to Jay-Z and Kanye West?

These are all factors to consider and maybe you’ll think twice before asking about “face value” when buying Taylor Swift tickets, since this is just how re-selling works.