I looked for a thread on this but didn't see one. Forgive me if I missed it. When is the best time to try and buy a PSL from someone? Are they worth having or a waste of money? I notice the listed prices on the exchange site seem pretty high, but the actual sales prices are lower.
Best time = February/March (season ticket payments are coming due, preferably try to buy after a bad/down year) Worth it = It will take 3-5 years to make your money back (depending on when you buy and how well the team does afterwards) For example, I purchased my PSL in 2010 after the (6-10 disaster) with the lockout looming. I got 500 level seats for 900 bucks each. Those are worth 4-5 thousand each now. Counting ticket sales, parking passes, playoffs, and PSL value, I've made over $15,000 in the 5 years I've been a PSL holder. Now, if you're just interested in enjoying the game, you might want to look into club seats... as the club PSLs sell for MUCH cheaper because it is almost impossible to turn a profit on the club tickets since the prices are so high.
I imagine most of what you have made is tied into the increased value of the psl, so not realized gain. It is difficult to sell pre season tickets so you are usually fighting a couple hundred dollars uphill from the start. From my experience you can break even fairly easily over the course of the year by selling your tickets and parking. The parking is reliably easy to sell. Tickets. It depends on how you sell it. If you just use the built in process in the season ticket portal then you have to pay the Vinson which means you have to be able to sell your 90 dollar tickets for 110 to break about even. But really you need to sell them for 150 to make up for the fact that your pre season tickets likely didn't sell at all.
Well said. This is the way I see it as well. You start in the negative, and need to sell at a decent amount in order to even get back into the positive. I'm # 660 on the season ticket waiting list, and I've been there for years. I think buying a PSL is definitely the way to go. I'd sell my spot if it was possible (buy the tickets and then sell the tickets & rights to someone else), but I have no idea if it is.
It's actually half realized and half unrealized. Preseason tickets are always a loss, but you make it back easily with the profits from just one game.
Ya saying club seats are usually higher (season ticket prices) and they are harder to resell, which makes their PSL prices cheaper? And thanks for the feedback everyone.
Newsflash... don't buy a PSL thinking you're going to make immediate money off of it. You're not going to technically lose money unless you vastly overpay and the NFL is ruled illegal and goes out of business.... they nearly always appreciate in value, and if (when) this team ever breaks through, they will own the city forever. Most people I know will end up passing it on to their kids... and they'll hang on to it like a piece of property as well.... but if you're in a bind for cash, you'll be able to sell it.
Permanent Seat License I believe? It gives you the right toil buy those tickets every year. If you don't buy the season tickets, you forfeit the PSL. Maybe you have a much different experience than me. I have seats in 527. Again, you can't really sell the preseason tickets. You can sell the parking in the preseason maybe, but no demand for the tickets. So, I am down around $400 before the seasons even starts. If I paid $90 bucks for the tickets, I have two, and $20 for parking(I believe it is), then I have to sell the parking on the season ticket portal, to cover commission, for at least $22 or so. I generally sell it for $28 or thereabouts. You aren't going to catch up quickly with that. The games. If it is the Patriots Sunday night game, I can sell for $160 a piece, get my $145 after commission and make, with the sold parking pass, around $120 on that game. If it's the Buss game, you might have trouble selling the tickets at all. The Saints game was in demand. If the season goes south, forget about it. You will never be able to recoup even the money you spent on each individual game, much less enough profit to cover the pre-season games. Typical game, I might be able to sell it for $115, after commission, you are making maybe $30 over what you paid for the pair of tickets. I bought my PSL in 2010 I believe it was, for less than $500 each. They are probably in the neighborhood of $2500 now. I wish I had gone bigger back then when they were so cheap.
For the record, I went to the games the first few years. Have a three year old now, so we usually sell the tickets. Holding on to the license though for future, as well as to have the opportunity to get Super Bowl tickets if Texans make it, and also when they play the Super Bowl in Houston again.
I have had an extremely different experience from you. This year I made an overall 35% profit on my tickets + parking, that includes the preseason, which I sell for about 50-60% of face value. That's coming off a rather lackluster season, too.
Could the difference in resell experiences be due to the seat locations? My friend has tickets on the lower level, around the 45 yard line, and has never had an issue selling. His family got the PSL in the initial season though.
Probably not. The seats are priced out very specifically to meet demand. I actually upgraded my seats in 2013 to a better location (more expensive PSL, more expensive ticket face price), but basically received about the same % of return on investment. If you're wondering about the armchair opinion on whether or not to buy a PSL, my opinion right now would be *no*. Wait for the team to tank first. The CBA expires in 2020. You could catch another perfect storm there of a lockout and a bad team at the same time.
Could be due to the different seat location. However, you would think it would all be relative. I also am too lazy to take the time to sell the preseason tickets outside of the realms of the season ticket portal function of selling. So, if I were to go off site and then sell the pre season tickets, then I would turn a profit much like Donny. I, also, make 30-35%, much like he stated, on the regular season tickets. Making that $200 for the pre-season would change everything up. I just usually give them away to family and friends, because some people love going to those pre-season games. I just don't have the time and patience to go off site, which would also possibly result in a different commission that I would have to pay, depending on where I ended up selling them. The site is so easy to use, that it really would be hard for me to go a different route.
I think I would suggest to go ahead and buy it. It's sort of like waiting on a stock market and timing it just right or buying a house. I think, over time, you see new normals come into existence and that the prices will not fall below those new normal unless something drastic happens. If the PSL is $2,500 now, you would probably need to see 3 straight 3 win seasons, and a strike, then maybe... maybe, it would drop to $2,000? $1,800 maybe? I just think that we have a new floor at this point. It is much more likely that the Texans have a couple of good or mediocre seasons, get more fans on the bandwagon, and in three years those PSLs are now worth $3,000.
Thanks y'all. The asking prices are ridiculous now, but the actual sales haven't been "as bad". Appreciate the feedback on the club tickets being hard to resell too. I noticed their PSL sales were in line with the lower corner sections. I see why now.
If I recall correctly, can't you give an offer for the PSL and see what the owner says? Meaning you don't necessarily have to pay the full price. It's been too long for me to remember. I can't imagine that you will get from 660 to 1 any time soon. How often is someone going to give up their season tickets, ya know? What you think is a crazy price now, you will look back upon in ten years, when your PSL is going for $7,500 and think that it was not a bad price after all.
