Buying Race Tickets Safely

BUY TICKETS SAFELY

DON'T GET RIPPED OFF ON RACE TICKETS!

Choosing to buy your tickets from the Speedway directly is the safest method.
Buying from a reputable ticket broker is a safe method also. You will pay more, but you
will get better ticket selection usually. Buying from individuals selling on eBay or other
places is where you might run into a problem.

Con-men have two basic tricks to rip off ticket buyers.

1) They sell counterfeit tickets. This is rarely a problem at the Indinanapolis Motor Speedway.
The tickets are large and the use of foil and cutouts are some of the methods used to combat illegal
copies. Each year I post photos of what the tickets should look like -
TICKET DESCRIPTIONS

2) Con-men will take your money and send you nothing.

First off, if you can meet the seller in person, obviously do that. (But not in any dark alleys!)

Usually though, you cannot meet the person because they are not coming to the race or because you
both are too busy to try and meet up during race weekend.

There are not many good reasons for a buyer to send payment to a stranger and to be the one who has
to shoulder the entire burden of trust. It seems though that in this age of eBay, sellers tend to
expect that.

Fortunately there is method available that is safe for the buyer, as well as the seller.

I recommend that the seller mail the tickets at the post office "Certified Mail".
It is like sending something C.O.D. Here is how it works:

The seller goes to the post office with his tickets sandwiched in some cardboard so that they don't
get bent.

The seller pays the post office approx. a $10 fee for mailing this envelope "Certified Mail" to the
buyer. More often than not, the price of the tickets goes up $10.
The seller specifies whether he will accept personal checks. If not, the post office will get him a
money order.
The seller also tells the post office how long to try and deliver the tickets before giving up and
returning them to him.

The post man delivers the tickets to the door of the buyer.
The buyer pays the the post man and gets the tickets.
The postman accepts cash, money orders and personal checks (if the seller accepts.)
If the buyer presents cash, he'll be charged an additional 80 cents. This charge is for converting the
cash to a money order.

NOTE: It may be a good idea to have the tickets sent to the buyer's work address if no one is home
during the day.

If the postal worker cannot deliver the tickets, the tickets will have to be picked up at the post office.

If the package is not picked up within 30 days, it will be sent back to the seller.
If the seller specified a shorter time frame, then the tickets will be sent back sooner.
(If the race date is near, the seller will want his tickets back ASAP so that he has time to try and sell
them again.)

After the mailman picks up your money, he will mail it to you along with the receipt you signed when you
sent it.

I think this method is the safest for both buyer and seller.

If you choose to ignore this method, other payment options are to send a check, money order or to pay
through Paypal. Perhaps getting the persons phone number and work phone and checking them might help
you determine if you can trust someone.

I recommend NOT wiring money, like through Western Union. Also say no to any strange requests.

Visit TicketShowcase.com
for Brickyard 400 tickets
and all NASCAR races and
Indycar Races .

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