ePlaya

by **letterset25** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:41 pm

I want to attend Burning Man this year and am considering buying a ticket online (from Craigslist) but I have a few concerns.

I would only buy the ticket in a face to face transaction. I would also not buy the ticket until I get the name and email of the original purchaser as well as both ticket numbers and have it checked to see if its been reported as lost or stolen. If it passes does that mean its good for sure? I'm afraid that it might be reported lost or stolen later (by the real original owner or the scammer from whom I bought it) and that would invalidate the ticket. Is that a possibility? I cannot think of anything worse than getting there and being turned away, as the $50 savings of buying from Craigslist is not much compared to the overall cost of attending. Is it possible to be sure the ticket is 100% or should I just buy one from BurningMan.com?

jeremy

by **Mrpatatomoto** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:09 pm

if your paranoid buy one from BM.com if your trusting I suggest looking on ePlaya and finding tickets here not on craigslist and still test the numbers to see if they are real tickets or not

by **FIGJAM** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:56 pm

Once you make sure the tckets are laggit, pay for them, and have them in your hand, you're good.

Lost or stolen tickets don't get replace by BM.

They don't care.

by **gyre** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:04 pm

If they don't want you to know where they live, I assume they are thieves and won't deal with them, or report them to the police.

The tickets are very difficult to reproduce.
Learn the details to look for and you should have no problem telling a real ticket.
Embossing, multi-layer paper, holograms, exotic printing.

It is a good idea to check to verify it isn't a stolen ticket, though that isn't really common.

Reasonable caution is advised with craigslist.
People have been ambushed here, but usually through personal ads.

With some large purchases, people meet, then go to the bank to complete the purchase.
You must decide if that is necessary.

by **letterset25** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:17 am

I went to the seller's house to look at a ticket and it looked pretty real, with holograms on both ends, metallic foil on the front and the embossed man. I send the numbers off to be verified. How long does that normally take?

jeremy

by **gyre** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:24 am

It sounds real enough.

Response time would depend on how busy the ticket people are.

If they have the original letter that came with it, I would consider it acceptable.
Or was it an over the counter ticket?

by **justjing** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:41 am

Jeremy,

On the BM official website, it has specified way to verify 3rd party tickets for buyers like you. For your convenience, it is pasted below. For details, check out the website [url]http://tickets.burningman.com/#buysell[/url].

BTW, I have two tickets for sell ($290 each). I just posted on the forum. I live in Bay Area CA, let me know if you'd be interested.

Best of luck,
Jing

Official: BUYING A THIRD PARTY TICKET
If you are buying a ticket and want to check to make sure it hasnâ€™t been reported lost, stolen or part of a scam - send us an email partiserv(AT)burningman(DOT)com BEFORE you buy it with ALL of the following:
1. The full name of the original ticket holder and the email address they used to purchase the ticket(s)
2. The 8 character ticket serial codes off the back of the ticket(s) as well as the 5 digit number. Without that required information we cannot verify the tickets.

We will let you know to the best of our ability that the tickets have not been reported lost or stolen or used in any kind of scam. But in the end we cannot be responsible for a dishonest person who is running a scam. We just do what we can on our end. Also, please be aware that we may not be able to respond to emails on weekends.

If you are buying a ticket, you are responsible for reading the back of your ticket as well as the Survival Guide for that year. It will be available in July on our website to read online or print out.

by **gyre** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:51 am

It seems you have verified the ticket as real.

If you feel comfortable so far, ie no alarm bells, I would go ahead with the purchase if they are okay with letting you take down their id information.

Save that with the address and phone number, in case anything crops up at the ticket office.

Things sound okay so far.
I don't know where you are located.
Ticket theft is very rare in some locations.

If they have the original letter and it is addressed to them, I wouldn't worry at all.
Not everyone saves it though.

by **actiongrl** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:15 am

http://blog.burningman.com/news/dont-ge ... d-parties/

by **laurfaery** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:41 am

I just bought two tickets from someone on Craigslist, and I'm pleased to share my success story, along with my two cents of advice :)

The person who was selling was local to me, and sent me photos of the thickets along with his full name and email address used to purchase them. He also happily included all of the ticket numbers. I sent this info off to partiserv(AT)burningman(DOT)com for verification and received a prompt reply that they were in fact legitimate ticket numbers. Mind you, they could have still been a scam at this point, so I got my money and met up with the guy in person. He invited me to his office, and gave me his home address in case he wasn't at work when I showed up - a good sign.

Like most burners, he was really nice, really bummed he couldn't go, and really willing to share with me all of his pics and stories from last year. The tickets were definitely legit, with all security features intact. He made sure I had all of his contact info along with the email he received when he purchased his tix, and proceeded to friend me on fb and send me more links to videos he edited from prior burns. We hung out for a good 20 minutes as he gave me advice (this will be my first burn FINALLY) and sharing some of his fondest memories. He even almost changed his mind about selling his tix!

I think that most people legitimately selling their tickets will be much like this bloke. So, I urge anyone buying third party to keep that in mind. I wouldn't be comfortable buying without meeting the person and physically seeing the tickets first.

Best of luck to everyone getting their tickets!!

by **Savannah** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:20 pm

Great story, laurfaery--and bound to help someone.

by **gyre** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:08 pm

It shouldn't be hard doing it in person.

It gets harder with long distance, which is the case for most of us.

You should be aware that not all long term burners will act like that off the playa, for what ever reasons.
Time, disinterest, too busy detting ready for next year (actually heard that ), etc
We have maybe 50 burners out of a million people here, so you'd think people would be eager to talk, but no.
It can be quite odd.

Personally I was eager to talk about it before I went, still happy to.
I no longer care at all if non-burners get it at all, but anyone interested, is different.

Just don't be too shocked, if you don't get this friendly reception.

Even using paypal or other protection, no one wants a scam to tie their money up, and even an hoinestly lost in shipping ticket can do that.
I've never had a ticket lost in transit, coming or going, but I'm sure it happens.

Generally people want to talk about it, or are willing to, if reluctantly.
Talked for hours with the guy in L.A.

Some people selling tickets may be understandably bummed.

Just as on the playa, if someone has been before, a few quick questions will make it obvious if they know anything about it.
The worst scammers know nothing about burning man.
There are tales of someone having a ticket, or access to one and selling it over and over.
I have never heard if they could talk about it, but stories indicate this.

I have never even heard of a locally offered burning man ticket here.
I think I put my last one on cl.
Zero response.

L.A. and possibly anywhere on the west coast may be easy to find local tickets.
It becomes a rare thing in other areas.

This may amuse someone.
I've sold two tickets to people in reno.
You'd think it would be easy to find them there.
One to L.A.
Shipped it to him faster than he could have made arrangements to drive across town.

In the rare case of having a ticket for a friend ( who still hasn't made it due to work), I delivered the ticket in reno after driving 2000+ miles.
I was almost suspicious that anyone in reno wanted a ticket.
They preferred delivery and that worked out fine.

by **gyre** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:14 pm

And yes.

They did the ticket dance when they got it.

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