Selling tickets on the web

how to charge and ship?

[skuba]

I am planning to sell tickets to a party over the web.
I found that easiest way to have it up on the web fast is by using PayPal for the transaction.
Will paypal add a surcharge to my customers when they buy the tickets?

About shippping now.
What's the best way to ship tickets. I was thinking regular mail. But I am afraid customers will call and say they never got the tickets and that I should send another one. They could be lying.
But if I add delivery confirmation, it's too expensive, there will be no profit.
Is there a better way to ship the tickets and still have some control over it?

Thanks a lot for helping.

[fabfurs]

Provide them with a randomly generated number tagged to their name as an ID, store this to your database and setup a printable ticket which they print to bring to the party along with photo-id.

Add a barcode to the printable ticket and scan at the door for instant verification against the database.

Add a couple of heavy weight bouncers on each side of the entrance...

[skuba]

I don't have a way to generate bar codes.
I woul dbe promoting the party. The tickets are made already.

[fabfurs]

So could you not provide a voucher that they print and present at the door to redeem their tickets. Just trying to remove the shipping/lost scenerio.

Isn't this a common practice to ticket sales?

[skuba]

Unless there will be a will call booth anyway, people want to have their tickets handy.
Also, I have no way to generate a non-fraudable voucher.
I woul dhave to put people's name in a will call booth and require ID.

[mack]

the biggest problem I can see is overselling. You might want to use the paypal IPN and use a shopping cart systemn that knows now many units (tickets) you have in stock. There are a few free versions out there. They also include security features to prevent peopel bypassing the payment process.

Mack.

[dacelweb]

Why not just go with an existing e-ticket service or a service geared specifically for party promoters? That way a user can buy and print tickets online. That saves you on fees for having tickets printed as well. See:

[syndicate.tuzara.com...]
[wantickets.com...]
[groovetickets.com...]
[ticketweb.com...]