By Alfred Branch, Jr.
The Better Ticketing Association, the membership organization that provides news, benefits and services to ticket brokers, recently added the ticket stub collectible website Stubs4Sale.com to its growing roster of benefit providers.
Under the new deal, Stubs4Sale will offer BTA members a 10 percent discount on all of the company’s merchandise, and free shipping until January 1, 2008.
“This presents a totally different opportunity for us,” said Stubs4Sale owner Michael Luchies. “BTA is geared more toward ticket brokers, and not just the collectible side of the industry, which gives us more exposure to a new audience. We’re very pleased.” . . .
Luchies, who is in the process of writing a book about ticket stub collecting, has been collecting stubs to famous sporting events for a few years, and said he has also spoken to various sports teams and brokerages about procuring old ticketing inventory. “Most teams simply throw away these assets,” he said.
Crystal Astrachan, executive director of the association, said the two-year-old organization is emerging as “a new face in the ticketing industry” that is proud to provide useful services and benefits to secondary ticket brokers. Among the other partnerships BTA has signed includes deals with Bank of America, Broadwing Communications and Paychex, among others.
“In its second year, the association is expected to make significant improvements, such as adding new partners to enhance the existing suite of discounted products and services available to our members, and providing certification on better ticketing practices at Ticket Summit 2008,” Astrachan said, adding that the Better Ticketing Association is waiving the $149 annual membership dues for all Ticket Network Point of Sale and Ticket Board customers until October 1 of this year.
