TicketFire launches paper-free ticket exchange

Ohio-based start-up TicketFire, known primarily as the developer of a free app enabling secondary sellers to digitise paper tickets, has launched its own ticket resale platform, aiming to eliminate “uncomfortable, inconvenient ticket transfer meet-ups” with an all-digital, social media-based system.

The new-look TicketFire app allows resellers to share their listings on sites including Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist, and – using the company’s proprietary digitisation system, which uses a smartphone camera to convert a paper ticket to a one-time digital code – allows for instant delivery via text message and email, removing the need for sellers to post paper tickets or arrange to meet with the buyer.

The digitisation service itself is free (or US¢99 per ticket for brokers selling more than 10 a month), but TicketFire will take a 9% cut from sellers and a 3% card fee from buyers for each ticket sold.

“We created TicketFire to make exchanging and selling tickets seamless, and to give buyers the confidence to know they are getting the ticket they purchase,” says Ray Shealy, TicketFire’s executive chairman (picture). “The social selling component will likely come naturally to our users in today’s mobile, socially connected world.”

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