Practice or Qualifying Days:
Race Day:
1) Are you actually affiliated in any way with the Indianapolis Speedway?
Not at all. I am just a Indy fan trying to help out other Indy fans.
2) I am interested in selling a couple of my tickets for this year and I am a bit concerned about a warning message that I saw on your site about the Speedway revoking renewal rights. Can you give me some additional information?
Whether the Speedway likes it or not, you have the right in Indiana to re-sell those tickets for whatever price you want.
However, the Speedway has the right to revoke your tickets if they want!
The Speedway does not approve of people selling the tickets for more than face value. If they have evidence that this happened, they could revoke your tickets next year, however, they will not turn around and give them to the person who turned you in. I would think it would take the person who purchased your tickets to cause you any trouble and they wouldn't benefit from it.
None the less, I do not recommend listing the exact seats numbers. Stand, section and row# should be enough information to provide.
I will list your ad however you tell me. If you don't have enough details and a price that is double the face value, it is likely no one will contact you. If you are a little paranoid about listing your ticket location on the web, you might choose to just provide a description of the seats and hope it attracts people to email you for details.
3) Some of the ads to sell tickets look as if sellers have sold their tickets for more than face value. Will you let people do this?
People do sell their tickets on my site at prices over face occasionally, and I do not care or interfere.
However, if I felt my board was being used by professional scalpers, I do not think I would allow this, as this board takes work and I'm doing it for free for the race fans, not to make profits for professional scalpers.
4) Some of the ads to sell tickets look like the seller has been able to keep their identity secret. How is the transaction between seller and buyer consumated with no phone # or email shown in the ad? Do you act as an intermediary?
You will only find the contact information missing after the seller has written me and told me they sold their tickets.
I remove their email address and phone number so no one can further bother them. I also remove row # and seat#.
Instead of deleting the ads, I like to leave some info out there (general area of tickets, quantity, and price) for the season, so we can all see how this little project went.
I do not act as intermediary between the sellers and buyers.
5) How do you order tickets for Qualifications/Carb Day/Practice?
There really is no need to. Whenever you wish to get into the speedway during the month of May, you simply show up and pay at the gate - whether you drive in or walk in. There is no way that they will be too full. (I think the speedway is like 400 acres....) None the less, if you want to pre-purchase your practice day tickets, you can. Just go to the Indy 500 website and order them.
But don't forget and leave them at home! That is what I did the one time I bought practice tickets months in advance.
Prices are listed on my Choose Seats page.
6) Where can I find a detailed seat guide?
There is not one available, but you can ask me.
7) What is the "standard procedure" for buying tickets from a stranger?
First off, the seller should choose a sturdy cardboard envelope as the mailer, so that the tickets do not get bent.
I recommend that the seller mail the tickets at the post office. Send it "Certified Mail". The seller specifies the amount of money needed to receive the package. It is like sending something C.O.D.
The seller pays the post office approx. a $10 fee for mailing this envelope. More often than not, the price of the tickets therefore goes up $10.
They can accept cash, money order and personal check. If the buyer presents cash, he'll be charged 80 cents more for converting it into a money order by the post office. It is up to the seller to determine if they will accept personal checks.
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 it, 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. The seller can also specify that the package be returned on a different date, such as after 1 week.
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. - Dan