by: Rob Bensen
robbensen@insiteboston.com

If you are like a lot of people who read this paper, you are probably reading this on the bus or while waiting for one. Look around. Do you see the guy with the black glasses, messenger bag, and a faux vintage t-shirt? How about the girl with pink hair, matching pink Ipod, and a lip ring? Maybe they’re going to protest the World Bank or to see a Sudanese film or even heading home to post on their MySpace account. But don’t look at them with the disdain you normally do - they can become very valuable to you.

Hipsters are pretty prevalent in most urban areas these days. The above description might be somewhat of a generalization, but I suspect you know the people I’m talking about. You might be friends with some of them, you might hate them, hell you might even be one, yet despite their smug superiority, they usually have a pretty decent taste in music (even if it seems like most of them just like certain bands because their friends do) and are very passionate about it.

So when the new indie band du jour comes to town it is mandatory that any self-respecting hipster be at that show. And in part because of that, bands that most of the public have never heard of, bands that never even get radio play or MTV rotation, are routinely selling out the Paradise and T.T’s and Avalon. And if you are aware of the trendy new acts, you can make a lot of money scalping tickets to that scowling Starbucks barista who is ready to blow her week’s paycheck for that one concert that “everyone is going to.”

Best of all, it’s not a tough business to get involved in. Corporate ticket brokers will not be competing with you since they mainly focus on Fleet Center events and Red Sox games. They have the connections that can land front row U2 tickets or Green Monster seats that they can sell for up to $500-$1000 a pair and aren’t going to waste their time chasing tickets that might land them a $50-60 profit. To a broke college student (or unpaid music writer), however, the possibility of making that kind of money five or six times a month is attractive.

Furthermore, you won’t have to wake up at 10AM on the initial sale date and pray that you can get a pair. These shows rarely sell out quickly (since word hasn’t gotten around to all of the poseurs that they like this particular band), but when they do the market for these tickets can escalate rapidly… especially around a week before the show. A quick glance at Craigslist or Ebay is shocking when you see that people are offering $50-75 to see Kings of Leon or Interpol. Don’t get me wrong they are both great bands, but I certainly wouldn’t pay 3x face value for a 75 minute set and $8 beers.

Luckily for you, hipsters will. If it is a show with a lot of buzz in the indie world, the possibilities are endless. Simply posting an ad to Craigslist that states you are taking the best offer for the two tickets you have for sale will probably get a ton of responses allowing you to name your price as high as you shamelessly dare to. If you are downtown, they will even probably come meet you. Imagine a parade of people adorned with “No Blood for Oil” stickers lined outside your apartment grateful to be exploited by the evils of capitalism. How will you spend all that irony? All in all, you effortlessly tripled your money by spending 10 minutes on the internet, waiting for the tickets to be mailed to you, and you didn’t even have to travel to make the sale. It’s nice work if you can get it.

Of course there is the possibility that the show won’t be in as high demand as you thought it would. You may post ad after ad and get little or no interest. If it’s getting close to the show date you can cut your losses and sell the tickets for face value. You may have picked the wrong show (they don’t worship every new indie band, it just seems that way) or maybe there were a ton of art school projects that all coincided that week. Either way, you can make your money back by lowering your price and move on to the next show. It’s as close to a risk-free venture as is possible.

Overall, I really have no problem with hipsters. They are intelligent, well-spoken, and don’t generally act like jackasses in public, which puts them ahead of a lot of people. They do like a lot of good bands and films, regardless of whether they just read about them on the web or heard one song in their friend’s dorm room. But the bandwagon mentality does present an excellent opportunity. The money can be nice and you will learn about a lot of great new music. Maybe you’ll even save one of the tickets and check out a show you wouldn’t have otherwise. Just don’t go out and spend your profits on that $70 vintage t-shirt.