Keeping Profits from Selling Concert Tickets: AITA?

AITA for keeping profit from selling concert tickets? Friends bailed last minute, now calling me a bad friend for not sharing the extra money from reselling.

Damjan

Published in Interesting
23 Dec 2025

Keeping Profits from Selling Concert Tickets: AITA?

Some people don’t recognize a favor, they recognize a loophole. This Reddit OP thought they were doing right by their three friends, grabbing concert presale tickets the hard way, then selling them last-minute when two of the group bailed.

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Here’s the messy part: OP bought the tickets with their own credit card after getting a presale code, waited through the Ticketmaster queue, and had two friends send money upfront for their portions. Then, 10 days before the concert, those same two friends suddenly changed their minds, asked OP to sell their tickets, and acted like it was no big deal.

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But the profit is where the friendship caught fire, and now OP is dealing with texts, accusations, and people hearing a very different version of the story.

Original Post

My friends (3) and I decided to go to a concert together that had presale for the following year. Y’all know Ticketmaster- I got a presale code, waited in queue, raced for my life, put my credit card down, and got us tickets.

At this time, 2 of them sent me the money for their portion. A month before the concert, I asked them if they’d still like to go, or if I should sell the tickets.

At this time, this artist was getting a lot of traction for their first album, selling out venues, so it wouldn’t be a problem to sell them. They say they’re all super excited to go and they can’t wait.

I get pumped up to go. Flash forward 10 days before the concert, they say that they changed their mind and don’t want to go, say that if I still want to, I can still go with someone else with one of the tickets (from the friend that hadn’t given me money?) and ask me to sell their tickets (2 of them that had given me money).

I’m able to sell the tickets pretty easily, for more than what I originally paid for them on Ticketmaster (an extra $150 per ticket). I ask some of my other friends for advice- should I send them all the money or should I keep the profit?

I got a resounding “yes, it’s your money, you did all the work” answer from everyone I spoke to, so I felt good about keeping the profit. So, after the concert, I sent back the amount of money they paid me for their tickets.

They then text me asking for “the rest of the money”, insinuating that the profit was theirs. I explained, I bought the tickets, put down my card, and they flaked on me (potentially screwing me from seeing the concert), so I thought I would keep the profit.

Suddenly, they’re calling me a bad friend, telling people I stole from them, and saying they never want to speak to me again. Am I the a*****e?

EDIT- to save friendship, I split the profit 3 ways with them and apologized for the miscommunication, but they are still telling people this story and that I’m a bad friend.