ELVIS tickets

[emsteph]

I have recently been viewing Elvis tickets for sale on ebay. I have purchased one from Aug 26 1977 for a reasonable price. I recently passed up on June 26 1977 full ticket of his last concert for about $100US. My wife wouldn't let me buy it and now I see one selling, although no bids, for over $1000US.

I have a couple of questions for you folks...

1. I found my ticket to be small in size. Is this normal for 1977?

2. How can one tell if it is real or not? (My seller stated it came from family and the paper seems like original and not photocopied. Black ink for seating seems raised)

3. I noticed some tickets have a black diagonal stripe down the middle of the ticket (1976/77). What is this? Does this mean that the ticket has been "refunded"?

Thanks for your help.

[Sonny]

Hi,

I'm afraid I am not that familiar with these tickets.

But I'm almost sure tickets were rather small those days, so that''s normal I guess...

I have also noticed that black bar sometimes, wondered myself. Since, when you would buy a ticket it's not supposed to be there, right?
Anyway, it also could mean it's a used ticket... No idea about that, I'm sorry.

(maybe one of the other moderators have some ideas about this)

Buying these kind of things is always a difficult purchase, since you always have doubts: is it for real, and so on...

Sometimes they are sold with certificates and such, to guarantee they're originals.
But I guess it's always depending on your believe, or knowledge, to be sure you've bought the real thing.

I'm sorry I can't advice you more on this.

Sonny

[Tommy]

Most ticket's if used are torn in half when you enter for the show. As far as I know if the ticket was not used it should not have a black line though it.

You must really be careful about buying tickets and really knowing what's for real or not, I don't know how you would know.

[thehillbillycat]

I know alot about tickets. Now for the ones that has now become known as The Tour that never was. You need to know these things when buying these tickets. First off the price, some of these tickets has been know to go high. Now there are fakes out there. The size of these tickets. These tickets are about the size that you shown to us with that picture. If the black ink is raised this is a total fake. Sorry to say that to you. You might be mad when you read this but you do need to know this for the future. Black ink shouldn't be raised at all. Most tickets should have the diagonal line on it. This is common, this means they have been refund but the person wanted to keep the ticket. This was the first time this was done. When he passed away, these places made commercials for TV and radio for the people to turn these back in and get there refund. Many wouldn't do this so another ad replace the original ad with one stating that if you have a ticket from these shows refunds will be given and you may keep the ticket. The catch was you have to shown them the ticket to get refund.
Now I will tell a story of my friend. He bought what he tought was a real ticket from Sept of 77. I forgot the date right off. But he won this. Found out later he didn't read all of it. It was a auction for a reproduction of a ticket. The seller said this is a actual size of the ticket and everything. He had no problems with this. When he got the ticket this is how small it was. It was about as long as your middle finger maybe a little bit small and as big as your thumb. News, there was no, I repeat no tickets this small. Lets say he was too happy on this.

Hope this helps.

[emsteph]

Thanks Elvislennon2004. This is helpful.

After having a closer look under a magnifying glass, the ink is not raised. The lettering for the seating looks inconsistant with itself (if that makes sense). In other words, it looks like it was put on later during the printing process.

I would assume that the tickets were printed first and then the seating arrangements put on after. Much like money and their serial numbers how sometimes one number may look different from another, yet the main note be perfect.

The ticket measures 11cm x 4.1cm (4 3/8 x 1 5/8 inches).

It has a couple of soft rinkles and smells like old smoke. It does not look like it was recently printed. The paper is a bit on the course side and the edges and corners are sharp, not frayed.

The seller has 815 transactions with a 100% positive feedback, so one would figure an honest seller. I "bought it now" at a reasonable price compared to other tickets that seem to be selling for quite a bit right now.

Here is my ticket:

[emsteph]

Most tickets should have the diagonal line on it. This is common, this means they have been refund but the person wanted to keep the ticket. This was the first time this was done.

This is what I thought too as I'm sure I've read this somewhere a while back. Quite common to see on tickets following his death.

BUT, I looked again at my original posting, and of another auction, and the dates on these tickets (pictured below) are before his death!! I can't imagine this practice of refunding was allowed while he was alive. Usually you buy a ticket and no refunds were ever allowed, let alone keep the ticket.

One would think that each venue would have its own way of marking the tickets. These markings look as though they were made by a printing machine and not by hand.

Any suggestions??

[keelerphoto]

didnt they sell these tickets at graceland with the lines to indicate they were fan tickets bought after his passing at graceland and not real concert tickets?????