Pre-Sale

[trilobyte]

Today is the Pre-Sale, which was open to anyone who registered between noon on the 10th and 12th of February. There are 5,000 Pre-Sale tickets and 500 Leonardo Da Vinci tickets available in this sale, see the ticketing page or the FAQ for more information about ticketing.

This sale has begun!

I want to point out a couple important things... Trilo's PRO TIPS if you will.

• The emails confirming your registration and reminding you about today's sale contain your UNIQUE promo code and a link directly to the sale. Use that link! Your Burner Profile page will also contain the sale link and your UNIQUE promo code, but Burner Profiles is a separate system you need to log into that will see a lot of activity during a ticket sale. If you can bypass it entirely - do that.
• If you registered but did not receive either an email confirming your pre-registration or an email reminding you about today's sale... take a deep breath. It might just be that your email provider was too aggressive in their efforts to keep spam out of your inbox. Log into your Burner Profile right now. If you have a UNIQUE promo code showing up in the Sparkly Things section - you're registered. If not, and you are certain that you were both invited and had pre-registered - then send an email to [email protected] asap. Be nice - the ticket team are an awesome bunch of people doing a pretty thankless job.
• Have I mentioned that your UNIQUE promo code is, in fact, UNIQUE? It is. Do not forward your email to friends or give somebody else your UNIQUE promo code. It can only be used once, so if they beat you to the ticketing system during the sale it will be dead to you, or vice versa.
• If noon PST comes and your browser is still telling you that your code is invalid, you may need to clear your browser cache. The best way to do that is to either navigate away from the ticketing site or close all browser windows and tabs with Ticketfly's site on them, clear your browser cache, and then go back to the ticketing page.
• Purchase details. You can use Visa/MasterCard. The name on the card should match the profile. It can be credit or debit. If you don't know what your daily spending limit is, CHECK WITH YOUR BANK NOW - in the case of debit cards, they often have a daily spending limit of $300-$400 to protect you against theft (since it's taking money directly out of your bank account). If you call your bank's customer service number in advance, they can usually make the necessary notes on their end so that your purchase will be approved. Believe me, you don't want to be that person with thousands in the bank who goes through the ticketing process only to have your debit card declined.

Okay, that's it. Feel free to post your enthusiasm and excitement as well as your success or failure in the sale below. If you need help or assistance, please send me a PM - whatever you do, do not post your unique promo code or any of your account details on the message board. Good luck!

[666isMONEY]

Why is it not a better idea to log in here: http://tickets.burningman.org/purchase/event/1086807, sign into Ticketfly, enter your promo code and then hit "Apply Code" when your computer says it's noon (Pacific Time)?

[Bemerritt]

Last year I am pretty sure the way you mentioned worked best. Trying to decide what is the best way, and am leaning the way you described.

[trilobyte]

You can go there, though I'd wait until go time myself. Personally, I've found that ticketing systems (Ticketfly and other providers) that encounter glitches when the gates open tend to affect the people who are camping on the page prior to the start of the sale.

[trilobyte]

And we're off - good luck to all who are participating.

[Bemerritt]

Had my confirmation email by 12:06.

Had one window open already logged in before 12 on firefox, which was the last to get through

Pasted the link into IE after 12 pm and got in almost right away, never saw the green man

[Raoul]

I clicked the link in the confirmation email right at 3:00 and got a screen that said the sale hadn't begun. It was 3:03 before I was able to get passed that screen. Got the little green guy for about two minutes and finally hit the actual purchase screen at 5 after. I received my order confirmation at 3:08.

[silas thatcher]

got only two.... maybe that is all i am allowed, NO vp's left !! was in by like 12:07 or something....

[666isMONEY]

I had the Ticketfly window opened and refreshed it (without entering the promo code) a few minutes before Noon (PST) and it went to the queue. I then closed the window and clicked the email address at noon and entered the queue. Took about 5-minutes with the walking green man to get to the ticket page. Didn't have to sign into Ticketfly again; I suppose my earlier sign in info was in the cookie file.

Burning Man has been the perfect end to many summer vacations . . . I can't really afford the $1000 price but, it's a perfect way to end a vacation. See ya on the playa!

[mgb327]

Holy Shit! In and out, got my tickets....I WILL see all of you in the dust! WooHoo!!!!!!

[niner-zero]

Got in and could have gotten a ticket but no vehicle passes!

I'll try the main sale . . . .

[garbage118]

Got 4 tickets and 2 VP, this will be our 11 year, time to start packing!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jneilvindy]

Confirmation at 3:06!

I wonder what the sellout time is going to be this year.

bets?

[Eddaytona]

WTF? Got my tickets in about 8 minutes but no vehicle passes available??????? What happened???

Well, I'm going and goin' drive in with or without.

[lucky420]

Oh that's going to be so fun to watch ^^^

[Jovankat]

I was *just* able to put 4 VPs in my cart at 12:34pm so something obviously went wrong with the VPs earlier. They're available now....

[Leap]

Logged in right on the second using Chrome and was prompted to wait. Wifi goes out at 2 minutes later and I shit my pants because everything just went wrong. Plug network cable in 15 seconds later and I am thrown into the cue. Saw the green man walk for about 2 minutes. Got one ticket and one VP. Confirmed email by 3:08.

I'm going to Burning Man!

[mgb327]

I'm going to Burning Man!


YaaaaaY!

[silas thatcher]

how would one get a vp now after already getting two tix and no vp ?

[JohnEBGud]

WTF? Got my tickets in about 8 minutes but no vehicle passes available??????? What happened???

Well, I'm going and goin' drive in with or without.

Had the same thing happen. Purchased ticket anyway then re-entered sale, VP's were showing available, put one in the cart, entered card info again, hit purchase, got "TicketFly Hiccupped" message saying to wait two minutes for confirmation email, and if not received try again. Waited two minutes, no joy. Tried to enter sale again and got blocked with token expired message.

Perhaps attempt at buying VP failed because there was no ticket on that order?

[silas thatcher]

guess we will try other venues....

[trilobyte]

Reading through the ticketing page, the allocation of vehicle passes can be a bit confusing. Here are some numbers and my assumptions.

27,000 vehicle passes will be sold in total
13,000 vehicle passes in the Directed Group Sale
10,000 vehicle passes in the Main Sale
1,500 vehicle passes in the OMG Sale

The ticketing page does not specify an exact number of vehicle passes available in the Pre-Sale. If you do the math on the numbers above, that leaves 2,500 vehicle passes... but there are a couple things to consider.

There are 500 Leonardo Da Vinci art tickets available for purchase through your burner profile. You can buy up to two of those and 1 vehicle pass. This means that there are likely 250 vehicle passes allocated to the Da Vinci art ticket sale.

That leads me to believe that there are or were 2,250 vehicle passes available in the Pre-Sale.

The ticket team did specify that you may not purchase vehicle passes only in the pre-sale (I believe this is a change from last year - they will cancel any sales of vehicle passes only), but the limit was 4. It is unclear if people were able to purchase more vehicle passes than tickets - meaning people could have bought 1 or 2 event tickets, and up to 4 vehicle passes.

[louisacrystal]

At 12:02 the page kept saying that the sale hasn't begun yet. I began to panic! Then a little green guy showed up he went for a short walk got my two tickets and a vehicle pass confirmation email by 12:06 I used to Microsoft edge.

[Jovankat]

That leads me to believe that there are or were 2,250 vehicle passes available in the Pre-Sale.

The 4000 low income folk are all allowed to buy a VP when they pick up their ticket at will call though right? Then there are staff tickets and VPs...

I noticed this year that all the ticket and VP numbers are phrased as "approximately x number.." I think the numbers are a little more fluid than is immediately apparent so that the ticket folks have a little contingency room.

[Heisenberg]

Hit inbedded link from email at 1200. Little walking man showed up at 1202. Got in at 1207. Email confirmation at 1208. Got tix and VPs. Thought I was gonna have a heart attack from stress 5 minutes before hand! Let the prep begin again. See ya on the playa!

[trilobyte]

That is true, low income and staff vehicle passes are not included in the numbers I posted - that's because as I understand it, low income and staff vehicle passes are not tallied against the 27K total.

[ChuckLohre]

First timer at Burning Man. Enjoy contributing to the event in the pre-sale. Got three $990 tickets and one VP. Only problem I had was entering my credit card properly. Finally got it right after ten tries! Looking forward to planning our flying kite shark art and rechargeable LED costumes!

[trilobyte]

Congratulations, Chuck... and to everybody else who got tickets, too!

Flying kite shark art sounds cool, so do the LED costumes.

[Semicola]

Another virgin checking in! I wasn't sure if pre-sale was the right thing to do, but we didn't want to fail in the main sale. I have dreamt of going for a few years now and it appears that the stars will align this year!

With an active family, jobs that demand too much time and all the other things in our lives that seem to need our attention we didn't know if I journey like this would be possible. After many discussions between my wife and I, we decided WE ARE GOING. We knew that there would be many obstacles, but we will tackle them as they arise. Nothing is going to prevent us from tasting Playa dust!

We decided after watching the man burn last year that it was time to start planning. Buying those two tickets yesterday made everything seem real. There is so much to do in the next 190 days. I am filled with a nervous excitement.

We are focusing on being prepared and trying to embrace the ten principles. When I read about immediacy it makes me realize the walls that I create around myself and how self doubt can cause me to miss out on experiences.

Obviously I am rambling and off topic and should be doing something productive like rereading the survival guide.

[AntiM]

Another virgin checking in! I wasn't sure if pre-sale was the right thing to do, but we didn't want to fail in the main sale. I have dreamt of going for a few years now and it appears that the stars will align this year!

With an active family, jobs that demand too much time and all the other things in our lives that seem to need our attention we didn't know if I journey like this would be possible. After many discussions between my wife and I, we decided WE ARE GOING. We knew that there would be many obstacles, but we will tackle them as they arise. Nothing is going to prevent us from tasting Playa dust!

We decided after watching the man burn last year that it was time to start planning. Buying those two tickets yesterday made everything seem real. There is so much to do in the next 190 days. I am filled with a nervous excitement.

We are focusing on being prepared and trying to embrace the ten principles. When I read about immediacy it makes me realize the walls that I create around myself and how self doubt can cause me to miss out on experiences.

Obviously I am rambling and off topic and should be doing something productive like rereading the survival guide.

Head to the Greeters Station forum and introduce yourselves!