The schedule itself this year doesn't help either. So many games jammed into January. No Black Friday game. Friday/Sunday/Christmas Day game spread among 5 days, weakening demand.
You'll be able to make good $$ on those March tickets if you've held onto them. Celtics will have figured it out and gone on a run, no Pats/Sox to compete with, and lower supply from tickets already sold earlier in the season.
I'm a numbers guy, so I tend to geek-out on this stuff. Here's how I'm looking at March, as well as how things looked before the beginning of the season. Please note: This is NOT an offer to sell tickets. Under the old CB, selling tickets above face was not allowed and I'm assuming that it will carry forward to CS. Also, every ticket is allocated an individual price for tax purposes (e.g., if I donate one to charity), with the assumption that a Lakers game should be more valuable than a Hornets game. For "per ticket" prices, though, everything is at my average price of $115 per ticket.
March:
The month breaks pretty well. There are a few key games, both from a team and a time perspective. I sold Washington and SAS early, which is good, because I can't imagine I'd get much for Washington now.
The most interesting remaining game is that Sunday afternoon against Houston. Two reason for that: First, it's Houston. Second, it's a Sunday afternoon, which opens it up to parents with kids. The Indiana game could also be interesting, since it looks like they will be a main rival in the division. With only a few games left, that game could be meaningful. I'm also keeping my eye on Atlanta, since that's a Sunday afternoon game.
The Full Year:I have an advantage when it comes to selling tickets, in that I don't care who I see play. Sure, the Lakers are more exciting than the Bulls, but being there is 95% of it for me.
This season was actually pretty promising, since there were a lot of "high value" games on the docket. I'd take a schedule like this one every year. Before the season, these were the ones that I was expecting to go well above face:
Opening night against 76ers
Friday night 11/16 against Toronto
Wed night before Thanksgiving against the Knicks
Christmas against the 76ers
Saturday night 1/26 against the Warriors (Added bonus: I have no interest in this game anyway, since it was a late start and I wouldn't have gotten home until midnight)
Feb 7 against the Lakers
Feb 3 against Houston
This is my 7th season as a STM, so I've gotten reasonably good at pricing. I'm pretty sure that I overvalue Friday night and weekend games, but directionally, I tend to get them correct.
Of the ones that I listed above, I had more hits and a few misses. The Lakers and GS went within days of my listing them. Opening night and Christmas took a little longer, but priced reasonably well (On Christmas, I didn't account for the fact that so many people are on vacation). Wednesday night before Thanksgiving was tough, although they eventually sold at a lower price than I expected. Houston is TBD.
My biggest "miss" was underestimating Milwaukee demand. Those suckers went fast.
With the exception of the Lakes and Warriors, January and February look lousy this year. Lots of midweek stuff against weak teams, and 11 games in January alone.
Anyway, that's a little "inside baseball" on how I tend to price these things. My first few years were while the team was pretty bad and everything was going below face, so we're in the "make-up" period.
Mike