Ticket categories and resale eligibility

Every ticket category your platform sends to menta tech becomes something to manage. Send through categories that were never meant for resale — staff passes, accreditations, test entries — and someone has to catch and block them by hand, one at a time. Do that across a full calendar and it adds up to real operational noise.

The fix is simple: decide cleanly at the source which categories belong in the resale market, and the rest of the system stays tidy on its own.

You get there by being deliberate from the start: mark the eligible categories, exclude the ones that aren't, keep names and structure consistent, and give it a once-over before going live.

A category is fair game for resale when it ticks these boxes:

• It's a real entry ticket — not an internal credential, staff pass, or the like.
• Ownership can be transferred in line with your policies.
• It has genuine value for fans — there's actual demand, and it won't cause confusion.
• It doesn't break a commercial rule — think internal promos, bundles, or invitations.
• It doesn't invite trouble — no built-in risk of fraud, complaints, or chargebacks.

If a category misses any of these, leave it out.

• Complimentary tickets. Always exclude. Separate them at the source with unmistakable names (e.g. "COMP – NO RESALE") and never bury them inside a commercial category.
• Guest list. Always exclude — these usually need special validation and manual handling, and in resale they're a magnet for incidents.
• Accreditations and credentials. Always exclude, no exceptions.
• Promotions. Exclude by default. If you do enable one, its conditions must be clear, it can't require external validation, and the platform must approve it for resale.
• Pre-sales. A pre-sale is a sales channel, not a resale category. Fold it into the final commercial category — or exclude it if you can't.

Pick a naming convention and stick to it — it cuts down human error and makes audits painless.

• Consistent names. For example, "Lower Stand" — not "LOWER stand", "LowerStand", or anything with trailing spaces.
• No cryptic shorthand. Skip abbreviations that aren't standard, and mark non-resale categories clearly (e.g. "STAFF – NO RESALE").

• List every category the event will have, internal ones included.
• Mark each one as resale eligible or not.
• Confirm the must-excludes — comps, invitations, staff, press, accreditations, special promos, tests.
• Hunt for duplicates caused by naming (caps, spaces, variants).
• Sanity-check that most of what reaches menta will be eligible, reading the catalog as an operator would.

• Leaving internal categories eligible → someone blocks them by hand later. Fix: exclude by default.
• Too many subcategories by channel (pre-sale, promo) → clutter. Fix: unify into the final commercial categories.
• Inconsistent naming → duplicates and confusion. Fix: a convention plus a pre-launch check.
• Turning on resale with no review → support tickets and rework. Fix: make the checklist non-negotiable.

Get this right and it pays off across the board: menta receives clean data, manual restrictions shrink, the resale market is easier to run, fans have a smoother time, and support volume drops.