Most writing about train ticket resale stays abstract: it can save you money, in theory. Here is one actual sale from SaveMyFare, with the real numbers.
The ticket
A passenger bought a Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston ticket for £43.50. Their plans changed and they could no longer travel, so instead of letting the ticket expire worthless, they listed it for resale at £35.00.
What the buyer paid
A buyer purchased the ticket for £38.50, made up of the £35.00 asking price plus SaveMyFare's 10% buyer fee. That is £5.00 less than the £43.50 the original passenger paid to buy the same ticket new, an 11.5% saving for booking the same journey through resale instead of buying fresh.
What the seller received
After SaveMyFare's 10% seller fee was deducted from the £35.00 asking price, the seller received £31.50, paid out once the travel date had passed. That is 72% of what they originally paid for a ticket that would otherwise have expired with no value at all.
The numbers side by side
- Original fare paid by the seller: £43.50
- Resale asking price: £35.00
- Buyer's total cost (asking price plus 10% buyer fee): £38.50
- Buyer saved versus buying the same ticket new: £5.00 (11.5%)
- SaveMyFare's seller fee (10% of asking price): £3.50
- Seller's payout: £31.50 (72% of the original fare recovered)
Both sides came out ahead of the alternative: the seller recovered most of a fare that would otherwise have been a complete loss, and the buyer travelled the same route, on the same day, for less than the price of a new ticket.