Early bird pricing

Reward people who buy first by selling discounted tickets that stop on a date you choose. Your full-price tickets keep selling. This is the standard way to run early bird pricing on Eventship.

How It Works

You create two (or more) ticket types — one priced lower as your early bird, one at full price. You set a date and time when the early bird stops selling. After that moment, the early bird is shown as "Sales ended" and can no longer be purchased; the full-price ticket takes over. People who already bought the early bird keep their tickets.

Set Up Early Bird Pricing

1. Open your event and go to Tickets.
2. Create a ticket called something like "Early Bird" with your discounted price.
3. Turn on Sales end date and pick the day and time the discount expires.
4. Save.
5. Create your regular ticket at full price. Leave Sales end date off so it stays available.

That's it. The early bird sells until your chosen date, then locks itself.

What Buyers See

Before the date, buyers see both tickets and can choose the early bird. The early bird row shows a small countdown ("Ends in 3 days") to nudge the decision. After the date, the early bird is grayed out with a "Sales ended" badge — visible so buyers understand the price step-up, but no longer purchasable. Only the remaining tickets accept new buyers.

Common Patterns

• Single early bird: One discounted tier that closes a week or two before the event.
• Tiered early bird: Early Bird → Mid Bird → Full Price. Each tier stops on its own date and the next one is already published, so the price steps up automatically.
• Last-chance pricing: A higher-priced "Door Price" ticket that only starts selling close to the event. (Use the sales start date for this — currently set via the API; UI support coming soon.)

Editing After Launch

You can change the stop date at any time, even after sales have started. Move it earlier to close the discount sooner, or later to extend it. Buyers who already bought are unaffected. The new date applies to anyone trying to buy from now on.

Time Zones

The date and time you set is in your event's time zone. If your event is at 7 PM Pacific and you set the early bird to stop at "June 30, 11:59 PM," it ends at 11:59 PM Pacific — not the buyer's local time, not UTC. This matches how all event times work on Eventship.

Refunds and the Stop Date

Tickets sold before the stop date follow your event's normal refund policy. If someone refunds an early bird ticket after the discount has ended, that seat does not go back into early bird inventory — it returns to whichever tier you have available. If you want a refunded early bird seat to be resellable at the same price, extend the stop date.

Why Use Early Bird Pricing

• Reward your earliest supporters with a real discount.
• Get cash and signups early, which helps with venue deposits and gauging demand.
• Create urgency — a visible price increase on a known date drives faster decisions than an open-ended "buy now."
• No manual switching — Eventship locks the early bird at the right moment so you don't have to remember.

Waitlist Behavior

If an early bird ticket sells out, the waitlist works normally until the stop date. After the stop date, the waitlist closes too — at that point the tier is grayed out and there is nothing to be promoted to. Anyone who wants in goes to your full-price tier.