Online Ticket Sales

I work for a ski resort and I have been asked to sell lift tickets online. Our ski season will start any time in the next couple of weeks based on the weather.

We offer 5 different tickets per day m-f and on the weekends 5 different prices. My idea of the Process: User chooses a date(s) (because we have different prices on weekends and we want to have the lift tickets preprinted for quick pick up at an express ticket window after purchase), proceed to Choose ticket types & number or tickets and proceed to check out. User gets a confirmation page to print out with a unique #.

Backend: After check out the transaction is uploaded to a database we download each morning to preprint tickets and organize for quick ticket pick up. The database will include name # and type of tickets, Unique # so that we can verify that the person really did purchase the tickets.

We have merchant accounts.

I need a quick solution to sell tickets online without breaking the bank. Any one have any solutions? My idea was Yahoo Stores. I know it will be a lot of work since our ski season is 100-120 days long x 5 tickets per day. I don't know if it is doable so I am asking for other options besides a custom programming job.

Thanks
Colorspots

Ack, sorry this went so long without anyone giving some input!

Well my initial reaction is that you will have a pretty signifigant problem with any pre-packaged shopping solution like Yahoo! or PayPal. Reason being is I believe pretty much all of those services require you to set up a individual item in an inventory for every single thing you sell. So if you are dealing with different type of tickets, and the prices vary depending on date, you would theoreticly have to make an inventory of # of types x number of available days... a bit of a nightmare I would imagine, and that would just be covering single day tickets, not even tackling stuff like multi-day passes. Also, any of those solutions probly will just e-mail you the order when one is placed, you probly will not have the ability to download all the results from a database and print like you are wanting.

Doing a custom programming job for something like this is usually the only way to get it *exactly* the way you need it for your particular situation. It may seem like a lot of overhead for something you will only be selling on line for 3-4 months out of the year, but it would definately be something you could recycle season after season and it would be a staple of your site.

Sorry I don't have something more optimistic to tell you, this is just my opinion though. Good luck!

I'd look at Razor Gator, Yahoo Tickets, Tickets.com, all of whom sell nothing but tickets online and could probably offer you more features and a lower cost IMO.