In your first sentence 'sold (out)' is a VERB.
In your second sentence 'sell-out' (usually hyphenated) is a NOUN. That is why it needs the verb 'to be' and an article. The subject of this sentence is also wrong -it's the show which was 'a sell-out', not the ticket.
The tickets sold out.
The show was a sell-out.
You can make a noun from many phrasal verbs in this way. Compare, for example:
Our car broke down.
We had a breakdown.
The prisoners broke out of the jail.
There was a breakout at the jail.