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Tips for Purchasing Event Tickets Online
Did you just find out that your favorite band or performer is on tour, but the show sold out the first day it was on sale? Maybe your favorite sports team just made the playoffs, and seats are impossible to find. Maybe you’ve gotten fed up with the insane price increases every year on your personal or company's season tickets, and are just looking to go to one or two games a year. If you are looking to procure tickets to a concert, theater, or sporting event, there are more options now than ever. The secondary ticket market has become a multi-billion dollar industry, with thousands of sites popping up all over the internet. With each one having different models and pricing structures, how do you know if you are getting a good deal? This article was put together to protect consumers from getting ripped off or, even worse, being scammed. First off, I would always recommend visiting Ticketmaster or the individual venue’s site first to see if your show is sold out, or has any good seats left. If it is sold out, or they don't have the kind of seats you are looking for, it is time to begin searching the secondary ticket market. Classifieds and Auctions
I am sure everyone knows the obvious, old fashioned ticket channels such as Craigslist and eBay. These sites might contain a bargain from time to time, but if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. These two web sites have more fraudulent tickets than any other sites or marketplaces. This is due in large part to neither one of them having any recourse if you are taken advantage of. Its “Buyer Beware”. The ticket can be an outright fake, but look incredibly real. Even if the ticket seems legitimate, it could be an e-ticket ticket that has been copied and sold many times over, so only the first scan will be allowed in. Or, it could be a real ticket that was turned into an e-ticket using the team’s online season ticket holder system, which would instantly invalidate the original ticket you are holding. You will then not be granted entry, and the money you paid is lost. Ticket Marketplaces
More recently, ticket marketplaces have come to surface, spending millions of dollars in advertising to drive traffic to their web site. Some of the more popular ones like Ticketsnow and Stubhub do a great job of attracting people to their sites and standing behind their customers. What most consumers don't realize, however, is that a ticket marketplace is just that: a portal where consumers can buy tickets from a third party that has inventory listed there. These companies do not own a single ticket. Although they provide excellent customer service and protect the buyers, there is still the chance of getting turned away at the gate, although you will normally get your money back if you can prove that you were denied entry. But getting your money back does little to ease the fact you didn’t get to see the event. The biggest downside of these online marketplaces is that while they are filled with mostly legitimate ticket brokers’ inventory, it is marked up quite a bit and will have service fees added on during checkout. You are better off buying directly from the holder of the inventory when at all possible. Buy Direct From The Source
When at all possible, you are always better off buying directly from the source. Here is where the real online ticket gems can be found, especially when the company stocks its own inventory. The two that I am most familiar with are National Event Company and Razorgator. These two companies personally stock the largest inventories in the market, and should be able to beat most online prices. The difference between them, however, is that Razorgator charges a "Connection fee" at the end of checkout, where as www.neco.com shows you exactly what you will be paying without adding on any additional fees at the end. Feel Like Gambling?
The newest concept that has recently hit the secondary ticket industry is quite similar to gambling, or playing the stock market. Two new sites that incorporate these concepts are yoonew.com and ticketreserve.com. On these sites, you can purchase and trade futures in ticketed events. You can even pay face value for a Super Bowl ticket, if the option you bought for your team comes to be. That’s the upside. The downside is that if your team does not make it to the big game, you forfeit the amount you paid to purchase the option. A few other pointers to look for when shopping for tickets online:
As you can see, there are plenty of avenues to take when searching for your tickets. Along with everything previously mentioned, here are some other things to keep in mind when deciding which company to use: - Are they a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB)?
- Are they a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB)?
- Has their checkout has been secured by a 3rd Party SSL?
- Do the sites terms and policies negatively affect you if you never receive the tickets?
- Always use a credit card for your purchase as they mediate any issues? And one last thing to always remember: most seats you purchase from the secondary ticket market are going to be above face value, as you are paying for a commodity that is in high demand. The only way to get seats for a show or event in high demand at face value is to be lucky enough to get them when they are on sale. Please feel free to contact me if you feel you have been scammed or ripped off when purchasing tickets from the secondary ticket market.
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Contributor's Note
Please feel free to use this intel elsewhere to help protect consumers as long as you reference back here.
Edited by Joe Mitnick
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