Do Not Buy Tickets from a Scalper!

What is a ticket scalper? Scalpers are the guys you’ll find offering to sell you tickets as you walk up to the game or concert. They often carry signs that say “I Need Tickets”. And you’ll find them in the high traffic areas around a venue. Scalpers buy and sell tickets in order to make a profit. They only deal in cash transactions.

Should you ever buy tickets from a scalper on the street corner?

No. The risks far outweight the rewards. A lot of people (usually guys) say “I always get a better price” when they buy from a scalper, or a season ticket holder selling their extra tickets, right outside the venue. And that can often be true, when compared to buying from a ticket broker. You can often get a better price by buying at the last minute, because if that scalper doesn’t sell that ticket then it’s worthless. But there are also a big downside to buying from that scalper on the street corner. Buying tickets from a ticket broker offers you some recourse, that you don’t get with a scalper. Ticket brokers also allow you pay via credit card and might provide you more ticket options as well. Overall, you are much better off in the long run if you purchase your tickets from a ticket broker, rather than a scalper.

You think this guy will give you a refund on your tickets?

Reasons to avoid buying tickets from a scalper:
1. Fake tickets, also known as, “blink tickets” or “blinkers” in the ticket business. Fake tickets are not that common, but you’ll be surprised how they might turn up when you least expect it. And there are a variety of kinds of fake tickets. Blinkers can be made by someone who is printing them at home, which is counterfeiting and a Federal crime. Or fake tickets could come from some college kid selling their parent’s season tickets for cash and then reporting them stolen, which happens more than you think. All kinds of crazy stuff can happen to put fake tickets on the street. And the one guarantee in life, along with death and taxes, is that you don’t EVER want to be a victim of buying fake tickets from a scalper. The first time you ever do buy fake tickets, means that you’ve lost every profit you ever made in scalping tickets outside a venue all of the other times. And for those guys who say buying fake doesn’t concern the, because they’ll go find the guy and get their money back. Well, the guy who sold you that fake ticket is not going to hang around for you to ask for a refund.

2. It’s hard to find good deals from scalpers. You have to work hard to find a good deal on scalped tickets. There can be dozens of scalpers working around a venue for a big event, so you’ve got to work to find a good deal. You need to walk around the venue a few times in order to maximize your opportunity. That’s because every scalper out there has different tickets and prices. Sure, you might get lucky and find something suitable with the first scalper you run into. But if that is what you do, then you weren’t that worried about price to begin with.

3. Scalping might be illegal. In a lot of cities it’s still illegal to buy and sell tickets on the venue’s property. Some city ordinances say it’s illegal to resell tickets unless you are licensed or within an office. So a ticket broker selling tickets is legal, but the transaction you try to initiate on the street outside the venue might be illegal. Police occasionally run stings at events to clean up the scalping giong on, although that’s usually at more high profile events. But there’s no worse way to spend the day of your event, than with a police citation in your back pocket. And even asking someone for tickets, outside the venue, can earn you a citation from a cop. And in certain extreme conditions, you might wind up locked up for trying to buy or sell tickets on the street.

4. You might pay more for scalped tickets. It’s entirely possible that you might pay more money, than you would have paid a ticket broker, for scalped tickets. There are no guarantees that say buying tickets from a scalper will be cheaper than buying from a ticket broker. Recently a friend of mine wanted to go to a basketball game in Chicago. He checked prices with a ticket broker a few days before the game and was quoted $125 per ticket. He decided he would wait “to find a better deal” outside the United Center on gameday. He showed up with his wife on gameday and started walking around looking for the best deal from a scalper. He had very little luck finding a deal. During the 2nd Quarter he finally agreed to buy some tickets at the best price he’d been offered all day, $200 per ticket. He was now going to pay more on the street, than he would have paid the ticket broker. And he had already missed 1/2 of the game as he walked around looking for a deal. His wife was not too happy with him. And now he was out $400, instead of $250.

So you can seeing buying scalped tickets is not an exact science. Sure, you can often find a cheaper price on the street from a scalper - than using a ticket broker. But you’ve got to weigh out all of the risks. And when you do you’ll see you are much better off using the services of a ticket broker.

How to buy tickets from a ticket broker?

What should you look for when you buy tickets from a ticket broker?

Buying tickets from a ticket broker can be a positive experience. Sure, you might pay an arm and a leg - but if the event you are buying is worth it to you, then the ticket broker provides a valuable service. Before you buy tickets make sure they event you want is sold out at the box office. There might still be tickets available to purchase at face value from the venue. But if the event you want is not available through Ticketmaster and/or the venue box office, then here’s what to know when buying tickets from a ticket broker.

If you search the internet you’ll find hundreds of brokers listing inventory for events. Finding the right broker can be a challenge. Obviously you have to find a ticket broker that is selling the tickets you need. Then you need to make sure they are offering those tickets at a price that is reasonable to you. Make sure you look around, because you will find some different ticket options listed amongst the different ticket brokers. And you have to look around, because certain brokers don’t own any ticket inventory. So avoid those sites, like StubHub, that are just reselling tickets at a markup. Searching a bit means you can find those same tickets listed at a lower price. After you’ve found a ticket broker that has the tickets you want, at a price you are willing to pay, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself before buying.

5 questions to ask yourself before buying from a ticket broker?
1) Can I tell who they are?
2) Do they guarantee their service?
3) What is their refund policy?
4) Is it safe to buy from them?
5) Do they have a published privacy policy?

Here’s why you ask yourself those questions:

1) Can I tell who they are?
There are hundreds of ticket broker web sites on the internet. The majority are just a couple of people working out of their house or a small office. Your goal is to find a reputable broker that you can trust. On the internet, it’s never a good idea to trust anyone that you cannot see. Meaning, don’t buy from anonymous sources on the web, because that’s a good way to get scammed. So when you find a broker web site - do they list the name of the owner or manager, their office address and phone number, as well as, other pertinent information. Are they part of organizations that can insure they are reliable like the BBB, NATB or their local Chamber? Do they have an 800# to call? Today, a lot of small time brokers don’t even bother to purchase an 800# for you to call on. If they are too small for a toll-free phone number, then I don’t want to do business with them.

After all, you are looking for an established ticket broker. Read their site to see how long they’ve been in business. I’m less trustful of a newer company, and know one that’s been around for years is going to offer me more options (i.e.- better tickets) because they’re experienced. I also prefer to find a bigger company. Again, this is purely to insure that I’m buying from a more established entity. You might find the right “little guy” who offers you a great deal, but I know the odds are that a large company (i.e.- 20 or more employees) is going to be more stable and reliable. Plus, it means they’ve got more people working to find the tickets I need.

Try to avoid the cookie cutter ticket broker web sites. There are ticket software companies that provide little ticket brokers with a low cost web presence. It’s basically the same site template with a different name & logo on it. Why is this bad? It isn’t necessarily, but it does bring in to question their credibility because would you want to spend big money with a company that didn’t even bother to invest in building their own web site? Again, I’m trying to find an established ticket broker from which to buy my tickets.

A good example of a ticket broker web site with a lot of information on their business is TicketCity.com. Their About Us links offer the story of their business and gives a look at some of their customers. Another site loaded with info is CoasttoCoastTickets.com.

2) Do they guarantee their service?
This is something that most people will overlook. But it’s just important in establishing them as a credible ticket broker. I’m always going to be more apt to buy from a ticket broker who offers me a strong guarantee. TicketSolutions.com and TicketCity.com both offer 200% Guarantees. A lot of other brokers just offer me my money back (100% guarantee). But many don’t make any mention of a ticket guarantee. If they don’t list a guarantee on their site, I’m not buying from them.

3) What is their refund policy?
It’s a common practice for ticket brokers to say that “all sales are final” and “there are no refunds or cancellations” after you’ve placed your order. That is because they are selling a dated material. Their tickets have an expiration date on them (the date of the event), so they cannot accept returns like Pottery Barn does. But you need to still make sure you understand the return policy they are offering to you. Most ticket brokers state they will offer a refund only if the entire event cancels. But will not offer a refund if part of event cancels, or is rescheduled in any way. Also, some brokers only offer “in-store credit” if an event cancels. You want to find a ticket broker that will give you ALL of your money back if an event cancels. Or at least all of your money, minus shipping (the cost for them to ship the tickets to you). But most important, make sure you are buying your tickets from a ticket broker that has a refund policy. Because many don’t list a refund policy on their web site, which means you are at their mercy if your event does not happen.

4) Is it safe to buy from them?
Make sure their internet site is secure. Is there a padlock or secured page icon present on the transaction page of their site. If not, your ticket order is not secure. Do they use any 3rd party software to verify the security of their service? Common services you might find to indicate a ticket broker web site is secure are: Verisign secured, Trust E, Verified by Visa, Mastercard SecureCode, Habeas, BBB Online Reliability Program and HackerSafe by ScanAlert.
If you don’t know much about the web and cannot tell if they are “secure”, then call them to ask questions. But some of this goes back to #1 above, does the ticket broker site provide you information to know who they are? Often times that can be the difference in deciding to buy or not. You want to make the ticket purchase as similar as you can to walking into a department store and buying something from a sales agent. See them, know them and make sure you know how to reach them after the sale.
Also, avoid any sites asking for extraneous information like social security number and driver’s license number. If they are asking for those, then move on to someone else.

5) Do they have a published privacy policy?
The purpose of a Privacy Policy is to keep your information from being shared. Most people buy online without ever considering whether the site they used offers a stated privacy policy. That’s a huge mistake. You want to make sure the ticket broker you purchase tickets from has a stated privacy policy. It should say that they are only using your information to process your order and they will not share your information (ever) with any other companies. Trust E is a company that verifies site privacy policies, you can see an example of their service on TicketsNow.com.

Those are the main things you should know in selecting the right ticket broker to buy from. But remember to use your instincts. If a deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is. And if a ticket site just doesn’t feel right, then move on to the next one.

Some other random information about ticket brokers and buying tickets online:

* Majority of ticket brokers list the same inventory. There is a common practice amongst brokers to share inventory feeds with each other. In doing so, they wind up with the same set of tickets on hundreds of sites. If you go search you’ll find the same set of tickets listed on multiple sites. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means that you’re best served finding the original source of the tickets you want. Because all of those other sites listing those tickets, are applying a % markup to the tickets in order to make some money when those tickets sell.

* The internet is great for buying tickets. But I suggest you call the broker you want to buy tickets from. This can be a scary proposition because there are plenty of ticket brokers who are fairly gruff when speak to them on the phone. But remember, their purpose is not to win awards for their politeness; just to find you some great tickets at the lowest price possible. And calling the ticket broker means you don’t have to be worried about the tickets already being sold. They can check availability while you are on the phone with them. It also means, you might be able to negotiate their price down. There are still a few brokers who will work with you a little on price, as long as you don’t try to strong-arm them. Ask for a better price and you might get it. But some brokers are rock solid on their selling price. One thing you might offer is to use a Visa or Mastercard, because the fees charged by credit card companies are lower on these, than on American Express. If you are in the same city, you might also offer to go pay cash if they can hold the tickets for you.

* Either buy from a local ticket broker or buy from a big guy. Why? Because it provides you better recourse if there’s a problem with your tickets. Now here is where I’m going to give you some contrasting advice. I think the best person to buy from is either one of the larger, more established ticket brokers or from someone local. I’m not saying there are not many great, little brokers, around the country that you can buy from. But I’m just playing the averages and saying you’ll have better security on your transaction if you either use the big guys, or someone you can go see face-to-face. You might pay a little more in buying from a bigger broker, but it’s usually worth it if you want to be sure what you’re getting.

* When is the right time to buy from a ticket broker The secondary ticket market ebbs and flows. Sometimes certain shows are on the upswing, and sometimes their stock is crashing. Don’t buy in the hype of the show early on. The downside of this, is that it’s possible a show will be at it’s lowest price then and only continue to go up, which probably happens 20% of the time. Also, you might miss on the really great seats if someone is a big fan like you and gobbles them up. Buy when you hear bad weather is going to affect the game or event. Check in the last day before an event. Check in a few hours before an event. There are no full proof rules that will guarantee you get a better price, but some of these might help. But the most important rule I’d suggest is once you decide to spend the money to use a ticket broker’s service - do your research and then buy the tickets you want. And don’t look back after you’ve bought them. Just go enjoy your event.

StubHub: The biggest fraud in the ticket business?

StubHub was founded in 2000 by Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr.  Two MBA students who saw an opportunity to build a destination site in the Secondary-Ticketing market.  The original name of their company was Liquid Seats.  The basic premise of the business was to develop a marketplace that would put ticket buyers and ticket sellers together. [Note: Baker is no longer with, although he has still has equity. He is now running Viagogo, which is basically 'Stubhub Europe'.]

Back in 2001 they signed on their first team partner - the Phoenix Coyotes.  Liquid Seats (now: StubHub) and the Coyotes sent a letter to the Coyotes season ticket holders informing them that they could sell their extra tickets through the web site.  From these transactions StubHub makes money by charging a 10% fee to the buyer, and a 15% to the seller.  So their total commission on each order is 25%.  Those early successes drew financial backing some notable Silicon Valley executives, including former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Steve Young.  So StubHub was able to ramp up their operations and start working on more team deals, and branding the company.

StubHub started spending aggressively to build their name on the internet.  The poured tens of millions of dollars into different advertising mediums over the next few years.  They made huge radio buys across the country.  They paid for online ads with major internet sites.  And they spend lavishly on Pay-Per-Click campaigns with Google and Yahoo (once: Overture).  They also embarked on a huge PR campaign - and Fluhr was quoted in ticket articles around the country.  And they started to sell the message that they were the “fan to fan exchange”.   Saying that “fans supply the ticket and set the price”.  They blanketed everything they did with their message.

They also used their funding to add personnel and improve their web presence.  They hired numerous people to work in their customer service department handling ticket problems their customers were encountering.  And they added loads of PR and Marketing people. And they also stationed sales reps in large cities around the country to try to capture more corporate business.

The other area StubHub started throwing money was at “partnerships” with various sports teams.  These deals, like the one they did with the Coyotes, would give StubHub access to the team’s list of customers.  Thus allowing StubHub to market directly to these season ticket holders.  Today, StubHub boasts “partnerships” with approximately 29 teams in both college and professional sports (15 professional, 14 college).  But does that really give them much marketshare? That is just 15 pro sports teams out of approximately 120 in the four major professional sports.  And just 14 college partnerships, out of the 300+ colleges that compete in basketball and football.  So basically, StubHub has a very small drop in the bucket when it comes to the total “partnerships” that could exist out there with teams/schools.

So StubHub is a slick marketing machine, that has branded themselves as the “fan to fan exchange”.  But if they only have a small number of team partnerships and they don’t own any tickets - then where do all of their tickets come from?

From ticket brokers.

Today, a huge amount of StubHub’s inventory (I’d estimate 80-90%) is directly feed to them by the 1000+ ticket brokers around the USA.  They take data feeds of the tickets owned by ticket brokers, mark the tickets up 15% and then sell those tickets to people who are shopping on Stubhub.com.  And StubHub provides the ticket brokers with branded StubHub envelopes and materials to place in the Fedex envelopes that are shipped to the customer who bought the tickets. So the customer buying the tickets has no idea the tickets came from a ticket broker.  A ticket broker, who that same customer could have bought their tickets from at a lower price (15% less).

So StubHub takes a ticket that is available elsewhere for a lower price, marks it up and sells it to make a profit.  And all the while, they are marketing themselves as the “fan to fan exchange”.  There is no mention on the StubHub web site of this abundance of tickets that they upcharge and sell from the inventory of ticket brokers. And Fluhr has never mentioned this broker revenue stream in any of the newspaper articles he’s been quoted in.  And it is a huge volume of tickets, because some large ticket brokers sell more than a million dollars per year in tickets through StubHub.

Now I’m sure that if he was asked about this business practice, Jeff Fluhr would just say that a ticket broker is a “fan” like anyone else, and has just as much right to use their marketplace.  But the reality is that StubHub went out and sought these business arrangements.  StubHub setup the inventory feeds from ticket brokers because StubHub needs inventory to sell.  If every ticket broker’s inventory was removed from StubHub today, the site would not be able to sustain their breakneck pace of sales.  In-fact, it’s possible that StubHub would fail if they didn’t have this inventory provided to them by ticket brokers.

Within the FAQ section on StubHub’s web site they list the following question “Where do these tickets come from?”. There answer makes no mention of Ticket Brokers providing the majority of their inventory. They say it’s “season ticket holders” and other “ticket holders”, but don’t mention their biggest supplier (by far) the ticket brokers. Clearly, StubHub doesn’t want this fact to be known by the masses. If it was, I think StubHub would lose a lot of their luster.

So then why did Ebay just pay $300 Million dollars to buy StubHub?  And more importantly, how could Ebay view StubHub worthy of that type of investment, if the main thing StubHub is doing is just reselling tickets owned by brokers at a higher price.  Those are questions that would need to be answered by Ebay and StubHub, I could only guess that Ebay might not know the full extent of how much of the StubHub inventory is directly provided by ticket brokers.  If they did, then they are in total denial about that aspect of the business.  Otherwise, why would they pay so much for what is a essential another ticket broker site (no better than RazorGator, Ticketsnow or others).  Sure StubHub has some team relationships, but they paid for those arrangements with their venture money.  So when those deals expire, they’ll have to pay more to keep them going.  The technology at StubHub is nothing sophisticated, in-fact RazorGator and Ticketmaster have nearly identical mechanisms for allowing people to post and sell their inventory.  And Ebay themselves already allows people to post and sell their tickets on their site, so they gained nothing in technology from the deal.

So the deal Ebay made for StubHub seems like nothing more than a desperate attempt by Ebay to jumpstart their slumping ticket sales category. Ebay Tickets is still the largest marketplace for tickets in the world, but in recent years had been losing ground to other competitors, who charged smaller fees to list tickets. Ebay buying StubHub drew a lot of attention in the press, but what does the deal really do for Ebay in the long-term. The one thing StubHub has been most successful at is branding their name. But to do that they’ve had to spend huge amounts of money, and much of that money has been venture capital.  So to keep that up they’ll have to continue to spend those same amounts. Is Ebay going to be willing to pay that price to keep it going? And more importantly, why wouldn’t ebay have spent 1/5th of that $300 Million to just work on their own branding in the ticket space? Lots of questions about this merger, and none seem to have answers that make sense. I think this partnership between Ebay and StubHub is in for some stormy days ahead.

 Don’t believe the tickets on StubHub’s site are mostly ticket broker seats?  Then go look up some tickets on TicketsNow or TicketLiquidator.  Then go to StubHub and look for those exact same seats.  Chances are that you will find those exact same tickets are also listed on StubHub, only at a higher % markup.

So all of this begs the question - what’s special about StubHub? And why would I buy my tickets on StubHub when I can buy them elsewhere cheaper?  Those are very good questions.

How to buy concert tickets

Best Ways to Buy Concert Tickets

So you hear that the show you’ve always wanted to see is coming to town.  Now what.  The first steps you should take is to find out what venue they are playing at, which will tell you which ticket distrbutor is handling the show.  Ticketmaster has a monopoly on the primary ticket market, so they are the most likely one selling the tickets.  But find out just in-case it is one of their smaller competitors.

Once you know where the show will be played and who is going to handle the sale of tickets.  You should visit the sites for the venue, the artist and the ticket distributor (we’ll assume Ticketmaster in this case).  From the Ticketmaster site you’ll be to determine when the tickets go on-sale to the public (date & time).  Also, what the price of the tickets will be.  And most importantly IF there will be any pre-sales for this show.

A pre-sale is when they sell a portion of the tickets to the show before the official on-sale date to the public.  Pre-sales are becoming more and more common for concerts these days.  Often a show will have more than 1 pre-sale for different segments of their fans.  The pre-sales will usually require that you have a password to participate.  These passwords are readily accessible to you on the artists’ official fan club site, or on a local radio station site.  You’ll just need to do a little digging to find the password you need to participate.  The tickets they sell during the pre-sale are only a portion of what they will put on-sale at the main on-sale, so it’s possible they will not have certain areas available.  But it’s usually much easier to get tickets during the pre-sale (less competition), so you should consider buying the tickets that are offered.  Unless you want to hold out to buy floor seats, which might not be offered at a pre-sale, then you buy what is offered to you during the pre-sale to lock down some good seats.  You could always try again during the official on-sale and if you get better seats, sell your extras to a ticket broker.

On the day of the official on-sale you need to decide if you are going to buy on the phone, the internet or go in-person to a location.  Going to an on-sale location, which may be the venue itself or one of the outlets selling the tickets is often the method to score the best possible tickets.  But it comes with drawbacks.  If you are not 1st in-line you might not get those great seats.  And the competition to be 1st in line often has people waiting at locations hours in advance of the on-sale.  Also, very often I’ve seen the locations for the on-sale have trouble with their computers causing everyone at that place to be delayed in buying tickets.  When this happens you’re generally screwed against getting great seats, unless you can quickly buy them on the phone.

I think the most reliable method for buying them is on the phone.  But always suggest that you use the internet as a backup.  Do both.  Because you’ll find that scoring them on the internet is often much easier than the phones or at a location; you just can’t control the location of the seats you are given.  Meaning, you plug in how many you want to buy and Ticketmaster gives you back whatever option it pulls.  There is no picking.  Whereas on the phone you can at least ask the operator to try to get you tickets within certain parameters.  Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you that Ticketmaster phone agents are notorious for being a little “slow”.  They are working a low-paying, phone order job.  So don’t expect a perfect customer service experience, because odds are you won’t get it.  But if you get on the phone lines a few minutes before the show goes on-sale and stall by listening to pre-recorded options or asking the live operator questions you’ve got a chance to get some good seats.  But again, I would suggest calling while you are also trying on your computer (or standing in-line at an outlet).

What if you don’t get tickets through the public on-sale?  You’ve got a few options.  First, don’t give up on the box office.  Continue to call to check inventory, or check for tickets via your computer even after it’s “sold out”.  Vast majority of these shows “release” tickets that were being held back for various reasons (e.g.- promoter holding extras, or people’s credit cards declined during the official on-sale, etc).  So you might get lucky and catch a good release.  There is almost always a release (or a few) the day before the show and the day of the show.

You’ve also got the option to buy tickets from a ticket broker.  If you do that make sure that you call around to check inventory and pricing from a couple.  Use the internet to help guide you, but you’re are usually better off buying from a local source for tickets.  Or if not, then at least buying from a larger broker who has been in business for a number of years.  If you just buy from a site on the web, you are most likely paying a markup % on the tickets you purchase.  Definitely avoid buying from StubHub, who doesn’t own their own tickets and marks up everything and any shady looking sites.  Try sites like TicketLiquidator, TicketCity or TicketsNow.  Just make sure you compare what is being often to you between those sites.

 You can also buy from Ebay, Craiglists or the newspaper classifieds.  Just be very careful if you go this route.  Majority of scams for tickets (e.g.- fake tickets, stolen tickets, etc) come from these channels.  And you have NO recourse if you buy in this manner (maybe with Ebay who has some fraud prevention options, but not the others).  There are tons of horror stories about people who bought tickets on one of these places and was scammed.  You may want that cheap price, but it’s not worth it if the deal isn’t real.

You can also buy on the streets from a ticket scalper on the day of the show.  This is a common option people try in order to get a lower price.  It’s a lot of work to make sure you get a good deal.  And again you’ve got no recourse if the tickets turn out to not be legit.  But it is a viable option if you want to work a little bit to try to save a few bucks.

Last couple of things about buying the tickets directly from the venue or box office (Ticketmaster) themself.  Expect to pay 8% to 15% extra in fees.  That’s how Ticketmaster and these distributors make their money, so just get used to it.  There are no more “free lunches” in concerts anymore.  The promoters and bands see the big money there is to be made and mark prices up accordingly to capitalize on that.  So just expect to pay a lot for the tickets, it’s pretty much a fact of life now.  Why not focus on the enjoyment you are going to have at the show, instead of how much you paid for the tickets.  If the show is killer, you won’t ever remember how much you paid.

But remember to do your homework.  If you don’t go through the steps above you might not get the tickets you want.  It takes some effort these days to ensure you get the seats you want to that hot concert.  But the reward can be those great seats in the front row to see XYZ perform.  And if you don’t want to put in the effort, then just call a ticket broker from the start and let them do the work for you.

So this post will help you:
Buy concert tickets for cheap.
Get the concert tickets straight from the box office.
Know when to use a ticket broker.