I need to buy tickets for a sold out show. Of the various “Sold Out Tickets” services, StubHub seems to be the most popular- but, I’ve never used them before. Any Dopers with experience?
StubHub gives me the options to print out my tickets right away. I’m not going to drop a big hunk of coin only to have the concert venue laugh at my tickets, am I?
Is StubHub who I ought to be dealing with, or does anyone recommend a better website?
P.S. I’m old enough to remember when buying tickets for a popular show then selling them at a mark-up was called “Scalping” and society widely agreed that scalpers were bad people. However, like most things unethical, it seems to be a legitimate business venture these days, so I don’t believe I’m breaking any board rules by asking about it here.
StubHub is extremely legit. It’s still possible to be scammed at any site, but on places like StubHub you have protections. They are a safe source, but probably not the cheapest. Which is how the world works.
I have bought and sold multiple tickets at StubHub, and yes, it’s completely legit. If there are shenanigans they’re on the Ticketmaster side, where a whole lot of quality tickets tend to make it into the hands of people selling them on StubHub. And I agree that I’m not sure when scalping tickets became so above board–AFAIK it’s still illegal in my state.
I’ve bought and sold tickets on both Craigslist and eBay and as long as you’re careful and trust your instincts, you usually won’t have any trouble.
A friend bought Bulls tickets on StubHub and got to the game only to find out they were no good (someone else bought the same tickets and got there before they did). YMMV.
Stubhub is just a ticket market place. They aren’t actually the owners of the tickets being sold. They do however take precautions to ensure that the tickets are legit. I have purchased tickets to numerous sporting, concert and theater events on stubhub with no problem.
Former ticket scalper here: Is the event being handled by Ticket Master?
If so, you might be able to save yourself some cash by calling TM everyday around 10am. Sometimes, the producers release tickets that were previously reserved for the show’s staff. Whatever they don’t use, goes back to to TM for public consumption.
I’m not sure what your comfort zone is, but I would do this all the way until the day of the show. Worse case scenario, you can always but tickets from a scalper on the street. And if you wait until the show is just about to start, you might even be able to get tickets for under face value from a scalper who’s just looking to dump his remaining tickets.
Just another voice to say that I’ve bought and sold many tickets on StubHub over the last several years without incident. Sometimes for more than face value, and sometimes for less. But I’ve never had a problem with a ticket being bad or anything like that.
I agree. A lot of times something will be “sold out” but then more tickets will open up. I might not chance it if it was something I absolutely had to see, but if there was a concert I’d like to go to, but not enough to pay the inflated StubHub prices, I’d wait and see if any more came available on the Ticketmaster site.
Another vote for “keep checking Ticketmaster, up to and including day of show.” Not only does the promotor, band, etc. release tickets but often tickets are held back to try to thwart scalpers a bit.
If you are really committed, go to the box office the day of the show and stand there until there’s a ticket drop. And believe me, there will be a ticket drop. It takes nerves of steel, however–my husband has them and I don’t!
Does not compute! Did you pay your per-character posting fee?
I know StubHub is legit. If you need a negatively point against them, they had some of the most annoying goddamn radio commercials several years back. They involved air horns and a guy squawking “STUBHUB!” over and over.
All good advice, but this show will be a birthday present to the person I’ll be taking so I want to safely have them in advance. I do, however, see the prices on StubHub coming down as we get closer to the show- so, I may wait just a little bit longer before I actually buy them.
While I’m waiting it out, I’ll also check TicketMaster as per Shakes’ advice.
. . . aaaand tickets are back on Ticketmaster (minus those that I just bought!).
There were actually plenty of seats available.
The first time I checked Ticketmaster, it didn’t specifically say “Sold Out”, instead it said “Tickets are unavailable at this time, this may be for one of the following reasons:”
One of the reasons was “Event may be sold out”. Another reason was that “Tickets may not yet be on sale”- well, I knew that tickets had already been on sale for some time so I knew that wasn’t the reason. I don’t remember the other possible reasons listed, but none of them seemed to apply, so I interpreted the message as “Sold Out”.
Still, it wasn’t strongly worded as “Sold Out” so I checked Ticketmaster three more times that same week and got the exact same message. Seeing the message over and over again is why I figured it was sold out.
Definitely spent a significant amount less than I would have on StubHub. Still, I’m glad to have started this Thread since I’ll surely be facing a sold out show for some other event in the future.
This is not a new problem. Back in the day, a number of Ticketron (yup, the other guys) outlets learned how to cheat the system. They were supposed to use the terminal to place a reserve hold on the type of seats that a customer asked for, then show the customer the seating chart and get definite approval before turning the reserve hold into a purchase. However, the system allowed tickets to be printed and then the seats released back into the system for sale, if the operator supplied a seemingly-valid reason for this, such as customer unable to pay, print error, and so on. Those released seats would show up in the system and some other outlet would sell them without knowing the history (since the system showed them as seats available for sale).
My personal record for experiencing this was when two more sets of people showed up with tickets for the seats my girlfriend and I were already occupying. Since in those days the admission people tore the ticket and kept the long piece, most of the time the info about which tickets were printed first, etc. was long gone by the time people were trying to take their seats. It used to drive the ushers at the venues crazy.
Fortunately, back in those days you could often get tickets which were not Ticketron tickets at the venue box office. I’d often show up at the MSG box office and buy a bunch of tickets (for all my friends) that way. I’d rattle off a band name and date, and the box office agent would go “not announced” or “not on sale yet” for most of them, but I’d get tickets for some shows. I’d repeat this until I got tickets for all the events we wanted.
Thanks, drewtwo99! It’s my niece’s 18th birthday. I’m taking her and her younger sister to see The Monkees (I started them in on my Monkees DVD sets about 5 years ago and they’ve become devoted fans- this will be their first time seeing them in concert!).
As a general rule if a ticket reseller is reputable you will have no problems. I’ve used StubHub before, as well as Ticket City (might be a local reseller in Austin - not sure if they’re national). I got physical tickets from them both.
Established resellers won’t risk their reputation on dodgy tickets. Now, buying from people on Craigslist - buyer beware. I’ve had success there, but I’ve held my breath walking into the show every time!
There was a Planet Money episode on this issue last month. Check it out here. I found it pretty interesting, and it definitely increased my respect for Kid Rock … not that I had any respect or, for that matter, any thought at all about him before.
