A TicketMaster Resale Perspective: The Reasons For Unscrupulous Ticket Prices

The dazzling lights, the pulsing energy of the crowd, the anticipation of a live performance – these are the moments fans live for. Yet, in the quest to secure a live event experience, many find themselves entangled in the web of TicketMaster resale markets and excessive “add-on” fees. Indeed, tickets, even with “bloated” service fees, can sell out in minutes on the primary market thanks to scalpers and unfair practices. Worse, even though tickets are available on secondary markets such as StubHub and VIvidSeats, these resell tickets are expensive with more “extra” service fees.

In this article, I’ll look into the reasons for these unscrupulous ticket prices that we see on both primary markets and especially on secondary markets such as TicketMaster resale. This includes excessive service fees that ticket vendors first charged on the primary market and then a resell vendor will charge more service fees on a secondary resell market. Further, I’ll look into the reasons why so many resale tickets have exorbitant prices.

“As an artist, I want my fans to be able to see me perform live without having to pay exorbitant prices on the secondary market.”

Kid Rock

1. For TicketMaster Resale Live Events, Fans Pay Exorbitant Fees Twice.

For those of us attending live events such as concerts and theater performance, we are consistently hit with excessive fees over and beyond the face value of the ticket. The biggest outlet selling us these primary tickets is TicketMaster. However, there are other primary ticketing outlets such as Eventbrite, Tickets.com, AXS, and Etix to name a few. In some cases, these “extra” fees are up to 30% of the face value of the ticket. 

Worse if you end up buying your tickets on the resale market, you end up paying for these exorbitant fees twice. For instance, the original buyer first pays for two concert tickets with these “extra” fees on TicketMaster. Then the original buyer decides to resell them on TicketMaster. Next, another concert goer buys those same tickets again on the TicketMaster resale site. As a result, the price the resale buyer pays reflects both the original ticket fees and the resale service fees. So in many cases, the resale buyers “extra” fees are really doubled on the secondary market. For more information on this, see this piece, For Resale Live Events, Fans Pay Exorbitant Fees Twice.

“I don’t want people to have to take out a second mortgage just to see me perform.”

Prince

2. Reasons Why Tickets End Up on TicketMaster Resale Secondary Markets.

There are many reasons that high-priced tickets end up on secondary markets such as TicketMaster resale. The top reasons are scalpers and insiders who are looking to make a profit. However, there are other reasons, This includes pre-sales tickets and original ticket purchasers that due to unforeseen events cannot attend the live event. See below, for a detail discussion on why so many live event tickets end up on the resale secondary markets. 

a. Web Scraping Bots: Scalpers Use to Buy Tickets Faster Than Humans.

Many tech-savvy scalpers will use web-scrapers to buy tickets in bulk. Further, these bots are faster than any human could purchase tickets. Indeed, this is a significant issue in the ticketing industry. Moreover, scalpers’ techniques continue to evolve as ticket platforms update their web sites to limit these bots. However, usually these countermeasures are ineffective and a never ending battle of “white-hat vs. black-hat” . This is because the scrapers find new back doors to continue to buy tickets en masse.

As an example of how this works, a scalper using these bots can snatch up hundreds of tickets for a popular concert within seconds. Thus this leaves genuine fans empty-handed. Then these acquired tickets are resold at inflated prices on secondary markets such as TicketMaster Resale, StubHub, and VividSeats to name a few. Thus, the scalpers profit at the expense of fans.

b. The Insiders: Tickets Not Offered on Primary Market and Sold on TicketMaster Resale Markets.

Here ticket vendors do not even offer blocks of tickets on their primary ticket platform. Instead, they provide these tickets to Insiders. Insiders can include performers, managers, promoters, and sponsors to name a few. So, ticket vendors allocate these tickets directly to insiders. In a lot of cases, these insider ticket holders have no intention to attend the live event. Instead, they will list the tickets on a secondary market such ash TicketMaster Resale for a higher price. For example a sponsor holds back front-row seats for a major sporting event. Then, they list them later on the resale market at a premium.

c. Pre-Sale Tickets: A Less Likely Way Tickets Could End Up on TicketMaster Resale Markets.

Pre-sale tickets are provided by fan clubs, venues, and business sponsors as a perk where their patrons purchase live event tickets before the general public. However, these tickets can still find their way to resale markets. Surprisingly, there are an increasing number of pre-sale ticket types. These include.

Pre-Sale Ticket Types

• Fan Clubs: These are exclusive blocks of tickets for those who are devoted to the live event artist. Performers usually negotiate a block of tickets for their die-hard fans and distribute them through fan clubs.
• Sponsors / Credit Card Deals Pre-Sales. Here businesses will sponsor events and get a block of tickets as part of a deal. This is very common for major payment providers such as American Express and MasterCard.
• Venue / Promoter Pre-Sales. Here the ticketing platform allocates tickets to the venue hosting the live performance or the event promoter. These tickets are then released to their patrons as part of the pre-sale.
• Premium Seats / Package Pre-Sales. Also as part of pre-sales activities, some seats are offered by the ticket vendor as VIP packages. In this case, the vendor sells the seats at a premium price bundled with things like a backstage pass. 

So, in many cases these pre-sale tickets are purchased by legitimate fans that intend to attend the live event. However, especially when the tickets were bought at a discount or for a sold out event, these tickets can appear on secondary resale markets. For instance, a preferred credit card holder might buy the maximum allowed number of presale tickets with no intention of attending the event. Instead, they choose to sell them for a profit on TicketMaster Resale or other secondary markets. 

“I think it’s important for artists to remember where they came from and not forget about the fans who supported them from the beginning.”

Prince

d. Ticket Holder Who Cannot Attend Event: Justifiable Reason to Resell Tickets.

A legitimate reason for tickets appearing on a TicketMaster resale market is when the original buyers can no longer attend the event. For instance, a life events such as illness, work commitments, or unforeseen travel issues can result in fans having to sell their tickets. In these cases, the resale market provides a platform for ticket holders to recoup their expenses. Better yet, these secondary markets enable other fans to attend an event they might have otherwise missed. 

Conclusion.

As a result of the reasons above, reasonably priced tickets quickly sell out on the primary ticketing platform. This is very discouraging for fans. Here is an example of what happens to infuriate fans:

“Recently, shows that have gone on sale at 10:00:00am have shown that no tickets were available at 10:00:01, but have immediately shown tickets available through Ticketmaster’s “resale” option. The option states that this is for “fans who can’t use their tickets, …”

Change’s Petition, Put an end to Ticketmaster’s resale scam

For more on ticket gouging and ticket brokers, see InviteManager’s  7 Ways Ticket Brokers Get Tickets. Also, for ideas on what we can do to both minimize the unscrupulous use of secondary resale markets and excessive fees, see my article, Best Ways To Get Surging Ticketmaster Resale Prices Under Control.

Best Ways To Get Surging Ticketmaster Resale Prices Under Control

For more from Unvarnished Facts, see the latest articles on Finances.