Is reselling tickets more profitable than selling?

This is unfortunately something that is all too common in this day and age. Ok here’s how it is from someone who works in this industry, day in, day out and is meant as insight, not a rant.

The selling of tickets, via websites such as ViaGoGo or GetMeIn is not related to, or how, Ticketmaster sell for events (I will explain later regarding getmein/Ticketmaster affiliation). Events get “sold out” for various reasons including event pre-sales via the promoter/venue’s sponsored clubs and sites. When an event goes on general sale after such pre-sales there is not always high inventory available. The promoters/venues are in complete ownership of all ticket sales and allocations. Primary ticket agencies such as Ticketmaster, SEE tickets etc. will sell as directed.

A huge misconception of the general public is that all tickets for sale are on sale via a central hub that all primary ticket agencies can “lucky dip” out of or that “evil Ticketmaster” owns all the tickets and is pawing all the money. This is most certainly not the case.

A ticket agency is purely an outlet for a “product” to be sold to the general public. The “product” (in this case One Direction tickets) is owned by the producer/promoter/Venue who will, in turn, pay the ticket agents a minor fee (or service fees are added on top of ticket price by the agency where full or majority ticket face value will go directly to the promoter).

These service fees will pay for event creation on the agency selling systems(which is more than just pushing a button), online presence, advertising and marketing, dedicated admin and management support of the event, ticket stock control, printing on said stock, ticket dispatch team, fraud prevention, call centre support, customer services support among many other functions of the agency.

When an event is created for sale the promoter/venue will decide on allocations for each agency to sell. This will mean(purely for example) on a 1000 seated event perhaps 40% of the tickets will go on sale via Ticketmaster,40% via SEE tickets, 10% via Stargreen and 10% via venue(this is an example and not actually the % etc as that will vary on contractual agreements etc).

If there is a presale on this event (let’s say via SEE tickets) then they may sell out there allocation quickly, at which point the promoter may shuffle the allocations remaining across the board so on the on sale morning SEE may have sold 40% and now have 20% to sell, Ticketmaster with 20%, star with 10% and venue with 10%.

On high demand events general on sales there can be up to 20,000 people queuing online to purchase which means they can sell out almost immediately. Once it does via any agency they will in turn request the promoter for any remaining allocation to release on sale so allocations will be shuffled again, taking from agents not selling as quickly and added to those who are near to (or are) sold out. (Kinda like a stock exchange).

On some occasions the venue/promoter may have held off addition “roll” dates for the event so once they think demand has surpassed availability they may give the agents the go ahead to release these dates.(The reason they are not released initially is usually to ensure the artist/production isn’t selling to empty houses and to give customers who failed to get tickets on the first event a second or third attempt.)

They may also decide to increase the capacity of the event. Perhaps the upper levels were not initially released due to expected low demand or certain areas were held off for reasons such as possible camera/lighting rigs that have since been moved. In such a situation these allocations will be released via the agents or venue by the promoter/venue request. This will explain one reason why some sold out events will have allocation at a later date. Ticketmaster (and other primary ticket agents) will always advise customers to “return and check back at a later date” for this reason.

Another service agencies do to reduce “scalpers” (who we hate as much as the public. They make our jobs harder and are partially the reason ticket prices go up) is we tend to have set ticket limits on each card purchase. This is to give everyone a better chance, you may be told 4-10 ticket may be purchased maximum per cardholder. Once a high demand event is sold out programmes are run manually by event management teams in the primary agency (and venues) through all bookings to locate cards that have breached maximum ticket limits (folk who have bought more tickets than allowed) and all excess tickets will be cancelled and card refunded of the difference. These tickets are now unsold will then be re released for sale through Primary channels.

Should tickets go on sale via legitimate secondary sites such as ViaGoGo, lastminute.com and getmein (eBay is not a legitimate secondary site and has no “safety net” terms and conditions for customers against fraud) these tickets are done so via customers reselling for the most part.

Customers can post whatever value they deem acceptable for the tickets (it is only illegal to resell football and Olympic tickets). They may not even have tickets yet physically to sell but with getmein’s terms and conditions should a seller fail to delivery on the tickets sold, the buyer is covered and will receive 150% (of the price they paid) by the seller who will be charged for this (which should act as a deterrent).

If ever inventory is released via a legitimate secondary site(regardless of company affiliation), this will be via the promoters/venue/producer’s direct request. This could be for many reasons (such as special event packages(VIP experiences, meet and greet etc.) Ticketmaster is affiliated with getmein but does not work on same systems (or have access to each other’s customer information etc.). Both companies, though both situated in the same business umbrella, work completely independently of each other.

Ticketmaster decided to take on getmein as a result of the increase of unofficial or supported secondary sites that have over the years sprung up and fraudulently scammed unsuspecting customers, leaving them with heavy bills and no tickets. Customers often don’t even realise that sites they have purchased through may be completely bogus or have not customer support policy.

By affiliating with Ticketmaster, Getmein has been able to reassure customers that they have a trustworthy secondary sales point, should all go wrong and they fail to receive purchased tickets, they will be covered by a legitimate terms and conditions policy. It may not be the only (or savoury) option for the customer but at least the customer can be assured that all bases are safely covered. Furthermore, staff of primary ticket agencies often have in their employment contracts agreements that should they be found reselling personal tickets at inflated prices on secondary sites they can be reprimanded or even dismissed. This is how severely most agencies attempt to regulate the secondary market to try keep ticket prices down.

This is by far a simplified description of the ticketing industry, primary and secondary ticket agencies and fraud prevention terms and conditions. Of course there are other major factors contributing to selling an event. I don’t profess to know all aspects of the ticketing market nor do I speak of any company directly so some of the above may vary slightly depending on the companies mentioned of course.

What is central to every official primary ticket agency is selling tickets to the events to the best possible standard and to try ensure their customers receive the best possible tickets to the events from allocations available to them.

What is central to all “scalpers”(who also often sell fake tickets on eBay) and customers reselling at hugely inflated prices is personal profit, no more. Unfortunately laws do not cover the price of a ticket any more than the price of a family heirloom at auction, it is a side effect of the current market place, which is open to everyone.

I think that when a ticket is bought your name is printed on it and you carry proof of who you are to use the ticket at the event to stop all this scam/tout….

StubHub has become a massive rip-off via e-bay. It seems to be prepared to sell ticket for MORE than face value… I thought this sort of touting is illegal?
Obviously when I was able to bid in a normal e-bay auction it’s up to me if I’m prepared to pay a premium for my tickets. But an asking price well above face value is quite a different matter…
For example, tickets for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ live shows are face value £65 but StubHub is offering these ticketa at £201.76 each. This is more than THREE times the face value. No amount of ‘reassurance’ about the security of the purchase justifies this. I’ve seen a similar mark-up on tickets for international cricket games in England last summer – despite a specific ECB ban on ticket resale above face value. It’s time Which? took a close look at StubHub.

I recently bought tickets for Killers concert for my niece. This had to be via a resale site as original tickets were all sold out.

This raised a few issues and how much scope there is for these companies to make profit.
1) Original ticket face value 49.50 pounds (Ticketmaster profit included)
2) Service charge 5.50 pounds.
3) Ticket being sold on Getmein for 78.50 pounds (Getmein is a Ticketmaster company). No doubt seller has to pay Getmein for this service.
4) Getmein add their own 20 pounds service charge per ticket.
5) Final Total cost 108.1 pounds to buy and only arrived 2 days before concert.

Getmein also have the cheek in their T&C to advise that original tickets can be placed directly on Getmein to help keep costs down! I may be naive but believe they can make more money by resale rather than original purchase therefore have no interest in keeping costs down.
They also recommend resale prices to sellers so no doubt take the opportunity to position the price accordingly.

Is it note time these practices were shown to be what they are Offical Ticket Touting which would be illegal if conducted on the street.