Ticket reselling, or scalping, was once limited to classified ads, PO boxes and the sidewalks around a major event. While some of that still exists, the online world of ticket reselling has morphed into big business.
Ticket Resellers come in many types – but the two principle types are companies that buy the tickets themselves and then resell them and companies that act as brokers helping individual ticket buyers to resell their tickets. As our list of the top online ticket resellers will show, regardless of type of sale this secondary marketplace is booming.
However, recent events have put this marketplace under scrutiny. When tickets went on sale for the Spring 2009 Bruce Springsteen tour, Ticketmaster started directing Springsteen ticket customers to TicketsNow, a third-party ticketing site that Ticketmaster owns. Springsteen, nicknamed the Boss, publicly denounced Ticketmaster and this led to various investigations by state consumer agencies. Just when things were settling down, TicketsNow started contacting Springsteen ticket buyers for the May 18th Washington DC concert to tell them that their tickets really don’t exist. I should note that up until today I had tickets (real tickets) to that concert, and my research on these ticket sites was a result of me deciding which site to use in my attempt to sell my tickets.
While a number of state laws regulate ticket reselling, Senator Schumer of New York recently unveiled a proposal for national legislation aimed at giving fans a better chance to buy hot concert tickets at face value before ticket resellers scoop them up and raise the prices. Meanwhile a law, SF0759, was just signed in Minnesota requiring promoters, venues and others to release to the general public all available tickets for an event, and the law prohibits primary ticket companies, like Ticketmaster Entertainment, from redirecting customers to secondary market sites, like the company’s TicketsNow subsidiary.
So while the future may involve some changes for this online ticket classified listings, for now these sites are booming! While there are many ticket resellers, we’ve selected the top 5 sites that include the option to broker ticket sales for individuals.
RazorGator.com
Promising to help you “Live on the Edge of your Seat,” Razorgator has its roots as an offline seller and thus is the oldest of the online ticket sites. RazorGator has been the #3 player behind StubHub and TicketsNow, but as the visitor data from Compete.com shows, they are a distant third.
RazorGator just brought in $10 million in debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital in and they say they will use the money to aggressively scale up its operation.
StubHub.com
StubHub is credited with inventing the online ticket resale market in 2000 redefining the ticket resale market in a way that supports the fans, not just the brokers or venues. While they are now owned by eBay, their listings are separate from eBay’s auctions. While most of the other sites have now copied this, StubHub was the first site to offer a guarantee, covering both buyers and sellers. In 2006 they were also the first to offer interactive Web 2.0 style maps of all major venues. This year StubHub launched their PriceMapper tool for sellers. Similar to many tools that are available for eBay sellers, PriceMapper enables users to compare prices of sold tickets with currently listed tickets. Other sites are sure to copy these features – but for now StubHub is the most feature rich of these sites – though at 15% commissions they are not the cheapest for sellers. However, Paypal does wave fees for sellers receiving StubHub payments via Paypal so that is another nice feature.
TicketNetwork.com and TicketLiquidator.com
As I write this review the real time feed for TicketNetwork is reporting sales of “7,307,287 tickets to 82,403 events worth $1.24 B.” TicketNetwork claims to be the only ticket exchange in the secondary market that meets the credit card industry new PCI standards for data security. The TicketNetwork and TicketLquidator sites are more geared to large resellers, but anybody can sell their tickets here. You won’t find all the bells and whistles of a StubHub but you might make the most money here as they charge the lowest commission rates at just 10%. Ticketnetwork also runs the Ticket Summit, which they claim is the leading trade show and conference in the secondary ticket industry. Tickets to the conference are $299 and, as of now, none of these sites are reselling tickets to this event!
TicketsNow.com
Every industry has a lightning rod and for the secondary ticket marketplace TicketsNow is filling that bill. While it’s services and pricing are very similar to StubHub, the policies and practices of the combined Ticketmaster and TicketsNow has created concern. TicketsNow is facing numerous lawsuits, including a class action suit against TicketsNow just filed in New Jersey. Given the number of pending lawsuits, one has to wonder which they have more of, customer service agents or lawyers! In Ontario, they are considering new provisions to the Ticket Speculation Act that “would prohibit related primary and secondary ticket sellers from selling tickets to the same event.” This proposal is very specifically aimed at TicketsNow.
Viagogo.com
Viagogo is a player on the international front and has rapidly become a leader in the United Kingdom and Europe. In the US they are lagging behind but they have several key things going for them. Their founder, Eric Baker, was one of the co-founders of StubHub. Viagogo has raised over 70 million in venture capital with an investor list that includes tennis greats Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, German media mogul Herbert Kloiber, and international financier Jacob Rothschild. Oh, and in case you get confused reading some of the news item on their site, Ticket Touts are the British version of scalpers. From a sellers perspective they are the least transparent, largely due to the fact that they have to deal with international issues, as the fees are not explained until you provide all the details.
Oh, and my tickets to see the Boss? Even though TicketNews is reporting that Bruce Springsteen tickets are available at bargain prices on TicketNetwork, I doubled my money using one of these ticket sites.
By David Silversmith
May 14, 2009
© Daype Inc.
photo credit: Kevin Abbott