Is craig's list safe for buying tickets?

August 18, 2011 8:28 AM

Are Craig's list ticket sellers a fraud?

Is it safe to buy a concert ticket from a "dealer"? how can I know its fake or not? I don't mind paying the the high price for the concert but is the ticket real??? This is for a completely sold out show. Where are these tickets come from?

(Dying to get tickets to a Beyonce concert...)

Help!

posted by TKL0125 to shopping (6 answers total)

It's difficult to make a determination in each case without more information. Generally, be very circumspect when buying tickets from any reseller.

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posted by Horselover Phattie at 8:36 AM on August 18, 2011

I've sold tickets on Craigslist and never had any problems. A dealer sounds shady though, I would personally go through Ebay, ticketstub, or any other well known dealer. Anybody that requests sending money through Wire Transfer, or money order is most likely a scam.

Ask to meet in person in a public place before the concert, and give cash. That's always how I sold mine, and it always worked out for the best.
posted by lpcxa0 at 8:36 AM on August 18, 2011

I've sold tickets on craigslist too. And before CL ruled the world, I also bought and sold through ticket dealers.

I'm not sure if these exist anymore, but the ticket dealer I used actually had a physical office (albeit little and grungy). The physical office is probably history, but there is certainly still a role in the market for ticket dealers.

For example, my father's company had season tickets to a couple sports teams in town and the dealers served as an exchange--selling tickets you weren't going to use, buying tickets for games where you wanted extra seats, etc, etc. And when there was an event likely to sell out, entrepreneurial types (and dealers themselves) would wait in line or inundate the phone lines to buy as many tickets as possible, which they would sometimes sell via dealers.
posted by mullacc at 9:07 AM on August 18, 2011

It's not always safe. There was a near epidemic of fake tickets to a sold-out show at the 930 club here in DC a month or so ago. Sometimes you can verify though the venue, often you just need to use the sort of sniff-test you would with any other purchase. Get a phone number, verify identity, meet them in a place you can find them again - things that make it less likely they're scammers.
posted by phearlez at 9:49 AM on August 18, 2011

I have only ever bought tickets off CL from an individual. With every show I have wanted to go to, there are always regular people who wanted to go but something came up*. So they sell the tickets a few days before, usually for face value or less. Since I was meeting them face-to-face, I was able to make a quick risk assessment and not pay til I had the ticket in hand. Sometimes it's an eTicket, so there is the slight chance it's totally fake or they sold it to more than one person, but that seems an unlikely sort of scam to try when the person you're cheating is physically in the same area as you.

*With a big show like Beyonce, this might be less likely to happen.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:48 AM on August 18, 2011

To clarify: they were people who were going to the show themselves but had an extra ticket, so I met them at the venue.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:52 AM on August 18, 2011