Selling concert tickets
March 1, 2024 10:24 AM Subscribe
What is the best way to sell tickets to tomorrow’s Stardew Valley concert in Seattle without getting scammed?
I have 4 tickets to the Stardew Valley orchestra concert in Seattle tomorrow. I am recovering from a sprained ankle and may decide not to go. Our friends don’t want to attend if we aren’t so I’ll have all 4 tickets to sell. I bought them through the Seattle Symphony website and not through Ticketmaster so there is no way to resell them through where I purchased them. I do have the ability to “share” the tickets to someone’s email in the app, or email them a PDF of the print-at-home tickets.
Do I make a StubHub account? Craigslist? Facebook marketplace? Do I just say I’ll transfer tickets once someone sends me money via PayPal or Venmo? Is there a way they could retract the payment through one of those methods? I just want to make back what I paid so I’m not planning on charging outrageous prices.
I have 4 tickets to the Stardew Valley orchestra concert in Seattle tomorrow. I am recovering from a sprained ankle and may decide not to go. Our friends don’t want to attend if we aren’t so I’ll have all 4 tickets to sell. I bought them through the Seattle Symphony website and not through Ticketmaster so there is no way to resell them through where I purchased them. I do have the ability to “share” the tickets to someone’s email in the app, or email them a PDF of the print-at-home tickets.
Do I make a StubHub account? Craigslist? Facebook marketplace? Do I just say I’ll transfer tickets once someone sends me money via PayPal or Venmo? Is there a way they could retract the payment through one of those methods? I just want to make back what I paid so I’m not planning on charging outrageous prices.
Best answer: I've done this two different ways:
1. By posting through my own social media (Facebook, Instagram) and selling to someone I know, if only loosely. I have also bought tickets this way. With folks I know, yes, I tell them the price and then send me the money and I sent the tickets. I've never had this go wrong. I sometimes eat the price of the fees, though I've never had someone I know actually negotiate the price with me about this.
2. I did start the process of selling tickets through Stubhub, but I just remembered that I ended up selling them to a friend instead, through the first method. The advantage of Stubhub is you can get a sense of how much tickets are going for right now. It looks like the shows are sold out, so that might make it easier to sell on Stubhub.
I think the big issue for Stubhub is that it's not a guarantee for the buyer that they'll get the tickets, but, in that case, they get a refund. When I posted my tickets on Stubhub, a friend offered to buy them, and then I deleted my Stubhub sale.
So I encourage you to do two things: try to sell the tickets to someone you know in your own network, and list on Stubhub. Marketplace and Craiglist can work, but there will be a lot more work and hustle for you, which doesn't align well with an injury.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:46 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
1. By posting through my own social media (Facebook, Instagram) and selling to someone I know, if only loosely. I have also bought tickets this way. With folks I know, yes, I tell them the price and then send me the money and I sent the tickets. I've never had this go wrong. I sometimes eat the price of the fees, though I've never had someone I know actually negotiate the price with me about this.
2. I did start the process of selling tickets through Stubhub, but I just remembered that I ended up selling them to a friend instead, through the first method. The advantage of Stubhub is you can get a sense of how much tickets are going for right now. It looks like the shows are sold out, so that might make it easier to sell on Stubhub.
I think the big issue for Stubhub is that it's not a guarantee for the buyer that they'll get the tickets, but, in that case, they get a refund. When I posted my tickets on Stubhub, a friend offered to buy them, and then I deleted my Stubhub sale.
So I encourage you to do two things: try to sell the tickets to someone you know in your own network, and list on Stubhub. Marketplace and Craiglist can work, but there will be a lot more work and hustle for you, which doesn't align well with an injury.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:46 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Note: My whole reason for likely not going is a sprained ankle, I will not be driving for an hour +, finding parking downtown on the weekend of comiccon, and meeting someone in person.
posted by skycrashesdown at 10:47 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
posted by skycrashesdown at 10:47 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Sorry to keep following up - I’ve just never used StubHub so wanted to make sure there wasn’t any other better option I should be considering!
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:01 AM on March 1
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:01 AM on March 1
Best answer: I have resold on StubHub multiple times and it's great. That's what I'd go with in your shoes.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:05 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:05 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Another vote for StubHub. It’s easy for both the buyer and the seller. There was an error once and I got double charged for tickets I bought, and I was quickly able to talk to a real human on the phone and get a refund.
posted by sacrifix at 11:12 AM on March 1
posted by sacrifix at 11:12 AM on March 1
Best answer: There is no real downside to Stubhub except the large cut they will take, but it's not risky IMO. There are barely any tickets to sale, which either means that there is no market or that you will be able to sell at enough markup to recoup the stubhub fee and not lose money..
posted by sandmanwv at 11:13 AM on March 1
posted by sandmanwv at 11:13 AM on March 1
Response by poster: Thanks, all! I’ll go with StubHub - tickets for the other Seattle shows are going for like 2-3x the original price so I bet I’ll make my money back.
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:15 AM on March 1
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:15 AM on March 1
StubHub is great.
Ticketswap is another good platform I've used which provides a little bit of protection when selling a PDF to a stranger. It essentially holds the ticket in escrow until the receiver has paid; and it also does a little bit of verification to ensure the ticket is for a real event. The nice thing about it is you can either list your ticket on the public marketplace; or you can send a private purchase link to someone you've connected with via another platform (e.g. Facebook).
posted by mekily at 2:17 PM on March 1
Ticketswap is another good platform I've used which provides a little bit of protection when selling a PDF to a stranger. It essentially holds the ticket in escrow until the receiver has paid; and it also does a little bit of verification to ensure the ticket is for a real event. The nice thing about it is you can either list your ticket on the public marketplace; or you can send a private purchase link to someone you've connected with via another platform (e.g. Facebook).
posted by mekily at 2:17 PM on March 1
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