I'm looking to buy a concert ticket from someone that I found on facebook. What is the best way to purchase the ticket? Does paying through paypal with invoice protect me if the ticket is fake?
What Is The Best Way to Buy a 2nd Hand Concert Ticket?
chobani4lyf on 22/03/2018 - 12:44
Last edited 22/03/2018 - 13:00 by 1 other user
Last edited 22/03/2018 - 13:00 by 1 other user
Comments
This is the sad truth. Even with services like Twickets that guarantee ticket validity (in addition to advertising Paypal's buyer protection) the reality is that no one wants to venture out to a concert or sports game only to find out they have no tickets (and then wait for compensation…). Some people purchase flights to see stuff interstate…
This is one of those areas where blockchain, or even traditional databases and a bit of foresight, have some merit. Sadly, most of the world keeps doing the same old thing until a new piece of legislation changes things (hello airline industry).
Cautious is the word, unfortunately.
We have bought e-tickets from individuals previously, and have always been a little nervous but have taken faith in that:
- We had looked at their Gumtree / Facebook profiles, they had longstanding profiles with no adverse comments etc.
- The sale price appeared genuine (i.e. face value) and not inflated, even if the event was sold out
- We met face-to-face to pay the cash, allowing us to similarly quickly assess if they appeared to be genuine before paying out; discussed with them why they couldn't go themselves, etc.Hopefully you will be ok.
Paying an individual via PayPal will not protect you at all.
If you want to lower your chances of being scammed the do the following:
- Purchase a pre-printed ticket. i.e NOT a PDF ticket or a ticket that the customer has printed themselves
- Meet the person face to face
- Meet the person at their home
- Ask to view their driver's licence (ensure their address matches where you have met the person and remember their name)
If you've met the person on Facebook then check out their profile. Have they had a FB for a long time? Which groups do they belong to? Get a list of their friends.
If the transaction goes pear shape, use the information gathered above to tell all their friends what a pos they are.
I've purchased many tickets on the secondary market over my lifetime. Never been scammed. I don't always follow the above rules though.
Good luck.
Thanks guys. Looks like I'll be lining up early to get in incase its been sold to multiple people. Concert won't be until May so thats got me worrying a bit!
There's usually a concert ticket resale site that is endorsed by the band. For example, we sold Ed Sheeran tickets through Twickets recently and that was the only legitimate sale point. The buyer pays for post and any other costs and the seller gets back the full face value of the tickets. It's a nice system because the buyer isn't paying huge sums of money on top of the ticket cost - it therefore won't work for scalpers, only genuine cases where people can no longer go to the concert.
Convince your brother or someone real close to you to buy it and then sell it to you.
That's as close to a guaranteed ticket as you will get.
Other than that, that risk of showing up to the concert with a non-valid ticket is always going to be there!
If you're buying from a third party it's pretty much a gamble, regardless. If it's an e-ticket it's especially easy for them to gyp you, as they can theoretically sell the same ticket to as many people as they like.
Even if it's not, depending on the ticketing agency, they could sell a hardcopy to you, call the ticketing agency on the day, say they've lost their ticket and organise a venue collection replacement. This would cause the original barcode to be cancelled, they could turn up early and enter with I.D., and you'd be left out in the cold.
Not all people are that terrible, but it's pretty easy money and rarely has consequences for the seller, so is always a big risk.
If you're still set on buying it regardless, I definitely advise turning up to the event early. If they've sent the ticket to multiple people you want to be the first one who scans in with it!