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Yesterday’s post focused on the 6 places I like to search for tickets.

It begs the question - why hasn’t someone found a way to capture all the information regarding Tickets on sale, and list them on one site?

So if you needed tickets for the New England Patriots, Hannah Montana, The Police, Bon Jovi, or the Super Bowl you could visit one site that would compile the Sections, Rows, Seats and Prices in one location.  Instead of visiting Ticketmaster, eBay, Stubhub, TicketsNow, Craigslist, and a dozen other sites - you could make one stop and be confident in your purchase.

Turns out - SeatQuest - a Chicago based software company has built a site that does just that.  Their site is incredibly simple.  Just type in what you know about your event (anything from zip code to venue name, sports team to event date) and you will be given a list of options that match your search.

Once you narrow it down to a specific event - you will be able to view a map with all the seating options and pricing from SeatQuest affiliates.  Once you decide to purchase, you are redirected to the affiliate site to complete the sale.

In my initial research, I found that the only sources of tickets are currently eBay and TicketsNow.  I do not know if SeatQuest plans to add other large ticket sellers like StubHub or Ticketmaster. 

I also found some major events that did not have any tickets listed for sale.  Not sure if its a system glitch, or a result of only having a few affiliated sites.

In my opinion, if they add all the major players - they will instantly become the ONLY place to look for tickets.  If they remain affiliated with only a few of the players, they will just be one of a dozen places to look for tickets.  I sincerely hope they are able to come to terms with the other major ticket sites - as it will lead to an efficient market for everyone buying and selling tickets.

As of today, I have not bought or sold tickets on SeatQuest.  If you have either bought or sold tickets on SeatQuest please email me or leave a comment.  I will work to keep everyone informed of their progress!

Those of you who have read my profile know that I don’t just sell tickets, I buy them.  I am a fan just like you!

1.  Ticketmaster

I get two emails a day from fans wanting to buy tickets for events that are NOT sold out.  Don’t assume an event is sold out!  Go straight to the source because buying face value that are guaranteed authentic is better than just about every other option.

2.  Ticketmaster’s Ticket Exchange

This Ticketmaster’s answer to eBay, Stubhub, and every other ticket reseller.  Basically they allow people to buy and sell tickets that were originally bought on Ticketmaster.  They charge a fee to Buyers and Sellers, but the big plus is that they cancel the original tickets and reissue new ones - making their guarantee that the tickets are authentic the best in the Business.

3.  Stubhub

Now owned by eBay, Stubhub is advertised as the place where “Fans Buy and Sell Tickets.”  Truth is, 90%+ of the sellers on StubHub are Brokers.  Their site is easy to navigate and the maps make it easy to quickly see how much tickets cost for each section.  They have a huge selection of tickets (2nd only to eBay) and have an iron clad guarantee.  Basically if you don’t get the tickets you ordered in time, they replace them with comparable or better seats.  Overall, you will find Stubhub’s prices to be higher than some of the other options mentioned here.

4.  eBay

Still the powerhouse and largest marketplace for tickets.  The best thing about eBay is that the prices are often lower than other sites.  You can also find real fans selling tickets, which sometimes leads to a great deal.  On the downside, finding tickets is not nearly as easy as Stubhub or Ticketmaster’s two options.  And eBay no longer has any fraud protection that comes automatically with a purchase. 

5.  Local Ticket Brokers

If you live in a large city, chances are good that there are local Ticket Brokers.  You can find them online, in the yellow pages, or the newspaper.  Most people don’t realize that there is software that Brokers use to view other Broker’s inventories.  So almost any Broker you call can sell you tickets from another Broker’s inventory.  Obviously if 2 Brokers are invloved, your price is likely higher.  Cut out the middleman, and deal with a local Broker who may have your actual tickets in their inventory - saving you 10% or more.  In additon, a local Broker like has a much larger selection for hometown shows and sports. 

6.  Craigslist

Everyone’s favorite free classified site often has real fans selling tickets for face value.  In fact, the site prohibits selling over face value (in theory.)  The major downside is wondering if the tickets are real, where do you meet to exchange tickets and money, etc.  Don’t be afraid to place a “Wanted Ad” so that someone selling tickets may find it and contact you directly before listing them for sale.

Good luck!

Today I received another nasty email from a fan.  He called me all sorts of names and wished some very horrible things would happen to me. 

To be fair - I get more positive emails than negative ones.  But there are definitely lots of people who wish there were no Ticket Brokers.  If you have not had the opportunity to read my rsponse to the negative email - you can read it here.

But back to the topic for today.

10 Ways to put Ticket Brokers out of Business

1.  Pass Federal Laws that prohibit the sale of tickets above face value - even when packaged with other items like airfare or hotels.  Right now the few states that have laws are ineffective because they only apply to residents - not Sellers in other states.

2.  Require that all tickets be purchased in person with photo ID and valid Credit Card.  No cash, No Telephone,  No Internet Sales.

3.  Allow each person to only buy 1 ticket.  If a family is going, or a couple, require each one to come to the ticket outlet to buy tickets.

4.  Allow people to only buy tickets for an event within 100 miles of their address.  The address must match their Credit Card bill AND Driver’s Licence.

5.  Make ticket non transferable.  Oprah does it.  If your name is not on the ticket, you can’t come to the show.  Period.

6.  Require Buyers to answer a Trivia Question.  David Letterman does it.  If you can’t answer something every Letterman fan knows, you don’t need a ticket.

7.  Make all tickets go on sale as part of an auction - so only the people who want to go most will get tickets.  In theory, if all true fans participated in the auction, and bid the absolute most they were willing to pay, Brokers would go out of business.  That’s because any Broker that won tickets in the auction would have paid more than the true fans were willing.

8.  More shows.  More games.  More Venues.  Bottom line - if Hannah Montana had 2 shows in every city, or the Patriots had a stadium that was twice as big - there would be more seats than demand, and tickets would always be face value.

9.  Make it against the law for fans to pay more than face value for tickets.  It’s illegal to sell or buy drugs.  Why not make it illegal to sell or buy tickets?

10.  Only allow each Fan to buy tickets for up to 4 shows / games / events per year.  This would be acceptable to most fans (except sports) but would drastically reduce Ticket Broker opportunities.

I think you will agree that most of these will never be done because some of them will hurt the teams or artists.  Some would be too costly to implement.  Others create undue inconvenience.

And as much as some fans may dislike Ticket Brokers, I believe many fans would dislike the above scenarios more.

I do believe one of the solutions could really work, and would not create too much inconvenience or cost.

Solution 5:  make tickets non-transferable.  It’s the perfect solution for ridding the world of Ticket Brokers.  Most fans would find it perfect.  No residency requirements, no ticket limits, no inconvenience.  Fans would just enter the names of everyone attending, and each ticket would get printed with one name.

Ticketmaster could do it easily.  They do it now with e-tickets for the NFL.

What’s the downside?  Well, if you can’t go, then you can’t resell the ticket.  Or if you break up with your girlfriend, you go alone or reunite for the evening.  If you buy season tickets for business clients or employees - you need to know months in advance who you would like to give them to.  But probably the worst downside is that if an event truly sold out to fans, and you could not get a ticket - there would be no solution for you.  Even if you wanted to pay a Broker - they couldn’t help.

What do you think?

Would my solution work?  Do the positives outweigh the negatives?