The process of reselling expensive concert tickets has been described as a “minefield” by consumer expert Sinéad Ryan.
Lunchtime Live listener Mike bought two tickets to see U2 in Las Vegas and paid $900 (Є820).
When he became injured, he decided to resell the tickets but found the process extremely difficult.
“I went back to Ticketmaster to do the resale, went through their process, completed all their tax requirements and their bank account statements,” he said.
“I came to the end and there was an offer of $690 for $900 ticket from Ticketmaster, I went to accept that offer because I had no choice.”
The resale button was greyed out and he contacted Ticketmaster, who told him the event organiser has blocked them from offering them for resale.
Mike did some research and decided to try resale site StubHub.
“The way StubHub works is they charge you and they give you a price range for tickets that have been sold already and they ask you to pick the range and then you can sell your tickets at that price,” he said.
“I only want to sell them at face value, so when I looked at the face value price, they took off their commission, so it brought me way below the face value.
“I picked a number grossing the $900 I paid up to a figure of $1,000 and when you apply their commission, I came out with $880.
“So, I was happy with $880.”
Ticket insurance
Consumer expert Sinéad Ryan said taking out insurance is something well worth considering.
“Very often when you’re buying very expensive products like this - and even not so expensive tickets - to live gigs… Ticketmaster and other sellers always offer an option to insure the ticket,” she said.
“What that means is that if you can’t go because of illness or injury or whatever… you will get your money back.”
Ms Ryan also contacted Ticketmaster Global who told her sellers can negotiate the price resale.
“You can create a listing for free, you can decide what the price is but when the tickets are sold, a service fee is collected from the total selling price of your tickets,” she said.
“That’s for them setting up the website and during the process, you’ll be able to view all of the details before finalising your ticket listing.
“You can negotiate with them about what that is.”
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Main image: U2.
