Ticket scalping has become an increasingly frustrating issue for concertgoers and sports fans trying to get tickets to popular events at face value. Scalpers use bots and other tactics to quickly buy up huge quantities of tickets and then resell them at enormous markups on secondary sites like StubHub and VividSeats. This makes it extremely difficult for real fans to get tickets before they sell out.
Beating the scalpers takes some work, but it can be done with the right strategy. Here are some of the most effective ways to improve your chances of scoring tickets at face value and avoid paying outrageous scalper prices.
Buy During Presales
One of the best ways to get tickets before the scalpers is to take advantage of presales. Many events will offer presale opportunities for groups like fan club members, credit card holders, spotify subscribers, venue email list members, etc. These presales typically start 1-3 days before the main public onsale.
Presale ticket allotments are usually quite small compared to the total number of tickets. But your odds are still much better aiming for this limited presale inventory versus trying for tickets during the mass public onsale when you’re competing against all the scalper bots.
Sign up for as many presales as you can through:
– Artist/team fan clubs
– Venues you tend to visit
– Major credit card reward programs
– Streaming services like Spotify
– Band merchandise stores
– Local radio stations
This maximizes the number of presale code opportunities you’ll have. Then be ready and logged in right when the presales start to try and claim tickets.
Leverage Presale Codes
For presales that require special codes or passwords, try researching online to find the presale passwords that have been released to the public.
Presale codes will often get leaked on forums, reddit, Twitter, and presale code websites. Google can help uncover these codes. Just search for the event name + “presale code”.
You can also try signing up for presale code newsletters like Presale Password Info that send out codes directly to subscribers.
Having the right presale code ready can help you instantly access and search for tickets during presales before scalpers can grab them.
Use Presale Ticket Limits
Many presales will limit how many tickets you can buy, typically 2-4 per customer. This helps prevent scalpers from wiping out all the inventory.
Be sure to max out your ticket limit during presales. This locks up more tickets before the scalper bots can claim them. Buy tickets for yourself and friends you know for certain will attend the event.
Queue Up Early
In addition to buying during presales, you also want to queue up at least 30 minutes early before the public onsale time. Major ticket sales platforms like Ticketmaster will have virtual waiting rooms that randomly order people prior to the onsale.
Joining early helps improve your spot in line so you’re not stuck behind thousands of people and scalper bots when tickets open for sale.
Many events will have extremely high demand, so queueing the full 30+ mins early is wise to try and get ahead of the pack.
Use Multiple Devices
Don’t stop at just one device or browser when tickets go onsale. Have backup options ready like a laptop, tablet, and mobile phone. Make sure each device is on a strong wifi or mobile data connection.
Run separate searches for tickets on each device. If one gets stuck or errors out, you have the other devices still running to try and get through.
Using multiple browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari also helps. Scalper bots tend to target one main browser. Switching it up increases your chances.
Refresh Constantly
As soon as tickets go onsale, refresh like crazy on all your devices. Don’t hesitate or pause between refreshes. Scalper bots move at lightning speeds, so you want to refresh manually as fast as humanly possible.
Keep refreshing even if tickets look sold out or you get error messages. Venues will often release small batches of tickets periodically. Aggressive refreshing is key to eventually snag them before scalpers.
Try General Admission Sections
At many concerts, the front orchestra sections and lower bowl tickets will sell out instantly to scalpers.
Try looking for tickets in General Admission sections like the floor or pit instead. These areas are farther from the stage but won’t be as heavily targeted by scalpers since they can’t resell them for as high of a price.
Avoid Upper Deck Seating
For sporting events and larger concerts in stadiums/arenas, resist buying upper deck nosebleed seats. These are the exact tickets scalpers love to gobble up since they can get them cheaply then resell at big markups.
Focus your searches on lower bowl or floor seats. You’ll have less competition from scalpers for the primo seats they can’t squeeze as much profit from.
Buy Solo Tickets
Search for single seat tickets rather than groups of 2, 3 or 4 seats together. There is always much higher demand for group seats, leading to instant scalper buys.
Solo seats will have lower relative demand. Buy singles and then repeat the process searching row by row until you’ve gathered enough seats together.
Keep Trying After Sellouts
Persist even if an event sells out quickly. Scalpers will often dump some of their extra inventory back onto the primary ticket site leading up to the event date.
Check ticket listings daily for newly released seats. As the event nears, prices may even drop below face value as scalpers try to unload their leftover stock.
Go For Physical Ticket Offices
Major venues will have physical box office locations you can visit to purchase tickets in person. Scalper bots can’t steal up all the inventory there.
Head to the box office right when tickets go on sale online. Be one of the first in line and ready to buy them as they’re released from the website to the box office. Long lines will form quickly behind you.
Box office representatives can also pull up inventory on their computers that’s not visible online to regular buyers, giving you access to more seats.
Consider Ticket Auctions
If you strike out getting face value tickets from primary sellers, some ticket resale platforms like StubHub offer auction-style sales.
Rather than a fixed “Buy It Now” price, sellers will list tickets and buyers bid up until the auction closes. Occasionally these auctions end below or near face value if demand was lower than expected.
Sort by newly listed auctions ending soonest and look for ones without much bidding activity yet. Swoop in with aggressive bids and you may score tickets under face.
Max Out Your Budget
Be prepared to spend to the highest amount you can afford if tickets are in high demand. Expensive tickets now are better than paying even 3-4X more later to scalpers.
Many presales and fan club offerings give fans first dibs on tickets for top dollar. Don’t hold back on spending more upfront if it means getting face value tickets before public sales.
Buy Season/Flex Ticket Packages
Pro sports teams and venues will sell season ticket or multi-game flex pass packages before individual game tickets go on sale. These packages help lock up most of the inventory before scalpers can grab them.
Season tickets may be prohibitively expensive. But smaller flex pass packs that include desirable games/opponents are great options to secure face value seats before public sales.
Purchase VIP Packages
Splurge on VIP or fan experience ticket packages that include extras like pre-show parties, exclusive merch, and meet and greets. The additional exclusives make these unattractive to scalpers just looking to flip regular tickets.
VIP packages are very expensive. But they ensure admission to high demand events that will sell out instantly otherwise. This grants peace of mind and an elevated experience.
Join Fan Facebook Groups
Passionate fan communities often form Facebook Groups for sharing tips on fan experiences. Search for Groups related to your team or artist and join the conversations.
Fans will sometimes post about special presales or offer extra tickets they aren’t able to use. Buying directly from other fans can secure tickets without competing against scalpers.
Follow Your Team/Artist on Social Media
Sports teams, bands, venues, and promoters will advertise presales and other ticket opportunities on their official social media pages.
Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ahead of the onsale date. Turn on notifications so you don’t miss any presale announcements or codes.
Wait Until the Last Minute
While buying early is ideal, another option is waiting until the very last minute, like day of show. Scalpers still holding inventory may slash prices at the last second just to dump unsold tickets and cut losses.
Use apps like Gametime that let you buy tickets up to the last minute. You risk tickets selling out and not getting in. But last minute deals can bring big savings versus buying ahead.
Buy at the Venue
Some live events will release a small number of tickets exclusively at the venue’s box office day of show.
Head straight to the box office as early as possible. Ask if they have any tickets held back or fan appreciation discounted seats. You may luck into tickets at great prices hours before faceoff or tipoff.
Getting to the venue extremely early also allows you to engage directly with scalpers outside and negotiate the absolute lowest price on their remaining tickets. Offer 25-50% of asking price and be willing to walk away. But often scalpers will cave at the last minute and accept lower offers rather than eat the entire cost of unsold inventory.
Get Refundable Hotel & Flight Packages
Bundled travel packages that include event tickets, flights, hotels, etc. are heavily marketed but rarely sell out. Scalpers don’t target them since they can’t easily profit from flipping the bundles.
Book fully refundable packages to lock in face value tickets, then cancel the hotels and flights afterwards. You’ll just be out cancellation fees, which are minimal compared to scalper markup.
Join Fan Presale Programs
Large ticket sellers like Ticketmaster have proprietary presale programs like Verified Fan. Fans register ahead of onsales for a chance to get presale code access.
Verfified Fan helps filter out scalpers and bots and rewards genuine fans with fair ticket buying opportunities. Sign up for these if available for your event.
Consider Resale Sites’ Protections
If you do buy from a reseller site, purchase only from major reputable platforms like StubHub or VividSeats. Avoid lesser known sites.
Big players offer buyer guarantees protecting you from fraud. Research site policies so you can buy with confidence and get refunded if issues arise.
Report Scalpers to Platforms
If you spot resellers you suspect of using unfair methods like bots, report them directly to the ticket platform.
Provide as many details as possible on the suspicious activity. Platforms will investigate and crack down on rule-breaking accounts. This helps limit shady scalper activities.
Petition Against Scalping Legislation
Many states have lax scalping laws with minimal restrictions. Contact local government representatives to propose tighter regulations.
Push for limits on resale prices, bot usage, and number of tickets sold per person. Support bills strengthening consumer protections.
Don’t Buy Counterfeits
Fake tickets will unfortunately always be an issue, especially for extremely high demand events. If deals seem too good to be true, they probably are.
Stick to reputable primary seller sites and exchanges with buyer guarantees. For person to person sales, insist on PayPal Goods and Services payments holding seller accountable.
Inspect tickets closely for signs of forgery like low quality printing, blurred images, incorrect venue logos, etc. Using a ticket authentication app can verify if a ticket is real.
If you buy fakes, immediately report the seller and try to get your money back. Don’t feel ashamed for being duped. Scammers are experts in creating convincing counterfeits.
What About Giveaways and Promotions?
Keep an eye out for free ticket giveaways and promotions from event sponsors and radio stations. They’ll often run contests awarding tickets to callers, social media followers, email list members, etc.
While not guaranteed, enter any giveaway you can find. With enough contest entries, you may win tickets without dealing with scalpers or high prices.
Some businesses tied to events also run ticket promotions, like test driving a certain car model for sports games or signing up for a checking account for concert access. Take advantage of these if they provide face value ticket deals.
Is it Worth the Time and Effort?
Scoring face value tickets in the age of scalpers certainly requires dedication and work. Refreshing constantly, crossing your fingers on presales, waking up early are not fun activities.
But ultimately the time invested is worthwhile compared to the hundreds or thousands of dollars saved versus buying from a scalper. Putting in effort maximizes your odds and reduces costs.
Over time you’ll get better at buying strategies and access to presales, making the process less tedious. Keep focusing on the end goal of great seats without inflated prices.
Conclusion
Beating ticket scalpers is an uphill battle, but possible with persistence and preparation. Focus on presales, buy early, leverage multiple devices, and keep trying even after initial sellouts. Consider lesser desired tickets in sections scalpers avoid. Last minute buys can yield big savings.
While not always guaranteed to work, using these tips will score you face value tickets more often than not. You’ll get into more events while keeping money in your pocket. Don’t let scalpers defeat you. With smart buying, genuine fans can still come out on top.