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For live, real-world events there can be an huge gap between shopping and buying. You can easily use the Web to learn all you want about your favorite music group, or sports team, or Broadway show. That just increases your desire to go, but how do you get a ticket?
There are a limited number of seats, of varying desirability, for a limited number of dates. You can't just manufacture more of them -- there is only one valid ticket in existence for seat 11D for the May 15 performance of that show on Broadway, or for the seventh game of the World Series, or for the Third Final Concert Tour of Celine Dion.
In many cases, you can buy a ticket for any available seat if you go to the physical box office, but that might be in another city, and is probably open for very limited hours. Some events will let you buy directly by phone or over the Web -- but that's still the exception. Many have made deals with a single ticketing agency for exclusive rights for remote ticket sales. And, in any case, the seats are likely to sell out quickly.
Some people buy tickets to Broadway shows a year in advance. And getting good seats or any seats at all to events like the Super Bowl or the World Series can be more a matter of special privilege than price, no matter how far in advance you try.
So what difference does the Web make?
Ticketmaster, www.ticketmaster.com, which dominates real-world remote box-office ticket sales, also dominates the online business. They control the market through exclusive deals with the event producers, and offer tickets to tens of thousands of events, including music, sports, and arts. At the Web site, you encounter all the hassles and high fees (for "convenience and handling") of their traditional telephone-based service; but you do get the added convenience of being about to see the seating plans and detailed directions for getting to the venues.
Although Ticketmaster also has offices in Canada, Mexico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the Web site is set up to service sales for US events. If an event is widely advertised, regardless of where in the US it is going to take place, the chances are very good that you'll be able to buy a ticket here. And while they do tack on their service charges, the base price of the ticket is the price set by the event producer. But once the event is sold out, that's it -- regardless of how much you might be willing to pay.
A handful of online competitors also offer box-office ticket sales online, including Tickets.com www.tickets.com, Telecharge www.telecharge.com (from Shubert Ticketing Services), and TicketWeb www.ticketweb.com. The Telecharge site looks new. They have a good selection of Broadway and Off Broadway shows, but their "Across the USA" section is empty; and their "Sports and Special Events" today only list a single food tasting event. Tickets.com is set up to help members conveniently buy tickets and make related travel plans from their desktop. Unfortunately, they, too, only cover a limited number of events. Check BMC TIX.com www.bmctickets.com if you are a fan of the World Wresting Federation.
TicketWeb www.ticketweb.com boasts that they were the "first in the world to sell event tickets over the Internet in 1995..." They also boast low service fees. At their site, they provide software that lets event promoters of any size log in over the Internet and "perform the full range of box-office operations." In other words, small producers can list their events here with a minimum of hassle; and since the producers help maintain their own accounts, the savings in administrative cost can be passed on to the customers in lower service fees.
If you want tickets to shows outside the US, you should check the major travel services for links to the local theaters and ticketing companies. For instance, for London, you should check Main Event Tickets www.mainevent-tickets.co.uk and Tickets Direct www.tickets-direct.co.uk.
Buying tickets to sold-out events is tricky, but possible. Keep in mind that in some jurisdictions, it is illegal ("scalping") to sell tickets to events at prices higher than the original price. (For instance, that's the case in Boston.) Before proceeding, you should check to find out what rules apply in your city/state and in the city/state where the event is scheduled to take place, and whether it is just the seller or also the buyer who is considered at fault. Also, consider that the most hard-to-get tickets that go for the highest prices are natural targets for counterfeiters. So you should make very sure that you have good reason to trust the party who is selling the ticket, and that you know how that person obtained the ticket in the first place, and that you will have some recourse is something goes wrong.
Given that warning, you can find auctions for many sought-after tickets at eBay www.ebay.com. Or you can check the ticket-only auction site at Tickets.com. In both cases, the auction site just connects sellers and buyers, who then work out details of shipment and payment by email; and the site itself is not responsible if it turns out the ticket was counterfeit or that some local law was broken by the transaction, or the ticket arrives after the event has already taken place. Tickets.com holds "charity auctions", where the proceeds of the ticket sales go to particular charities, as well as regular auctions for tickets to sports and entertainment events. There the seller pays a base fee of $1 per ticket to post an auction, and then 5% or less of the winning bid for the closing fee.
Other sites are in the business of buying and selling tickets on the secondary market. Here you can find tickets to sold-out events, perhaps at a high price, maybe higher than you might have been able to get at an auction; but there's a responsible company standing behind the sale -- someone who can make good if something goes wrong. Eleventh Hour Tickets www.nypa.com/11thHour_tickets.htm spotlights the current hot items, with links to resellers (such as www.ticketpro.com and www.ticketsupfront.com) who have tickets for those particular events in stock. Ticketpro boasts an inventory of over 80,000 tickets today, and makes it clear that they are not affiliated with "any box office, venue, theatre, stadium, sporting team, or any sporting association." They make no secret of the fact that their prices are much higher than face value. This is Internet-based capitalism in action -- supply and demand. Another reseller, Ticket Man www.tixxman.com boasts its inventory of hard-to-get tickets and tickets to sold-out events.
A few of these sites say they are also interested in buying tickets from the general public. If you bought tickets long in advance and now can't attend, you might want to contact one of these to at least try to get your money back. At 1stoptickets.com, you have to call their 800 number for details on how to sell to them. At WebTickets.com www.webtickets.com you can offer your tickets for sale to that company by just filling out a form at their site. They handle concerts, sports, theater, movies, travel, cultural events, etc. And they supplement their Web site with a free email newsletter that alerts subscribers about new events and how to buy tickets.
Site59.com takes a very different approach, catering to busy people who can't buy tickets months in advance because they don't have that kind of control over their schedules. They serve people who work hard and then want to play hard -- who need to get tickets at the last moment, but not to sold-out events. They want good offers and appreciate a bargain -- less than face value, rather than more. But they are willing to be a bit flexible about what they are going to go to. In other words, even though lead-time is short, they are in a position to take advantage of special offers from event promoters who have excess inventory at the last moment.
Currently Site59.com covers just New York -- that's where events take place or where "getaways" start from. But the site is set up with a city selection menu, so they clearly intend to expand. They boast "great deals" with "limited availability." This is an impulse-buy site -- you see you can get a package with airfare and four days hotel in Milan for $600, leaving this weekend, and you click to grab it. In addition to travel getaways, they also have "local flavor" offers, most of which are combinations of entertainment selections, for an extraordinary evening at a reasonable price. Their "beck and call" section provides listings of services that would also be of interest to people on the go -- baby, house and pet sitting; car services; household services; and party planning. So for your anniversary, during your lunch break you can sign up for an evening of dinner and theater that very night, and also line up a babysitter, and maybe have your carpets steam-cleaned and your floors waxed while you are out.
BMC TIX.com www.bmctickets.com
Telecharge www.telecharge.com
Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.com
Tickets.com www.tickets.com
TicketWeb www.ticketWeb.com
London
Main Event Tickets www.mainevent-tickets.co.uk
Tickets Direct www.tickets-direct.co.uk
Tickets.com www.tickets.com
Eleventh Hour Tickets www.nypa.com/11thHour_tickets.htm
Ticket Man www.tixxman.com
Ticket Pro www.ticketpro.com
Ticketsupfront www.ticketsupfront.comWebTickets.com www.webtickets.com (buy as well as sell)
Online shopping advice
The Online Shopping Directory
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