Buy Tickets Online
The best way to buy concert tickets is undoubtedly online. As long as you follow a few simple rules and use a little common sense, you won't have any problems.
Box Office
Your first port of call should always be the official ticket agency for the venue. You will find this information on the literature promoting the concert, and this can vary depending on the promoter or venue. Generally you will find that the venue box office will have the best allocation for the concert, so this will be your best chance of getting the best seats, but depending on who owns the venue, this can be complicated. For example, concerts at the MEN Arena have the majority of their tickets sold through Ticketmaster, and ticketing for Wembley Arena is co-ordinated by See Tickets. The online ticket agencies that sell tickets at face value are:
- Ticketmaster
- Wayahead (See Tickets)
- Ticketline
- Stargreen
- Keith Prowse
- Ticketweb
- Last Minute
They may not always all have an allocation for a particular concert, so if you know you will be buying tickets for a concert, it's best to have a look at their sites before hand.
Ebay
Another option for purchasing tickets online is Ebay. I'm sure you've heard a lot of horror stories about Ebay purchase but again, a little common sense and you shouldn't have any problems, and it's often possible to get tickets at less than face value.
- Check the Auction Information
Firstly you should look at the auction. By law, anyone reselling tickets has to state the row, number and venue section along with the face value of the tickets. If any of these aren't visible on the auction page, do not buy them . Use your common sense, if they are good tickets the seller would want to advertise this, they only reason they would omit this information is if they are not good tickets and they know that publishing this information on the auction would decrease their sales.
Check the feedback of the seller. If they have a low feedback then steer clear as you have no guarantees that you will ever see the tickets. Also check the items they've sol din the past, if they've never sold concert tickets before you should also be wary, as it would be an 'account hijack' or fraudster.
If you pay by Paypal you will be covered by their fraud protection, so will be able to get your money back if anything goes wrong. Read up on their fraud protection in their help pages before making your purchase to check your level of protection.
- Fund your Paypal payment with a Credit Card
This was, if anything goes seriously wrong you can phone up your credit card company and get them to do a 'chargeback' on the transaction, so you will get your money back.
Ebay ticket auctions often go for more than face value, it is up to you to decide whether you want to pay the extra for the tickets. The market can change and fluctuate and the final auction price will depend on demand for those particular tickets at that point in time, at the end of the day tickets are worth what the highest bidder is willing to pay. As the date of the concert gets closer, the market value of tickets tends to decrease so it's worth waiting.
We do not advocate the resale of tickets, but we aren't going to tell people not to purchase from online auctions. People have the freedom to choose whether they want to purchase from Ebay or not, what we do say is use common sense . There are fraudsters out there in every market selling every product conceivable. Follow the above tips and you should be safe.
Other online Agents
There are a number of online ticket agencies that offer concert tickets at above face value. Through these agencies you can buy front row tickets, but the prices will be many times the initial face value of the tickets. If you are willing to pay the extra then you can have the opportunity to sit right best to the stage. Remember to pay by credit card, so that you are protected, and of course, read the terms and conditions in full before purchasing. A number of 'less trustworthy' agencies charge a premium, but then if the concert is cancelled, you will only receives the face value of the ticket as a refund (and if the face value is £25 and you paid £200 then you'll lose out bigtime). Some also don't guarantee the seating allocation, and reserve the right to change your seats. We advise you don't buy from these guys, only buy if you know the seat and row numbers.
Also, you should wait until as close to the concert as possible to make your purchase. Contrary to common belief, the market value of tickets will not go up as the concert gets closer, it will always stay the same or go down.
Concert Travel Packages
Often, even when a concert is 'sold out' you can buy concert and hotel packages. Although these may be more expensive than buying a ticket direct from the box office, they are generally cheaper than premium ticket agencies so always worth a look.
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