Sometimes, a show sells out before you had the chance to purchase tickets. We have all been there. In my case, it was a band I had obsessed over since middle school. When the tour was announced, I knew I was going to go. However, when ticket sales opened up, I wasn’t fast enough. If I wanted to go, I needed to go through a reseller.
If you’ve been in a similar situation, you might want to know how I decided which reseller to purchase through. The websites with the best selection and prices were Stubhub and Seatgeek.
My Experience Using Stubhub
When it comes to tickets, I would say that there are three main boxes that a seller should want to check off: shopping, purchasing, and using. Providing a good experience in each of these are necessary for a ticket customer to feel as though they made the right choice.
Stubhub, in my experience, was able to deliver on each of these elements. My overall experience felt seamless and straightforward from beginning to end.
Shopping for Tickets on Stubhub
The user interface on Stubhub’s website was excellent. I had no problem finding the band I was looking to shop for and there was an organized list of all the locations they would be playing. I liked being able to see all of the places, since I am actually close to two popular concert locations and I usually go to whichever place has the best seats still available.
Additionally, the options that Stubhub provided to filter out the results were wonderful and really kept accessibility in mind. This wasn’t the case for this particular concert, but I often go to shows with a friend who is wheelchair bound. Other sites can be really frustrating for her, but Stubhub allows you to filter out seats that aren’t wheelchair accessible.
There are other filter options, like aisle or types of view. So, your own needs and preferences for events will be easy to fulfill on Stubhub.
Purchasing Tickets on Stubhub
Once I picked the seats I wanted, I was able to start checking out. You don’t need an account on Stubhub, which I appreciate tremendously. My email’s spam folder has enough promotional emails to deal with already.
I have something both good and bad to say about the fees on Stubhub. The fees were fairly substantial, a little bit more than the competitors. However, Stubhub was very upfront about these fees before I had entered any credit card information.
Stubhub’s protection guarantee is excellent, so I did feel as though the higher fees were justified. When purchasing tickets with them, you know that you are going to be able to go to the show. Their customer service is easy to reach and quick to respond to customers. I felt pretty good about my decision even as I was entering my credit card information.
If you do feel that you might want to take a look at a more comprehensive price comparison of the lead ticket resellers, especially Stubhub vs. Seatgeek, the following is a great overview of the most popular choices.
Using Tickets from Stubhub
On the day of the show, I downloaded my tickets onto my cellphone and that was all I needed. I only needed my phone for tickets and pictures and then my wallet for merchandise and drinks. It was nice not needing to keep track of physical tickets.
I know some people prefer physical tickets as mementos. There are options for this through Stubhub, where your tickets are either mailed or held at Will-Call.
Once I got to the show and my partner and I got through the line, the security did the standard pat-down and search, then scanned my digital tickets and that was that. It was as simple as can be and we were on to buy cold beers and concert tees!
Final Thoughts
Buying the tickets directly is almost always going to be the best and safest deal, but with the rise of ticket scalpers, it has been getting especially difficult to get ahold of tickets once they go on sale. Until this problem is solved, a lot of us are going to need to use reseller sites.
If you are needing tickets to a sold-out event, I highly recommend Stubhub for the ease of use, accommodation of disabilities and other needs, and transparent purchasing process. It never felt unsafe to provide my personal information and any issues I’ve had have been addressed by customer service within hours. Also, I have always had a blast at the shows they have sold me tickets for!