Why are Resale Tickets Often Cheaper than the Primary Tickets?

There’s a lot of attention on primary and secondary ticket marketplaces right now. In this post, we’re debunking the misconceptions, defining each, and explaining why resale prices are often cheaper than the original ticket.

Primary vs Secondary – what’s the difference?

A primary ticket marketplace is a marketplace that owns the right to the underlying ticket technology. The largest–and most notorious–of these is Ticketmaster, but other examples include AXS, and for a few sports teams, SeatGeek. Ticketmaster, AXS, and SeatGeek partner with teams, venues, and festivals directly to create and sell the digital event ticket.

A secondary marketplace is a marketplace that allows individuals to resell tickets that they own. The largest–and most notorious (are you noticing the pattern?)–of these is StubHub, but other examples include Vivid Seats, SeatGeek (they do both), TickPick, Gametime, and GoTickets.

Why do fans often prefer buying from the primary marketplace?

Fans often prefer buying directly from the original ticket producer similar to why some people prefer to buy cars directly from the manufacturer – there’s a higher likelihood your ticket (car) delivers to you safely and on time. Why is the secondary market less trustworthy? Largely, it’s because there’s a ready scapegoat. Here’s an example. If you buy a ticket from Ticketmaster and the ticket never delivers to you, Ticketmaster is solely responsible because they own all the tickets. If you buy from StubHub and the ticket never delivers, they could easily tell you it’s not their fault, it’s the individual who is reselling the ticket that’s responsible for sending it over! That shift in blame (responsibility), is critical. For consumers, this means that you have to trust the resale platform to be your advocate: to hold sellers accountable, to monitor transactions, and protect consumers.

Why are resale prices often cheaper than the primary prices?

Ticket prices are incredibly dynamic and fluid. Because they are perishable assets–the value of the ticket the day after the event is zero–sellers have significant urgency for sale. More interestingly, the primary ticketing provider also tends to have a steady, fixed pricing that’s independent of true demand. An example, your local NFL team partners with Ticketmaster to sell their tickets. They tell Ticketmaster “never price the nosebleeds cheaper than $100.” Why? Two reasons: (1) to keep the brand value elevated, (2) to avoid cratering the market.

Theoretically, prices on the secondary market should stay close to the primary – because the rational consumer will purchase whatever is the cheapest ticket. So for sellers, they see the primary price at $100 and price their ticket competitively at $99. But most resellers aren’t spending time pricing their tickets optimally. So instead, they price at $90 or $80 or sometimes even at $50 just to get their tickets sold without the headache. This happens particularly for sports games where the stadiums are so massive and fans, especially season ticket holders, resell quite often.

Should I buy my ticket on a secondary marketplace?

Just like with cars, deciding whether you should buy on a resale marketplace depends on the marketplace – some are more trustworthy than others. As a fan, here’s what I would say. (1) The buyer guarantee is the most important thing. At Ticket Wallet, we send over replacement tickets if our seller ever has an issue completing the order, otherwise we’ll provide a full refund. (2) More niche events with less inventory have higher risk, so paying attention to that can help. (3) Finally, and most important, we actually care that you get into the building so if you message support, we’ll go the extra mile to get your seats.