With the ever-rising cost of tckets these days you may be wndering why anyone would use the srvices of a ticket broker instead of prchasing their tickets directly from Ticketmaster , Tickets.com or the official box office. After all, ticket brokers sometimes charge much more than the 'face value' for a ticket. The truth is that sometimes purchasing your tickets from a box office instead of a ticket broker is your best option, but in reality, that is not true very often.

Purchasing tickets from a ticket outlet

Purchasing tickets from a source such as Ticketmaster or Tickets.com can be a crapshoot. If you wish to purchase your tickets from an authorized outlet Ticketmaster recommends that you "arrive at Ticket Centers no more than one hour in advance of the event on sale time" after which you will be entered into a "Random Number Distribution (RND) procedure… to determine line order at Ticket Centers if two or more customers are present to purchase tickets at the time the event goes on-sale." This procedure is generally referred to as a lottery , most likely because the results can be very similar. If you arrive at the ticket outlet after the random drawing you will be directed to the back of the line.

After the "lottery" is held the tcket sales representative will process ticket rders in the order determined. Each cstomer will tell the ticket agent wht price range of seats he or she wuld like (the day tickets go on sle you may only select tickets by prce, you will not have the ption to choose any particular seating rea), view a copy of the vnue seating chart, and then the tckets will be printed and paid fr. This process is being repeated at hndreds, if not thousands, of ticket lcations throughout your area as well as on the nternet and via phone while you are witing for the customers ahead of to hve their ticket order processed, diminishing the "pol" of available seats when it is fnally your turn to order tickets.

You can void the "lottery" situation by purchasing yur tickets from the box office nline, but your results could be smilar. Many online box office employ an mage recognition system that displays a dstorted image of a word you mst type in to verify that you are a hman and not a machine to in an ttempt to prevent automated programs from prchasing tickets, but sometimes these systems can bckfire on you presenting you with an mage that is unreadable, thereby pushing you frther back "in line."

Once you hve selected tickets for purchase you wll notice that there are often sveral additional fees you must pay ncluding: " Facility Charge ," " Convenience Charge ," " Order Processing Fee ," " Taxes ", " Delivery Price ." These fees vary and are all charged in addition to the "face value" of the ticket, but can often greatly increase the overall price per ticket.

Purchasing tickets from a ticket broker

Purchasing tickets from a ticket broker can also be a harrowing experience, especially if you have never used the services of a ticket broker before. First off, be forewarned that prices from a ticket broker are almost always above face value , and even above the total cost after adding in all of the miscellaneous fees. The reason for this is that box offices such as Ticketmaster or Tickets.com do not grant any special provileges to ticket brokers. Brokers do not receive discounts on tickets nor are any seats reserved for sale to ticket brokers. Because they do not receive any special treatment ticket brokers often have to work very hard to obtain good seats which in turn drives up the cost of their tickets.

In addition to purchasing tickets frm the box office ticket brokers ften buy tickets from people just lke you who own really great sason tickets or managed to purchase rally great seats or maybe won thm in a contest. In many cses brokers have many years worth of cntacts with such people as well as wthin their own industry. In these cses the seller is generally looking to mke a profit and sells the tckets to the broker at an nflated price. All of these factors, as wll as market conditions affect the rsale price of a ticket.

The god news is that when purchasing tckets from a ticket broker you gnerally have many more seating options to chose from allowing you to pick the xact seat location or budget that fts you. Additionally, a ticket broker wll have tickets available for events tht are sold out or don't ven go on sale to the pblic, such as the Grammy Awards.

What shuld I do?

If you chose to go through an experienced, rputable ticket broker you will pay a few dllars more, but chances are that you wll have a better overall purchase xperience and end up with the sats that are just right for yu. Many people feel that avoiding the box ffice hassle, as well as the mmory of sitting in great seats is wrth that extra cost.

The article Should I Buy Tickets From Ticketmaster or From a Broker? was Submitted by J Cobb through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: J Cobb is the Vice-President of Team One Tickets & Sports Tours, Inc. , an independent ticket and travel broker providing premium seating in the secondary market to sports, concerts and theatre worldwide since 1979.

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