How to Sell Tickets Online – Marketplace Comparison
Written by
Chris Babu
Introduction to Season Ticket Resale
We know season ticket holders can’t make it out to every game, and that they have many questions regarding which ticket resale marketplace they should resell their tickets with. Up until three or four years ago, StubHub and Ticketmaster Resale were the only two major resale sites to consider. However, in recent years Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime, and other ticket resale sites have gained popularity.
Each ticket resale site has different strengths and weaknesses that you should know when considering the best ticket site to sell on. We’ll go through four questions for each of the top ticket resale sites:
Why should you sell on that marketplace?
What share of overall sales does that marketplace have?
What fees does that marketplace charge?
How do you sell on that marketplace?
Here’s our comprehensive comparison of the top ticket resale sites, followed by a guide on how to price your tickets until they’ve sold.
Longest active ticket resale site (started in 2000)
The largest share of TiqAssist sales (30%)
Seamless ticket resale integration for MLB
Strong brand recognition with buyers and sellers
Good guidance on how to price your tickets (guidance not available for every seat though)
Con’s
Selling fees are the highest (15%)
For NFL listings, you will have to grab from your team account the barcodes for each ticket that you want to sell
For MLB, you may be competing against too many ticket holders selling their tix on StubHub.
Why should I sell on StubHub?
StubHub has the strongest presence in MLB, given StubHub is the official resale marketplace of MLB. StubHub also has partnerships with the Philadelphia 76ers and Buffalo Sabres. These teams that exclusively partner with StubHub will direct fans to buy resale tickets off StubHub, which helps drive traffic and trust with buyers.
StubHub should also be strongly considered when reselling NFL tickets. StubHub became an official NFL ticket resale marketplace starting with the 2018-2019 season, significantly improving the buyer experience. When listing for NFL on Stubhub you will have to enter the barcodes from each ticket, but that small effort is often well rewarded. The hurdle of entering barcodes prevents the marketplace from being flooded with sellers, so there is less competition.
StubHub is also the best ticket resale marketplace for certain teams without an official partnership. Generally, this occurs when the official resale marketplace doesn’t get enough buyer traffic in relation to the volume of tickets available for resale. Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, Golden State Warriors and many NCAA football / basketball teams stand out as tickets to consider selling on StubHub.
What share of the resale market does StubHub have?
StubHub is at the top in terms of market share, with a 30% share of TiqAssist sales. StubHub has been serving sellers and buyers since 2000 and has the strongest brand recognition of all the resale marketplaces.
What fees does StubHub charge?
The commission rates are variable and can change based on various experiments being run at any moment, but in general, expect to pay 15% in selling fees.
How to resell tickets on StubHub:
Enter seat information for the tickets that you are reselling.
For teams where StubHub is an official ticket resale partner, you will need to enter the barcodes for each seat eventually. As the event nears, you will be required to enter the barcodes before being able to list your tickets.
Enter your section, row, and seat numbers. Make sure this information is correct; otherwise, you will face steep penalties for providing the wrong tickets to the buyer.
“Features”: Unique seat benefits such as aisle seats, vouchers for concessions, club access, parking included, in-seat wait service, unlimited food and/or drinks, etc. Many sellers neglect to advertise valuable features such as aisle seats or various other perks that come with the seats – this is an opportunity for you to get a leg up on the competition.
“Disclosures”: A partial or obstructed view, piggyback seats, wheelchair only, behind protective netting, etc. Make sure to select the proper disclosures, as you could face steep penalties for not declaring key information.
StubHub is one of the easier ticket resale sites in order to figure out how to price your tickets.
If you chose the “manual pricing” option – you can follow the pricing guidance provided by StubHub algorithms.
If you feel like the recommendation does not make sense, pull up the event on StubHub in a different tab and research similar seats to yours. It’s possible the algorithm may be less accurate for seats that are more unique.
If StubHub has enough data on the type of seats you are trying to sell, you will see an option called “Automatic Pricing”. When this is available StubHub will control the price of the listings for you automatically, based on how the market is moving.
If you listed on StubHub through your team’s season ticket account (or uploaded the barcodes), it should transfer automatically to the buyer upon sale. Otherwise, when the tickets sell, StubHub will email you the buyer’s email address and you will need to make sure to transfer the tickets by the date you said you would have the tickets “in-hand”.
Seamless ticket resale integration for most NBA, NHL, and NFL teams
Ticketmaster tends to charge the lowest selling fees
Strong brand recognition with buyers and sellers
Con’s
Guidance on how to price your tickets is very limited
For NBA, NHL, and NFL, you may be competing to sell your tickets against many ticket holders, which means your resale price could be very low
For teams/leagues where Ticketmaster is not the official resale partner, the user experience on both the buying and selling side is much less strong
Why should I sell on Ticketmaster?
Ticketmaster has the most resale partnerships with sports teams out of all the ticket resale marketplaces, by a longshot. Ticketmaster’s resale partnerships are the most prevalent in:
For most teams in those leagues, when you are in your season ticket account and click “Sell” or “Sell Tickets” on a game, you will be selling through Ticketmaster’s resale platform. The Ticketmaster integration into the season ticket account is sometimes so seamless that you may not even realize that you are selling on Ticketmaster. Once the tickets sell, the tickets are automatically transferred to the buyer, saving sellers one annoying step in the selling process.
These leagues have spent a significant amount of marketing dollars to drive traffic to the official resale marketplace, which results in consistent buyer traffic and a feeling of trust when transacting on these sites.
Unfortunately, when Ticketmaster does not have an official partnership with the team, the user experience, and buyer traffic are not as strong. So we recommend selling on Ticketmaster only when Ticketmaster is the official resale marketplace for your team.
Share of the resale market:
Ticketmaster has a 17% share of TiqAssist sales. Ticketmaster’s resale platform grew from TicketsNow, which Ticketmaster acquired in 2008 for $265 million.
What fees does Ticketmaster charge?
The commission rates do change from time to time, but in general, expect to pay 10-15% in selling fees.
Certain teams may choose to discount the Ticketmaster fees further, highlighted by the Los Angeles Lakers with 0% selling fees and the Golden State Warriors with 5% selling fees. These teams took a more aggressive approach of lowering sell fees on their official resale marketplace (Ticketmaster) in order to compete with the popularity of StubHub for both buyers and sellers. Sellers likely yield a higher sale price on StubHub, but that is counteracted by the higher fees StubHub charges.
How to resell tickets on Ticketmaster
If the seats are your season tickets, select the game from your Ticketmaster-based season ticket account, and on the resulting screen, click on the “Sell” button.
Ticketmaster, similar to StubHub, provides pricing guidance powered by their proprietary algorithms.
If you feel like the recommendation is not precise, pull up the event on Ticketmaster in a different tab and research similar seats to yours. It’s possible the algorithm may be less accurate for seats that are more unique.
How do I transfer tickets to the buyer?
Given we recommend that you use Ticketmaster mainly when they are the official resale partner for the team, that makes the ticket transfer process extremely simple. Once the tickets sell, the tickets are automatically transferred to the buyer, no effort is required on your end!
Strong buyer loyalty – helped by 9% Cash Back Rewards
Growing brand recognition with buyers and sellers
Con’s
Minimal guidance on how to price your tickets, so you will have to research yourself
More involved selling process: Given the minimal team/league partnerships – you will have to enter all the seat info when listing, and transfer tickets directly to the buyer upon sale
Why should I sell on VividSeats?
VividSeats has grown tremendously in popularity amongst ticket buyers in the past five years, cementing itself in the top three in sales volume of all ticket resale marketplaces.
If you have had challenges selling your MLB tickets on StubHub, consider selling on VividSeats. Depending on your team, on VividSeats there won’t be as many sellers to compete against, while still benefiting from strong buyer traffic.
While VividSeats does not have extensive partnerships with teams to the extent that Ticketmaster or StubHub have, VividSeats drives equally significant buyer volume across all major sports. So give VividSeats the first try if StubHub and Ticketmaster didn’t yield the results you hoped for.
Share of the resale market:
VividSeats is second in market share with about 21% share of TiqAssist sales. VividSeats has been serving sellers and buyers since 2009, quickly gaining traction through paid search ads on Google, a strong rewards program earning up to 9% cash back, and partnering with ESPN.com to be the resale site that readers get directed to when they click on the “Tickets” link for a game.
What fees does VividSeats charge?
In general, you can expect to pay 10% in selling fees on VividSeats.
From there select your team and checkmark the event(s) you are trying to sell.
Enter your seat information for the game(s) you are selling
Enter section, row, and seats
Unique seat benefits: aisle seats, voucher for concessions, club access, parking included, wheelchair access
Disclosures: partial or obstructed view, piggyback seats
How to price your tickets:
If you already have a VividSeats seller account setup, the last step is to provide delivery and pricing information. If you have paper tickets, select “Hard-stock Paper Tickets,” otherwise, if they are some form of electronic or mobile tickets, select “PDF E-Tickets”.
As for pricing, VividSeats provides a convenient link to the event page of the listing, so you can see how much similar tickets are priced for.
VividSeats will email you when the tickets sell with the buyer’s email address. You will need to make sure to transfer the tickets by the date you said you would have the tickets “in-hand”.
Strong buyer loyalty – simple buyer experience led by their “deal score” and best-in-class seat maps
Growing brand recognition with buyers and sellers
Growing list of team/league partnerships
Solid pricing recommendations
Con’s
You cannot list any type of ticket – you must provide a pdf or a screenshot of the ticket (a problem since many tickets now have rotating barcodes)
Smaller buyer traffic relative to StubHub, Ticketmaster, and VividSeats
Why should I sell on SeatGeek?
SeatGeek has gained a foothold in the market in the past five years by building partnerships with many different teams and leagues, as well as innovating around simplifying the buyer and seller experience.
SeatGeek has partnerships with the NFL, Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans, and a host of MLS and Premier League teams.
Share of the resale market:
SeatGeek has roughly a 9% share of TiqAssist sales. SeatGeek has been serving sellers and buyers since 2009. SeatGeek became popular initially as an aggregator of tickets of various ticket resale sites, ultimately becoming a sizeable resale site of its own.
What fees does SeatGeek charge?
In general, you can expect to pay 10% in selling fees on SeatGeek.
How to resell tickets on SeatGeek
Seatgeek only lets you list tickets if you have a PDF, a screenshot of the QR code for the mobile ticket, or for NFL uploading the barcodes. For details on how to list on SeatGeek based on the device you are using, you can learn more here.
Strong buyer loyalty – great buyer experience led by their visual approach to ticket shopping and showing only the best value tickets
Known for last-minute deals
Simple listing experience – take a snapshot of the tickets and Gametime will handle selling from there
Growing brand recognition with buyers and sellers
Con’s
You cannot list any type of ticket. You must provide a screenshot of the ticket, which is a problem since many tickets now have rotating barcodes
Smaller buyer traffic relative to StubHub, Ticketmaster, and VividSeats
Tickets are not guaranteed to sell, even though Gametime manages the resale process for you
Why should I sell on Gametime?
Gametime has made a name for themselves as being the best place to get last-minute tickets. As such, if your tickets haven’t sold and you are approaching gameday, it’s worth giving Gametime a shot to maximize on their last-minute buyer traffic. Given Gametime is a relatively new player, you won’t be competing with too many sellers to sell your tickets.
Gametime has a strong last-minute buyer market for San Francisco area teams, so definitely consider selling on Gametime if that scenario applies to your tickets.
Currently, Gametime does not support selling tickets that have rotating barcodes, so individuals cannot sell for most NFL teams. Professional ticket sellers do have the capability to sell all tickets on Gametime though.
Share of the resale market:
Gametime has 8% share of TiqAssist sales. Gametime has been serving sellers and buyers since 2012, and has risen quickly as a very innovative tech-driven company. On top of having last-minute deals, Gametime has also differentiated itself with a very visual buying experience. That includes highlighting the view from the seats unlike any other ticket resale marketplace, and showing only the best deals.
In general, you can expect to pay 10% in selling fees on Gametime.
How to resell tickets on Gametime
Upload your tickets
Gametime requires you to use their app and take a photo of the ticket itself (mobile or print), and then uses that to create your listing and the ticket for the buyer.
How to price your tickets:
Gametime is unique in that they manage the ticket resale process entirely for you. You simply upload a screenshot of your tickets, and they create the listing for you and determine how to price it. You are allowed to enter a minimum ticket sale price, in case you want to set a floor for your listings.
How do I transfer tickets to the buyer?
Gametime will take the ticket screenshot you uploaded and create a mobile ticket for the buyer.
Tickets are listed on every major ticket resale marketplace, so you reach 100% of buyers
TiqAssist selling experts fully manage the resale process for you, all you do is click “List” on the games you want to sell
All tickets listed with TiqAssist are guaranteed to sell
TiqAssist Con’s
Currently, only services season ticket holders
Only supports resale for NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS. NCAA Football and Basketball coming soon
Why should I sell on TiqAssist?
TiqAssist isn’t a marketplace site, it is a reselling service for season ticket holders who are looking for a simple and stress-free way to sell their season tickets. Powerful technology and selling experts setup a customized dashboard that has pricing for every game in the season. The season ticket holder clicks “List” next to the game they’d like to sell, in their customized TiqAssist dashboard, and their tickets are professionally managed with algorithms that reprice tickets up to every 10 minutes. On top of that TiqAssist guarantees the tickets will sell. If the tickets have not sold 3 days prior to gametime, TiqAssist will offer to purchase the tickets at fair-market value.
Share of the resale market:
TiqAssist broadcasts the tickets to every major ticket resale marketplace, reaching close to 100% of the buyer market. As a service layer for season ticket holders, TiqAssist facilitates the sale of seats on StubHub, Ticketmaster, VividSeats, SeatGeek, Gametime, TickPick, Ticket Network, Viagogo and various broker-to-broker exchanges. Founded in 2017, TiqAssist has sold nearly $5 Million in customer inventory for season ticket holders in NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS.
What fees does TiqAssist charge?
The commission rates vary based on the type and quantity of seats the season ticket holder owns. In most cases the minimum fee is 20%, which includes the service and technology to manage your seats simply, and covers the marketplaces selling fees as well. So many season ticket holders would pay 5% – 10% for the service above what they would pay in a self service marketplace. To learn more, check out the TiqAssist website.
How to resell tickets on TiqAssist
In order to resell your tickets using TiqAssist, you have to provide your seat details (section, row, seats) when you register your account. You will receive a link to your customized dashboard in 1 business day. From there, you simply tap list in the dashboard next to the games you want to sell, and the proprietary platform and selling experts take over. All listed tickets are guaranteed to sell, or you get cash 3 days before gametime.
How to price your tickets:
With TiqAssist, you don’t need to worry about pricing your tickets. TiqAssist selling experts will handle all the pricing for you, starting with preparing your customized dashboard with every game that you own, all the way to repricing your tickets up to every 10 minutes in order to move up and down with the market.
How do I transfer tickets to the buyer?
TiqAssist will take care of this for you as well. Once you securely share your season ticket account credentials via your TiqAssist dashboard, TiqAssist will automatically transfer the tickets to the buyer when the tickets sell.
Bonus Strategy for Season Tickets
Repricing Your Tickets
For most marketplaces that you choose to list on, you are likely going to need to reprice your tickets multiple times before it sells.
When the resale ticket market starts going down in price, it’s probably only going to go down further
In order to avoid dropping your prices too much over time, price your tickets to be the cheapest in the similar sections, plus or minus 5 rows from you. The majority of events drop in price over time, so it’s best to sell as early as possible anyway.
Review your ticket pricing frequently
For events more than four weeks out, adjust your pricing at least on a weekly basis. For events one to four weeks out, it’s probably worth reviewing your pricing twice a week. As you get into the final week before the event, you should review your pricing daily.
There are many amateur ticket resellers pricing tickets too high
Don’t assume that a person with a high price knows what they are doing. Many people have different intentions or skill levels. There’s many season ticket holders out there that put an unrealistically high price because that is what it would take to convince them not to attend.
Summary
There are many options on where to list your tickets nowadays, so there’s more of a thought process to decide where you should list your tickets. You’ll want to consider where you will get the best price, how easy the selling experience is, and how much you’ll be paying in fees.
Generally, you will get the best price on the ticket resale site where the supply is low, and buyer traffic is high. Or put it another way, you’ll want to avoid ticket resale sites where the supply is very high relative to the amount of buyer traffic.
Once you list your tickets for resale, you’ll want to review your ticket pricing weekly. For games one to four weeks out, it’s worth reviewing your pricing twice a week. As you get into the final week before the event, you should review your pricing daily.
Selling tickets is the hardest part about being a fan, but hopefully, this guide will help you make that process as painless as possible! If you would like to learn more about the best practices for selling tickets, read TiqAssist’s blog on managing season tickets.
If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll love having TiqAssist’s selling experts and technology fully manage selling your tickets for you.
