Friday, September 26, 2014

Getting a Handle on Fluctuating Fees

In our search for the best sports tickets sellers we were surprised at first to see how much prices and fees fluctuated, even within just a few days. We’d look for a specific set of sports tickets on one day and find several different prices on each site, and in a week we’d find the same ticket for several new prices on each site.

That’s because the vast majority of the sports tickets sites we examined are ticket resellers, meaning the tickets you are considering have already been purchased at least once by someone else. These someone elses are looking to get the maximum amount of profit while still being able to compete with other resellers, so the prices fluctuate often and dramatically. Fees also vary widely. Even though some sports tickets sites charge a standard percentage for every transaction, there are ways other fees – namely shipping – can make a big difference. The closer you are to game day, the more you will dish out to get the sports tickets on time. Will call fees are substantial, and faster shipping costs can be staggering.
We wanted to offer some examples of pricing for a couple of different events to show how widely fees can vary for the same type of sports tickets.
The Results
For our research, we decided to check out the prices on a Duke Blue Devils vs. Boston College Eagles basketball game on Jan. 27. For every website, we looked for a pair of the lowest-priced sports tickets and chose standard delivery for this event.
There was a wide variation in service fees among the sites we tested. A telling moment in our research was discovering that Ticketmaster did not even have sports tickets for this event. This is very typical. We were about six days away from the game, and a primary ticket source like Ticketmaster sold out early on. Every single one of the secondary markets in our lineup had tickets though, and StubHub had the lowest fees in this case. We did incorporate numbers for a comparable game on Ticketmaster – a Duke matchup against another team a couple of weeks later. The fees were incredibly low.

Shipping Fees Service Fees Total
1. Ticketmaster $18.50 $3 $21.50
2. Vivid Seats $12.95 $17.86 $84.81
3. Stub Hub $16.95 $13 $29.95
4. Tickets Now $14.95 $58.10 $73.05
5. Go Tickets $14.95 $75.90 $90.85
6. Razor Gator $16.95 $58.84 $75.79
7. Tickets to Go $18 $32 $50
8. Tickets Inventory $15 $56.74 $71.74
9. Ticket Network $15 $54.02 $67.92
10. Coast to Coast $15 $52.92 $67.92
11.
TickCo $16.95 $56.98 $73.93
12.
Tixx $14.50 $23.10 $37.60
13.
Cheap Tickets $15 $59.40 $74.40
14.
TicketCity $29.95 $63.80 $93.75

We also looked at the Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Clippers NBA game on Feb. 2. For every ticket-selling website, we looked at tickets for a pretty good seat in the same section – center court and fairly close to the court. Ticketmaster had the lowest fees overall for this sports tickets matchup.

Shipping Fees Printing Fees Service Fees Total
1.
Ticketmaster $2.50 $26.90 $29.40
2.  Vivid Seats  $12.95  $70.86  $83.81
3.   Stub Hub  $16.95  $46.20  $63.15
4.  Tickets Now  $14.95  $108.78  $123.73
5.  Go Tickets  $14.95  $128.80  $143.75
 6.  Razor Gator  $16.95  $115.44  $132.39
 7.  Tickets to Go  $18  $59.20  $77.20
 8.  Tickets Inventory  $15  $111.42  $126.42
 9.  Ticket Network  $15  $108.42  $123.42
 10.  Coast to Coast  $15  $75.96  $90.96
 11.  Tick Co  $16.95  $62.52  $79.47
 12.
 Tixx  $14.50  $43.12  $57.62
 13.  CheapTickets  $15  $85.32  $100.32
 14.  TicketCity  $0  $123.20  $123.20

 Even though we were looking at tickets that were in the same section and about the same price, the associated fees varied a great deal. Service fees have different names on different sites. Some sites call it commission, connection fees or convenience charges. We combined it all into one name for comparison purposes.

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