An interesting alternative to Ticketmaster for those on a budget
Written: Nov 14 '07
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I have used StubHub three times, all three of my experiences with this company have been positive, however I felt it necessary to comment in response to others' negative reviews.
What is StubHub?
The most important thing to remember about StubHub is what exactly it is, a ticket scalping service. Unlike going through Ticketmaster or the box office, you are not purchasing directly from the venue, instead you are purchasing tickets from other users who, in turn, have chosen to sell their tickets on the open market.
StubHub makes no secret of the fact that on the open market the tickets may have higher or lower prices than they did when first sold (face value). If you are looking to attend a sold-out major event then tickets are going to hard to find and will cost more than they would when first sold. If you are instead purchasing tickets for events that are rarely sold out, the seller may be trying to dump the tickets and will happily sell them for under list.
Either way, the seller prices the tickets and StubHub acts as a middleman, connecting the buyer and seller together. The seller is responsible for then shipping the tickets to the buyer, StubHub ensures that the money for those tickets arrives in the seller's hands. What if the seller does not ship the tickets, or they turn out to be counterfeit? StubHub has a guarantee which supposedly protects buyers in this instance. I have not had to deal with the guarantee as all of my transactions went very smoothly, but some of the reviewers on here have had negative experiences with it. If I decided to make a large purchase on StubHub I would carefully weigh the potential risk and be sure to know the rules for the guarantee ahead of time.
My StubHub experience
The three times I have used StubHub, I used it to purchase tickets to two New Jersey Nets and one New Jersey Devils game. The Devils and Nets typically do not sell out so the tickets, originally belonging to season ticket holders, were offered at a price under the list price. I will use the most recent Nets game as an example of the service working well. My and a friend decided to purchase tickets to a game sometime around the New Year, after selecting a date I went onto to Ticketmaster to look for tickets. Tickets for this game, were listed between $10 and $1,700. As a college student, cheaper is better so I chose to look for $10 seats.
Ticketmaster did indeed find seats, however the processing and service fees basically doubled the cost. Here is a breakdown:
Full Price Ticket: 2 x $10.00
Total Convince Charges: 2 x $7.00
Order Process Charging: $3.50
Shipping: Free
Total Cost: $37.50
Unsatisfied, I tried StubHub. After selecting the game on StubHub I was presented with a range of prices. Tickets for this game ranged between $3.00 and $896. Stubhub offers a helpful map where you can click on section to see available tickets in that section. The site is somewhat easier to navigate than Ticketmaster.
I chose a pair of tickets listed for $7.00 each. These tickets had a face value of $36.00. Although in order to see the final price I had to give away a lot of personal information, including credit card information, I came up with the following price breakdown:
Tickets 2 x $7.00 ($36.00 list) = $14.00
Commission: $1.40
Shipping: $11.95
Discount: ($10.00)
Total Cost: $17.35
Coupon codes for $10.00 (and sometimes $20.00) off are all around the internet.
In the end I saved roughly $20 and ended up with far better seats. For this type of event, StubHub is an excellent service.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
demdev30
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Member: Andrew Watiker
Location: Scarsdale, NY, USA
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I'm a 17 year old living a suburban life in New York. Peace & Love!
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