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Trying to buy a Super Bowl ticket (1 Viewer)

C

ComfortablyNumb

Footballguy
It's very frustrating! 

Ticketmaster is apparently the official NFL distributor, but they have the highest prices PLUS a $500 service charge per ticket!

StubHub also reliable but still high list prices plus $500 service fee!

Many other ticket agencies sell tickets for lower prices, but have a 25-30% service fee! And they say they will mail some tickets (trust the USPS?) or have local pickup where the seller will contact me before the game to tell me where to pick up my ticket - really?

Craigslist is full of scammers.

Does anybody know a better approach for buying a legit ticket without being raped by service fees and/or risking questionable delivery or pickup procedures?

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
It's very frustrating! 

Ticketmaster is apparently the official NFL distributor, but they have the highest prices PLUS a $500 service charge per ticket!

StubHub also reliable but still high list prices plus $500 service fee!

Many other ticket agencies sell tickets for lower prices, but have a 25-30% service fee! And they say they will mail some tickets (trust the USPS?) or have local pickup where the seller will contact me before the game to tell me where to pick up my ticket - really?

Craigslist is full of scammers.

Does anybody know a better approach for buying a legit ticket without being raped by service fees and/or risking questionable delivery or pickup procedures?
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That's insane!

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
It's very frustrating! 

Ticketmaster is apparently the official NFL distributor, but they have the highest prices PLUS a $500 service charge per ticket!

StubHub also reliable but still high list prices plus $500 service fee!

Many other ticket agencies sell tickets for lower prices, but have a 25-30% service fee! And they say they will mail some tickets (trust the USPS?) or have local pickup where the seller will contact me before the game to tell me where to pick up my ticket - really?

Craigslist is full of scammers.

Does anybody know a better approach for buying a legit ticket without being raped by service fees and/or risking questionable delivery or pickup procedures?
Click to expand...
I own a fairly large wholesale brokerage who supplies inventory to Ticketmaster, Stubhub, Vivid, Seatgeek, etc.  Feel free to PM me with any questions.  

Just in summary, the price and fee are rarely straightforward.  If I want $100 for my ticket from one of these vendors, they may tell you it's $93 and then tell you there's a $30 fee.  They collect the $123 then pay me $100.  That's the short answer.  Don't fool with on the street or Craigslist tickets for any Atlanta event.  It's pretty much the city with the most amount of counterfeiting in the country.

 
Who gives a #### about service fees. Just compare “all in” pricing and make your best choice. Moaning about service fees is an amateur move 

 
I’ve been monitoring closely...I expect best pricing for nosebleeds to be about $2500 and to drop in a few more days 

 
bushdocda said:
Is this game ticket cheaper than recent super bowls with less traveling LA fans than other teams ?
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Yes.  Granted this venue isn't as large as some others.  This stadium was built for more "amenities" like most newer stadiums rather than capacity size. So the smaller capacity will help prop it up at least somewhat.

 
they say this is the cheapest SB in a long time and scalpers can't get rid of tickets. might be good idea to wait little more to get the tickets

 
The ticket probably just gets stuffed in an envelope and sent out via regular mail. Not sure what kind of "service" you're getting to justify that charge. Might as well just call it an FU charge.

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
It's very frustrating! 

Ticketmaster is apparently the official NFL distributor, but they have the highest prices PLUS a $500 service charge per ticket!

StubHub also reliable but still high list prices plus $500 service fee!

Many other ticket agencies sell tickets for lower prices, but have a 25-30% service fee! And they say they will mail some tickets (trust the USPS?) or have local pickup where the seller will contact me before the game to tell me where to pick up my ticket - really?

Craigslist is full of scammers.

Does anybody know a better approach for buying a legit ticket without being raped by service fees and/or risking questionable delivery or pickup procedures?
Click to expand...
Seems relevant.

 
SayWhat? said:
Seems relevant.
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What's funny is one of the main offenders in that Pats/Seahawks year was DEM Ticketing.  I had warned the company who provided them their point of sale about their speculative practices just a couple months prior.  They were listing tickets in my markets in rows that didn't exist.  Let's take Tennessee for example, certain sections I knew only had 32 rows they were listing row 35, etc.  Another broker I know also complained and warned that these guys don't own all this inventory they are listing.  Nobody did anything to stop them.  Then when all this went down with the Super Bowl, everyone acted shocked. 

Since those days the industry has done more to prevent this from happening again.  Most major exchanges like Stubhub, Vivid, etc. require you to show proof of ownership in order to list.  While that's a pain for those of us who own legit inventory, it's a needed step to help make things harder on these guys who show up trying to make a quick buck speculating on inventory they don't have.  If the market goes down, it's no problem.  They buy for less than they sold for, they make money and deliver tickets.  But then it depresses the prices for those who legitimately own inventory.  If the market goes up, then they disappear on people often leaving them without tickets.  It's not in the interest of legit brokers nor the consumer to have these type guys selling.  It still goes on today, but I can say on the major exchanges today they do a much better job vetting for large events like this than ever happened in the past.

 
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This is why the NFL sucks balls. Just a bunch of greedy people who don’t give a damn about the fans other than squeezing every last dollar out of them.

A long time fan of a team should have a reasonable chance to buy tickets to that game. And the whole brokerage thing is a big effing joke, and this includes all sports, concerts, all of it.

It just reeks of dirty pool. I know this is how it is these days, but it is a crock. A dirty, bend people over crock of monkey sheeeeeit.

 
ChiefD said:
This is why the NFL sucks balls. Just a bunch of greedy people who don’t give a damn about the fans other than squeezing every last dollar out of them.

A long time fan of a team should have a reasonable chance to buy tickets to that game. And the whole brokerage thing is a big effing joke, and this includes all sports, concerts, all of it.

It just reeks of dirty pool. I know this is how it is these days, but it is a crock. A dirty, bend people over crock of monkey sheeeeeit.
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The NFL brokers their own tickets today.  They have a hospitality group who contacted everyone I knew to sell at huge prices these tickets.  Typically if you hold season tickets to a team you have no shot.  Only a few hundred get allocated to those two teams and you can bet that ownership and management have people they give them out to.  I have a buddy who was in with a close friend of Panthers ownership when they played in the one in San Fran so he got to go.  The way most of the tickets are on the secondary market is the NFL itself.  The other source is that every active player gets two tickets.  So brokers who have connections to them try to buy them off the players.  Of course this creates a kind of auction environment where they can get top dollar.  Even those who paid huge PSL's for Atlanta's stadium didn't get them.  Only those who bought the $45,000 each PSL's, the center two lower sections on either side, even got the right to order tickets.  But they certainly didn't get their seats, they got moved to the 200 or 300 level.

 
I’ve been to two Superbowls. At both they had scalpers outside the stadium closely monitored with scanners to verify the tickets were legit. I’m not sure if this is the best/cheapest way to go, but I was pretty impressed with the setup.

 
kutta said:
I’ve been to two Superbowls. At both they had scalpers outside the stadium closely monitored with scanners to verify the tickets were legit. I’m not sure if this is the best/cheapest way to go, but I was pretty impressed with the setup.
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I didn’t think you could get anywhere near the super bowl without a ticket. Don’t they have multiple checkpoints set up hundreds and hundreds of yards outside? 

 
Capella said:
I didn’t think you could get anywhere near the super bowl without a ticket. Don’t they have multiple checkpoints set up hundreds and hundreds of yards outside? 
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I know for the one in Phoenix (Giants/Pats) they had a setup not far at all from the stadium where people were selling tickets. I forget where the Tampa (Cards/Steelers) setup was but I do remember seeing it.

 
kutta said:
I know for the one in Phoenix (Giants/Pats) they had a setup not far at all from the stadium where people were selling tickets. I forget where the Tampa (Cards/Steelers) setup was but I do remember seeing it.
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Interesting. I might try that when it’s here in Tampa in 2021. 

 
kutta said:
I’ve been to two Superbowls. At both they had scalpers outside the stadium closely monitored with scanners to verify the tickets were legit. I’m not sure if this is the best/cheapest way to go, but I was pretty impressed with the setup.
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These were just independent scalpers monitored by police or NFL reps with scanners?  Could the "scanners" be phony, using a bogus device just to make counterfeit tix appear legit?

With ticket prices increasing significantly since Friday, I thought I'd just drive the 9 hrs from VA to Atl on Saturday and buy on StubHub around noon on Sunday when I hope ticket prices would plummet. Or maybe a scalper if their tickets are verified.

 
Capella said:
I didn’t think you could get anywhere near the super bowl without a ticket. Don’t they have multiple checkpoints set up hundreds and hundreds of yards outside? 
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In New Orleans I heard you couldn't.  It might be tougher to create that perimeter given where that stadium sits and all that's around it, including MARTA

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
These were just independent scalpers monitored by police or NFL reps with scanners?  Could the "scanners" be phony, using a bogus device just to make counterfeit tix appear legit?

With ticket prices increasing significantly since Friday, I thought I'd just drive the 9 hrs from VA to Atl on Saturday and buy on StubHub around noon on Sunday when I hope ticket prices would plummet. Or maybe a scalper if their tickets are verified.
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This was an area managed by legit-looking folks with security around it. I just saw it in passing so I’m not sure of the details, but it looked totally legit to me.

 
Update to my SB ticket quest:

After weeding out a few scammers on Craigslist, I've been communicating with a guy who apparently is willing to let me have his extra ticket at cost. It's an excellent 200 level sideline seat, and he's supposedly letting me have it for $1200. He wants to transfer it through Ticketmaster fan exchange so I don't think he's scamming me. Am I missing something?

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
Update to my SB ticket quest:

After weeding out a few scammers on Craigslist, I've been communicating with a guy who apparently is willing to let me have his extra ticket at cost. It's an excellent 200 level sideline seat, and he's supposedly letting me have it for $1200. He wants to transfer it through Ticketmaster fan exchange so I don't think he's scamming me. Am I missing something?
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Transferring it through TM is legit, the question is how is he accepting funds? If someone won't use Paypal it's probably a scam.

 
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My dad took me to 3 Super Bowls in the 80's, XVII, XVIII, and XIX. For all of them we went without tickets and he bought them outside the stadium on game day. The only one we didn't get into was XVIII, not many for sale. These were the days before Stubhub and we probably got really lucky we didn't get scammed with counterfeits. As crazy as the Stubhub fees are, they are guaranteed to be legit tix and that insurance seems it could be worth it vs. being out thousands to a scam.

 
The end of my saga:

The "too good to be true" 200 level seat for $1200 fell through (no surprise) as the guy ghosted me.

Got to Atlanta Saturday afternoon, had no luck holding up my "Need 1 ticket" sign Sat and Sun AM.  A scalper tried to sell me a counterfeit ticket - it looked good, but not good enough. Waited until about 12:30 for ticket prices to come down on StubHub and others, but they were going up, well over $3K including fees. So I ended up paying $2900 to a ticket broker I've gotten to know for for a 300 level row 16 sideline seat. Still used PayPal,  just in case.

Go Rams!!!

 
ComfortablyNumb said:
The end of my saga:

The "too good to be true" 200 level seat for $1200 fell through (no surprise) as the guy ghosted me.

Got to Atlanta Saturday afternoon, had no luck holding up my "Need 1 ticket" sign Sat and Sun AM.  A scalper tried to sell me a counterfeit ticket - it looked good, but not good enough. Waited until about 12:30 for ticket prices to come down on StubHub and others, but they were going up, well over $3K including fees. So I ended up paying $2900 to a ticket broker I've gotten to know for for a 300 level row 16 sideline seat. Still used PayPal,  just in case.

Go Rams!!!
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Seems like the market is holding up late from what I'm seeing from guys I know just outside the venue.

 
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