When Mike Baggot tried to sell his Cubs tickets on ticket resale Web sites, he got sticker shock.
The fees that each site tacked onto the tickets were, in his opinion, a bit much. “The charges were so high that it became really ridiculous trying to get my money back,” he said.
So the 38-year-old attorney from Bartlett came up with a solution — he created his own ticket resale Web site.
Ticketbag.com went live in January, and users can sell or purchase tickets for games, concerts and other live shows.
The site gets traffic from 300 to 700 people each day, Baggot said, and primarily serves the Chicago metropolitan area, but it also buys and sells tickets for games in Midwest cities such as Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
TicketBag acts as an intermediary, so purchases are made and processed through the site. Posting tickets for sale is free, but TicketBag does charge a 10 percent commission on each sale. Buyers do not pay any fees other than shipping and handling.
“The response we’ve had has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Baggot, who has purchased and sold tickets through the site. “I think everybody’s tired of the way things have been done.”
There is a growing niche market for ticket resales, according to those in the business, and Forrester Research predicts that U.S. online secondary ticket sales will reach $4.5 billion by 2012.
“It used to be a pretty defined group, but now there are a lot of mom-and-pop operations. And there’s also a big giant blurring between the primary market, which is the original sale, and the resale,” said Gary Adler, general counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
The NATB was formed to legitimize the ticket broker industry, and the NATB has a strict code of ethics by which its members must abide. It also offers a satisfaction guarantee that will refund 200 percent of a ticket’s price.
Adler said more tickets are sold online than any other way.
Because ticketbag.com is relatively new, Adler was not familiar with the site and did not offer specific comments on the online broker. The NATB does not yet offer membership to online-only businesses in part because it can be hard to regulate virtual businesses under the association’s stringent guidelines.
To become an NATB member, ticket resellers must have a brick-and-mortar store that has been in business for more than one year. Potential members also must be sponsored by two current NATB members.
StubHub was formed eight years ago as an online ticket marketplace. Sellers are financially liable for any ticket sales they make through the site, but StubHub, a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay, does manage each transaction.
“If you think about getting tickets, the access to any seat is very, very limited,” said Sean Pate, a StubHub spokesman. “It’s very hard for the average consumer to make any sort of impulse decision or last-minute decision and have some sort of choice and selection.”
Pate uses the Cubs as an example. Tickets for Cubs games on StubHub are always popular and the demand for the tickets is driven in large part by the fact that getting tickets to Wrigley Field on the primary market can be difficult, he said.
Of course, StubHub makes money too. Both buyers and sellers pay fees. For buyers, it’s 10 percent of a ticket’s purchase price. Sellers are charged a 15 percent commission.
“Fees are very competitive in the market. The big value proposition is truly you actually are getting a service when you buy from StubHub,” he said.
Terry Tankersley recently purchased tickets at TicketBag. An avid WGN listener, he heard about the Web site on the radio. Tankersley, of Winthrop Harbor, was looking to buy tickets for “Wicked,” and he said he found the best deal on TicketBag.
“TicketBag was really a lot more reasonable,” said Tankersley, who has purchased tickets for sporting events online in the past. “These [tickets] were actually better tickets than the other sites had.”
Complaints about fees are common, Adler said.
“Interestingly, [price] is a complaint that is pretty legitimate from both sides,” he said. “More often than not if you go directly to the site where the inventory is, you’ll see a lower price and less fees.”
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TIPS ON TICKET-BUYING
Looking to buy a ticket but not sure if you should take your chances with the resale market? Gary Adler, spokesman and general counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers, offers some tips for consumers.
– Do your research — know what fees you’re paying, Adler cautions. “There’s so much information out there right now that people should spend some time and do the homework,” he said.
– Never pay in cash. If a broker won’t accept a credit card, that is a red flag, Adler said.
– When you can, conduct business with an NATB member, Adler recommends.
– Read a broker’s code of conduct to learn how well you’re protected. TicketBag, for example, may terminate a violator’s account, suspend their access to the site or even seek court action. “We go after the person who tries to do something fraudulent,” said TicketBag founder Mike Baggot.
– “Most importantly, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is,” Adler said.
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WHERE THE MONEY GOES
TicketBag: Sellers are charged a 10 percent commission. Buyers do not pay fees other than shipping and handling.
StubHub: Sellers are charged a 15 percent commission. Buyers also pay a fee equal to 10 percent of the ticket price.
GoTickets: Buyers do not pay fees, although tickets are sold at above-face value prices. The company, a National Association of Ticket Brokers member, purchases tickets on the secondary market and does not buy from individuals.
TicketsNow: Also an NATB member, TicketsNow charges buyers a service charge and sellers are charged a 15 percent commission.
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Valerie Vedral is a Redeye special contributor
