Can Ticketmaster Resale change your asking price?

Brief Question: Does anyone know with certainty if Ticketmaster resale can sell tickets you’ve listed for more than you’ve asked and keep the difference between your asking price and their actual selling price? This has nothing to do with the additional service fees the seller pays. I looked on the TM site and found no information about this (other than the venue/producers can set minimum prices in certain situations) and am still waiting for a response from TM.



Slightly longer background if it helps: I listed tickets (for the sake of illustration) for $500, when I checked the listing status they were on TM resale for $616. I thought that might be inclusive of fees, but when I tested my theory by putting the tickets in my cart and there were hundreds of additional dollars in fees still added above the $616/tkt. I inquired immediately and got an auto response. Within hours the tickets sold (and with the sale, the listing obviously disappeared) so I have no way of retracing or rechecking (short of going to the theater the day of the performance and trying to find the people who bought the tickets and asking them what they paid). I received an automated confirmation I would receive $1000. I ask for two reasons; I could have gotten hundreds more per ticket had I chosen to list them as such, but I did not. I was INTENTIONALLY trying to strike a balance between capitalizing on an opportunity and not screwing over someone else by keeping the tickets (and the accompanying fees) at a reasonable amount. And if the tickets were sold for more than I asked does Ticketmaster pocket the difference?

And Just in case…

Yes, $1000 is a lot of money but this is a question of principal not money. It’s why already expensive tickets are astronomical and become unrealistic and unaffordable.

But TM has to get paid for their secure service. Agreed, that’s what the fees are for. I was trying to keep the cost of the tickets (and fees) below a certain price so they were a bit more attainable.

Why make a profit at all – why didn’t you just give the tickets away or sell them for face value? Unfortunately, I am not at present in a position to turn down an opportunity to realize some benefit from selling a very popular ticket. If I were – I would have. And in a slightly different environment I would have posted on this site or Craigslist to sell the tickets with no fee at all – win/win. But unfortunately and (mostly) rightfully, such transactions are looked upon with suspicion.

Thanks for any responses and sorry for any preemptive snark.

Exactly. You're offered the tickets to TM at $500. That's what you'll be getting even if they sold the tickets on their website for $1,500. You have no control over what they choose to list the tickets at.

Wow!! Thanks. I had no idea!! I'll find a better way if it happens again. No good deed... Thanks for the responses, a great weekend to all :)

Ticketmaster and Telecharge both have two separate fees. One is a service charge per ticket, and one is an overall "handling fee." For a regular ticket, each one is only a few dollars, but for the resale tickets, they can be a lot. If you sold a ticket for $500, the service charge per ticket might be $116, so the ticket is listed for resale at $616. But then when the person buys the ticket, the "handling fee" gets added, and that can be another $100. So the buyer pays $716, of which you get $500 and Ticketmaster gets $216.



(I'm making up the numbers, but you get the general idea.)



Between the service charge and the handling fee, Ticketmaster will add another 35% or so onto the price of the ticket. So they make out like a bandit. That's why they love the resale tickets.

I know. I was trying to not be a giant jerk and TM made me a giant jerk AND took a bunch off the top to boot! Next time I'll come directly here "to the board" and stick it to the man