Getting Major League baseball tickets has become a national pastime every spring as fans scramble to buy tickets to key dates throughout the season. For nearly a century, fans have been lining up outside ticket offices at nearby stadiums with hopes of landing opening day tickets and tickets to games against heated rivals. However, the past 10 or so years a lot has changed. Gone are ineffective laws that prevent scalpers from charging fans more than face value for tickets. Gone are the long lines of fans waiting outside to buy tickets. Today, with the advance of the internet, ticket buying has never been easier. Fans can buy tickets directly from Major League baseball from the comfort of their own home. This ease of purchasing tickets also creates more demand and tickets to big games often sell out in just minutes. Fortunately, if you happen to miss out on landing tickets to the game you wish to attend their are several other ways to get tickets through the secondary ticket market
The secondary ticket market is simply the reselling of tickets to a new buyer. This has emerged as an estimated $10 billion a year industry and shows no signs of slowing down with the wide availability of the marketplace via the internet. The secondary marketplace relies on pure supply and demand. While some may call the secondary market scalping, this market is highly competitive and great deals can be had if you know how to shop. Buying tickets to major league baseball games is a perfect example as each of the 30 MLB team plays 162 games. In general, the supply is high and demand is relatively low (as compared to. However, demand can be very high for marque games. Both fans and brokers alike will often purchase season ticket packages with the guarantee of landing the marque tickets. What many fans don't realize is that the non-marque games are often sold at less than face value due to the lack of demand. Knowing the demand placed on tickets will make you a better ticket shopper and if you just want to see your favorite team , there are some outstanding deals out there.
Having spent many years in the ticket industry,knowing which game will be bargains is only part of the equation. The other, and perhaps most important, is where to buy tickets from. If you've spent any time online looking for baseball tickets you will realize their is no shortage of Although it may seem intuitive to simple search around and find the lowest prices, there is much more to finding good deals on baseball tickets. What many ticket buyers do not realize is that many online brokers and ticket exchanges hide service fees and outrageous shipping and handling charges until the time of checkout. So before you buy tickets online always make sure you compare prices AFTER these fees have been applied. With that, let's take a look at some of the more popular ticket sites on the web:
Stubhub
Stubhub is easily the most popular online ticket broker. However, many people buy from Stubhub without realizing that many other brokers have similar prices and do not charge excess service charges.
Stubhub Service Charge: 10%
Stubhub Shipping Charge: $16.95
The Ticket Lodge
The Ticket Lodge is the new kid on the ticket block. They pride themselves in being an all purpose ticket search engine with the goal of finding the best deals on sports, concert, and theater tickets. Their partners have a large inventory and have the lowest service charges of any of the online ticket brokers.
The Ticket lodge Service Charge: 5%
The Ticket Lodge Shipping Charge: $11.00
Ticket Master
Ticket Master is notorious for their record of poor customer service and high service charges. What many ticket shoppers do not realize is that getting tickets through ticket master is not getting them at face value. In fact, many ticket brokers can actually beat ticket master prices as they can buy direct from the source and both service and shipping charges can be lower.
Ticket Master Service Charge: 15%
Ticket Master Shipping Charge: $19.95
Razor Gator
Razor Gator is one of the most popular online ticket brokers. Much like Stubhub, many customers are fooled into thinking the prices are much lower when in fact, after the service and shipping charges, the are often considerably more expensive.
Razor Gator Service Charge: 10%
Razor Gator Shipping Charge: $17.50
TicketsNow
TicketsNow is a much smaller ticket broker but have been competitive with the "big boys". Just like the rest, TicketsNow, promotes cheap ticket prices only to tack on outrageous service fees.
TicketsNow Service Charge: 15%
TicketsNow Shipping Charge: $14.95
Ticket Liquidator
Just like the rest, Ticket Liquidator promises fair prices but only delivers on trumped up service and shipping fees.
Ticket Liquidator Service Charge: 15%
Ticket Liquidator Charge: $15.00
As you can see from the above, buying Major league baseball tickets from online brokers is not exactly as it seems. Before you fork over your hard earned cash, be sure to factor in the hidden service fees to ensure you are getting the best deal possible.
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