We’ve got three rules we live by that help you find the cheapest Ticketmaster tickets. Here they are:
- Buy the “Standard Ticket”
- Beware the “Platinum” Ticket
- Avoid the Resale Ticket
In an earlier post, we talked about how Ticketmaster can do better with ticket prices: Ticketmaster Concert Prices: We Love to Hate Them. In this post, we’ll help you make the best of Ticketmaster because sometimes (shocking I know), they’re the cheapest ticket out there!
Buy The “Standard Ticket”: Always the Cheapest
Ticketmaster’s standard tickets are almost always the cheapest Ticketmaster tickets you can find. A Ticketmaster “standard” ticket is just a ticket you’re buying straight from them via the venue. In the video below, we show you how to filter events to show only the “Standard tickets”.
Beware the “Platinum”: Sometimes the Cheapest Ticketmaster Ticket
Platinum tickets are Ticketmaster tickets, but different than standard tickets, they are dynamically priced. That means their price goes up and down depending on demand. In Ticketmaster’s own words: “Ticketmaster’s Official Platinum seat program enables market-based pricing (adjusting prices according to supply and demand) for live event tickets, similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold.” The bottom line is these might be a good deal, they might not. If you can’t find a better deal on resale sites like TickPick, SeatGeek, etc., then consider buying these seats. These seats are only in arena shows and often in sections you can’t find resale sites to buy tickets from. Here’s how you find those seats in their app:
For this Beyonce show, the Ticketmaster tickets are actually a pretty good deal ($844) compared to resellers with similar tickets (SeatGeek & Vivid Seats were both $1000+ and one row further back!). In this case, we’d recommend buying from Ticketmaster, because this is the cheapest Ticketmaster ticket and the cheapest overall ticket for this show.
Avoid the Resale Ticket: Almost Never the Cheapest
The one place we avoid using Ticketmaster is when they are reselling tickets. We find they are almost always the most expensive ticket when they are the reseller. Here’s how you eliminate their resale tickets from your ticket search in their app: