SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The Bay Area has some huge events coming up: the Super Bowl is in just a couple weeks, and K-pop supergroup BTS recently announced a show at Stanford Stadium in May.
When event tickets are hard to find, buyers often turn to resellers. The global resale ticket market was estimated at $3.4 billion in 2024, according to the University of Michigan.
If you can’t find tickets from the original ticketing platform, the Better Business Bureau advises buyers to use caution when buying from a reseller.
Tickets listed before they officially go on sale can sometimes be “speculative tickets” — that’s when the reseller lists tickets without actually having them in hand. They’re gambling they can source the tickets after you buy them — a gamble that can leave you empty-handed too.
Buying tickets from strangers on social media is incredibly risky — the BBB advises you to go to a verified reseller instead. You can visit VerifiedTicketSource.com to see if they’re registered with the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
And finally, when purchasing tickets on a reselling platform, use a form of payment that comes with buyer protection, like many credit cards or PayPal.
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