by Jessi Hall

Created on: October 21, 2009

If you're planning on attending a major event in the U.S., you may be concerned with ticket authenticity. By following a few purchasing guidelines, you can increase your odds of purchasing valid tickets.

You'll likely have several options when purchasing event tickets. The majority of primary ticket sales occur through the venue's official box office and their official agents. Most box offices use either Ticketmaster or Live Nation as their official ticket agent. Ticketmaster sold more than 141 million tickets, valued at over $8.9 billion in 2008, while Live Nation estimates their ticket sales at 45 million tickets per year. The role of an official ticket agent such as Ticketmaster or Live Nation is simply to sell an allotment of tickets.

By purchasing your tickets through the venue's official box office or their official ticket agent, you can be nearly certain that you have purchased authentic tickets. Both Ticketmaster and Live Nation guarantee that all tickets sold through their official outlets are authentic. These guarantees do not extend to original Ticketmaster or Live Nation tickets sold through other sources (such as Craigslist, ticket brokers, or individuals). Thus, when ticket authenticity is your top concern, shop with the primary box office or their official ticket agent.

Another common method of purchasing tickets is through the secondary market. The secondary market is made up of individuals, ticket agencies, and other companies who re-sell tickets purchased directly from the official ticket agent. Examples of secondary marketplace players include StubHub, eBay and TicketsNow. The majority of secondary marketplace sellers offer access to tickets posted by numerous other ticket brokers and individuals. Ensuring ticket validity is generally more difficult in the secondary market, due to the sheer numbers of sellers. However, these agencies maintain their own policies to protect consumers, and to ensure ticket authenticity.

StubHub offers their "FanProtect Guarantee" to all buyers. This policy is backed with a money-back guarantee, and ensures that all tickets purchased through StubHub are authentic and valid for entry. StubHub asks all buyers to contact Customer Service immediately if they encounter problems with ticket validity at the venue. StubHub then works with the venue to either resolve the ticket validity issue, or to locate comparable replacement tickets for the buyer. Upon confirmation that tickets were invalid, StubHub will issue

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