How Event Tickets Center Works

Event Tickets Center is a trusted secondary resale marketplace where fans can buy tickets from ticket sellers and other fans, giving them access to a wide selection of tickets for their favorite events.

A primary marketplace is a ticket seller that works directly with venues and artists to sell their event tickets. The primary seller releases the tickets for sale, usually on sites like Ticketmaster or AXS. A secondary Marketplace is a platform where people who have already bought tickets from the primary seller can go to resell their tickets. Primary sellers often have a secondary marketplace built into their platform as well.

As a secondary resale marketplace, Event Tickets Center does not hold any inventory.

Our inventory comes from people who have previously bought tickets either from a primary ticket marketplace or another secondary marketplace. Our ticket sellers can be anybody: a fan who loves going to events and had an extra ticket to sell, a person whose plans changed and can’t make it to the show anymore, or a ticket broker (aka professional ticket seller).

Ticket brokers are individuals who buy and sell tickets for a living. People often think that ticket brokers are scammers and associate them with bots used to scoop up tickets faster than any human could. Contrarily, they often will purchase tickets from a primary seller using fair practices, or have deals with artists or promoters to help sell their ticket inventory. When an event is announced, the primary sellers are given an allotted amount of tickets to sell, with other tickets being divided between the venue hosting the event, the promoters of that event, and the artists themselves. Venues, promoters, and artists receive a certain amount of tickets as something they can give to their vendors, reward employees with, get friends into shows, etc. When they have more tickets than they need, they turn to ticket brokers to help sell the tickets on the secondary market.

Event Tickets Center does not associate with scammers or bots for any of our ticketed events. Anyone suspected of scamming is banned from selling on Event Tickets Center.

In fact, many ticket brokers are members of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB). The NATB was created to protect consumers and ensure that every fan who wants to go to an event has an avenue to attend that event. The NATB and its members act based on the NATB Code of Ethics to protect consumers from being scammed, and like the entirety of the secondary resale industry, is adamantly against the use of bots to purchase tickets, which is a major concern for consumers and the industry alike. Event Tickets Center and a number of reputable secondary ticket sellers believe in what the NATB stands for/against, and are longstanding partners of the organization.

As demand for the event rises, ticket brokers will resell the ticket(s) with the intention of making a profit, however in many cases they end up selling the ticket(s) for less than face value. They essentially “invest” in events. The vast majority of inventory on secondary ticket resale marketplaces comes from ticket brokers.

For more information on the topic, Wikipedia’s article on Ticket Resale is very informative.

When you make a purchase, sophisticated technology powering the secondary ticket market notifies the ticket holder's system in real-time to "lock" your tickets. These systems ensure your tickets cannot be sold to other customers on other platforms. The tickets order is fulfilled and you are presented with a receipt and instructions on when your ticket(s) will be available and how to obtain them. Providing this robust technology contributes to some of the additional costs and service fees involved when buying secondary market tickets.

In some instances, it may take an extended period of time to receive your tickets. There are several reasons for this. The most common reason is that the tickets for the event are not released or made available by the venue/box office until a certain period before the event; although the seller has the rights to obtain the tickets on your behalf, they have to adhere to the waiting period defined by the primary market, promoter, artist, or team.

This depends on how you choose to receive your tickets, but the most common method to receive your tickets is by mobile app. This is where most of the confusion comes for individuals purchasing tickets in the secondary market and on Event Tickets Center.

Because ETC does not own any inventory, we do not interact with your ticket directly. Oftentimes, you will receive an email to download an app for the primary seller (usually Ticketmaster or AXS) and your tickets will be available in your account on that app.

No. Unfortunately, there are no returns, cancellations, or exchanges once a ticket is purchased. This is because the intermediary seller has already made the purchase with the primary market, league, team, promotor, or artist and cannot return the ticket. The ticket has been digitally transferred and cannot be returned. If you cannot attend the event for any reason, you can always resell the ticket on a secondary platform.

Sometimes, despite purchasing a ticket, people do not receive their ticket in time for the event. This is obviously extremely frustrating , and is not done with the intention of scamming buyers. This is why we have the 100% Buyer Guarantee in place, to encourage ticket sellers to fulfill their purchases.

When this happens, you receive your 100% Buyer Guarantee refund. Then a lot happens behind the scenes. The seller gets charged for the price of the ticket and then a number of fees on top of that. Repeat offenders are condemned more seriously and can even be banned from selling on Event Tickets Center. Our goal is to provide a trustworthy marketplace where you don’t have to worry about receiving your ticket, so we do everything we can to provide that peace of mind to you.

For high-demand events, extremely rare situations may arise where multiple customers request the same tickets at the same time. To protect buyers, safeguards are in place to prevent double sales. In the unlikely event that your requested tickets are no longer available, we will make every effort to fulfill your order with comparable or better seats whenever possible, ensuring you still get a great experience.

Regardless of where you purchase tickets, be it primary or secondary, there will be fees associated with the purchase. The breakdown of fees in the secondary market primarily consist of powering anti-fraud technology, automation and fulfillment systems.

Fees also go towards:

• Securely sourcing and listing tickets for thousands of events
• Protecting your transactions with top-tier online security
• Ensuring safe, reliable ticket delivery
• Providing expert customer support with extended hours

We work hard to keep our total ticket prices as low as possible—so you can focus on enjoying the event!

As of May 2025, The FTC has required that all ticket marketplaces disclose any added fees in the ticket listing, so the buyers are not surprised with added fees when they reach checkout.

Sometimes, buying from a secondary marketplace can seemingly add a level of complexity. There are several reasons to purchase from a secondary marketplace.

1. The primary ticket seller sold out or is withholding inventory. Many times, when demand for an event is low, ticket sellers will drop their prices to cut their losses. Sometimes it’s somebody who wants to sell their tickets in a hurry and isn't interested in profiting, or the primary seller is jacking up prices (via dynamic pricing and/or ticket holdbacks) to increase their profits. Regardless, there are many cases where prices for an event are lower in the secondary markets than the primary markets.
2. Buyer Guarantees. Buyers are usually wary of scams in ticketing. The secondary marketplaces offer a buyer guarantee to combat this fear. Most scams happen from places such as Facebook Marketplace, because there is nothing in place to protect the buyer. Most, if not all secondary resale ticket marketplaces offer a buyer guarantee of at least 100%. Meaning if you buy a ticket and don’t receive it, you will receive a refund worth 100% of your ticket price. Long story short, you can trust tickets purchased from Event Tickets Center.
3. Avoid Long Queues. On secondary markets, there is no waiting in an hours-long queue, and there is no need to sign up or pay to be in a fan club or a lottery to receive a code. We make it easy to purchase the tickets fans want.

For more information on the importance of secondary marketplaces visit our page regarding the Coalition for Ticketing Fairness.

Event Tickets Center is committed to providing a positive ticket buying and event experience for every customer. We do everything we can to keep fees low, prevent scams, and ensure an efficient transfer of tickets. We also fight for the rights of consumers of the ticket industry (See our About Us, Coalition for Ticket Fairness, and National Association of Ticket Brokers pages for more information). If you have any questions on the process or your personal experience, check out our customer service page.