Are you thinking about re-selling your Pearl Jam tickets? Think again.
Pearl Jam will start their North American tour in Toronto on March 18 and the whole thing is pretty much sold out. Naturally, there will be significant number of tickets available on on the secondary market. But there’s a BIG issue.
Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster are working together (yeah, I know; it feels weird typing that) to make sure that tickets don’t fall into the hands of secondary sellers or scalpers. The only way anyone could purchase tickets was through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system to smartphones.
Tickets live on your phone and cannot be transferred to anyone else EXCEPT through a dedicated ticket exchange mechanism that will connect the original holder to another fan. If you want to sell your Pearl Jam ticket, you can only do so for face value. If you want to buy a Pearl Jam ticket, you’ll pay only what the original purchaser paid.
For some reason, though, tickets for this tour are listed on a wide variety of secondary sites. I just checked one and found general admission pit tickets for the tour opener in Toronto for US$3,071 (CAD$ 4,078.42). Tickets Hamilton show can be found selling for $3,663 each.
How is this the case? Are those tickets actually available? If so, how are the secondary sellers getting around the non-transferability/smartphone situation? Did they use a bunch of cheap smartphones to buy the tickets? Then if you buy tickets from them, you’d presumably get this phone, too.
Another possibility: guest lists. Perhaps those don’t require the same route through Ticketmaster to get tickets. Or how about tickets for corporate boxes? Are those electronic or hard tickets?
Whatever the case, this just isn’t fair. Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster went to great lengths to ensure that tickets stayed out of the hands of resellers, speculators, and scalpers. In this case, Pearl Jam fans shut out of the tour have a right to be angry.
And this is a bit weird and ironic: If you go to this story about the issue, chances are good you’ll see ads by VividSeats advertising Pearl Jam tickets.
I’ve got some people asking questions. Meanwhile, any input/explanations are appreciated. Let’s get to the bottom of this.
If you found those on a secondary seller site, beware and be wary: Stubhub told me a few years ago they list tickets on speculation, which is how they have tickets available before they go on sale. The only possible way around this is if someone managed to somehow get paper tickets.
We wondered if resellers somehow created burner TM accounts so they can do the sale privately and give buyers their TM login afterwards. Regardless, unless you’re letting your friends in with tickets you bought, I think you need to be really careful. There really isn’t a way around it. I hate to say it, but PJ should work with TM more. This was really smart.
Hey Alan.
Long time Ten Club member here who is thankful to be going to all 4 Canadian shows in March. The tickets have the bar code that updates every 10 seconds so no screenshots will work. Also no option to sell or transfer on Ticketmaster. The ticket owner must walk in with their guest.
The only way people are selling them are by having multiple Ticketmaster accounts and are simply giving the account credentials to the buyer and then the buyer uses that account to get in (tickets scanned). Only other way would be a scalper with say 2 tickets, selling one and going into the venue with the buyer.
No matter what, any buyer who is willing to accept the above methods gets what they deserve if there is an issue. Any NOBODY should be falling for any seller that says they have hard copy tickets or will transfer because the tickets can’t be transfer and no hard copy tickets.
some have created new ticketmaster accounts and will sell you the log in and password. now you have tickets. Others are going to walk you in and to your seats.
If I can just add; The Fan2Fan Exchange is the way to go to get tickets if you don’t have already as you pay Face Value and its 100% guaranteed. It’s a great initiative to keep tickets out of scalpers hands and give those a chance to still get tickets at face value.
hi alan
huge pj fan here & ten club member….i read that the only way the secondary market can pull this off, in this situation, is to meet the client at venue & walk them in with brokers smartphone for access, as TM is using technology that will change the bar code on smartphones every 15 seconds
hope this helps….joe 😊
Non transferable tickets only apply to the Pearl Jam verified fan presale, which TM allowed an allotment to be sold prior to the general public. I was granted a presale code, but the only tickets were available at the time were behind the stage in the upper sections. I passed and thought I would try my luck again the next day for the general public sale. In hindsight that was a bad decision as I tried about 6 different shows that day with not even getting close to having a chance of purchasing tickets. So that puts me in a dilemma of purchasing on a secondary sight. So my guess is the tickets for sale are from the general public sale, but I can see some issues if there are the verified fan tickets listed as well.
In response to Mike’s comment above…..Not only were verified fan tickets non-transferable, ALL tickets, including 10C tickets are non-transferable (of which I secured 4 myself…2 shows) . And if you follow the band at all, you’ll know that on 2/18 the fan to fan exchange starts. Giving people the opportunity to sell tickets they don’t need AND thus giving people an opportunity to buy. All this is through TM (collaborating with the greatest band in the world) and all tickets will be face value with no addtl fees. Personally, I think it’s fantastic that they are doing it this way!
Val my mistake of looking at a website with just the info of the verified tix. You’re right ALL tickets are nontransferable with the exception of NY & CO. I was curious and called Vivid Seats and asked how are they selling tickets in Nashville. They informed me that the tickets that I inquired about were to be picked up at will call which the seller will meet you and grant access.
Mike, please, please don’t buy through Vivid! #1, this is exactly what the band’s is trying to prevent! Price gouging scalpers! #2, the fan to fan exchange through TM (collaborating with Pearl Jam) GUARANTEES you will pay no more than face value $103 not including fees but there will not be any ADDED fees from OG price. You can check daily up until show date because there will certainly be people trying to sell their tickets that they suddenly cannot use for whatever reason. Good luck!
Stub hub list no tix available. I wouldn’t trust most other resellers.
Question: How do you find out if a ticket holder is trying to sell their ticket(s)?
Except in NY and CO where state law mandates that you must have the ability to transfer tickets to others.
and where so called ten club members are selling GA tickets for thousands of dollars.
Personally I think it is a joke, a bad joke. As a PJ fan From Seattle, I have never been able to see them!!! 😬🥺😥.and I am a concert goer. I’ve seen JJ, 16 times, ,and actually saw Eddie at a kokua festival w/ JJ. But seriously though, i fan clubbed, ive waited, ive prayed, ive been verified, and shutout. Buying tickets in that lotterry was impossible. . 2,500 people ahead of me in a queue, no chance. No sign of anything else. Pj used to be about just showing up to a club in Ballard, now its not worth the $. Guess id rather buy a car. No fair. Core fans shutouts… Gonna trust miricles happen… Maybe someone will sellk me their san diego tickets. Any west coast shows will do…. Please, pleas from PJ fan.
Fan-to-Fan Ticket Exchange opens Feb 18th
If you want to see PJ join their Ten Club. $20 USD a year and then you can get in on the pre-sale lottery. That’s how most of us got our tickets before the public verified presale.
I was so excited to get 10 club tickets… until I opened them. Upper bowl at & waaaaay at the back. WTF I would need an effing telescope to see the stage. Maybe PJ could realize that some fans that have been with them all along.. since we were broke kids… are now successful enough to purchase kick ass seats when they tour. I don’t care who makes the extra cash.
CHill – It depends on your 10C member number. The lower the #, the better the seats. That why I put in for best available. Ended up with floor seats.