Buying Concert Tickets from Someone Who Doesn't Have Paypal

moneybunny123

I've found some concert tickets for sale on gumtree that I REALLY want to buy. The seller is being really fair and only selling them for their face value even though some other people are asking three times their value.

He's forwarded the booking confirmation from Ticketmaster to me by email and it all looks kosher.

HOWEVER...the seller doesn't have paypal.

How can I protect myself and make sure I'm not throwing my money away. They really are great tickets and I really want them, but I want to make sure I'm not being ripped off. Help!!

wdah

How is he expecting you to pay, cash?

moneybunny123

wdah wrote: »

How is he expecting you to pay, cash?

No, bank transfer. He lives about 100 miles away from me (we both live about 50 miles from concert venue), so there is no way I could pay cash. And he can't contact Ticketmaster to change the booking details because he bought 4 tickets and I only want 2.

wdah

The Ticketmaster site suggests you might be able to send partial orders?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/transfer

"Enter the recipient’s name and email, select the tickets you want to transfer, and you’re done!"

campdave

Are the tickets in hand?

It's a mexican stand off - a bank transfer offers you no protection and obviously he can't send until payment received.

Up to you to decide if it's worth the risk.

moneybunny123

wdah wrote: »

The Ticketmaster site suggests you might be able to send partial orders?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/transfer

"Enter the recipient’s name and email, select the tickets you want to transfer, and you’re done!"

That's very interesting, thanks. I've emailed the seller asking him to take a look at this and have asked that he transfers the tickets to me and I will pay immediately by bank transfer if he does.

If he refuses, then I don't know what he's going to do. Surely anybody would be reluctant to just transfer money to a stranger in exchance for tickets that may or may not be legit.

moneybunny123

campdave wrote: »

Are the tickets in hand?

It's a mexican stand off - a bank transfer offers you no protection and obviously he can't send until payment received.

Up to you to decide if it's worth the risk.

No, the tickets aren't in hand yet (the concert isn't for another 3 months).

I agree about the Mexican Standoff. Like I just said above, surely he's going to have this same problem with whoever wants to buy them.

moneybunny123

Just out of interest: If I convince him to open a paypal account, am I completely protected then? What if it's a scam and I never receive the tickets? Will I get my money back? What if he closes down his paypal account immediately after receiving the money? How would paypal retrieve that money?

Or, what if I pay via paypal to his friends paypal account for example? (He hasn't suggested this - it was something I wondered about suggesting).

Who, these days, especially someone selling something online DOESN'T have a paypal account? Should I be suspicious?

wdah

moneybunny123 wrote: »

Just out of interest: If I convince him to open a paypal account, am I completely protected then? What if it's a scam and I never receive the tickets? Will I get my money back? What if he closes down his paypal account immediately after receiving the money? How would paypal retrieve that money?

Or, what if I pay via paypal to his friends paypal account for example? (He hasn't suggested this - it was something I wondered about suggesting).

Who, these days, especially someone selling something online DOESN'T have a paypal account? Should I be suspicious?

To be honest, I think there may be two issues that could void PayPal's buyer protection here:

1. I'm not sure it's offered on tickets
2. "Personal Transaction payments" aren't eligible

If you used your credit card you may be able to make a claim via that if there's a problem - but don't quote me on that!

It's all a bit of a minefield.

steveE2

Event tickets are Not Covered by Paypal

Items purchased off eBay:
Items are eligible unless they are excluded below:

• Real estate, motor vehicles, capital equipment, travel tickets, and events tickets
• Intangible items
• Services
• Items purchased using PayPal Payments Pro or Virtual Terminal
• You may not file a dispute for a Personal Payment

Avoriaz

moneybunny123 wrote: »

I've found some concert tickets for sale on gumtree that I REALLY want to buy. The seller is being really fair and only selling them for their face value even though some other people are asking three times their value.

He's forwarded the booking confirmation from Ticketmaster to me by email and it all looks kosher.

This reeks of a scam.

All the best scams look kosher.

Why is he selling them at face value when it appears he could get three times that price?

Perhaps he is altruistic but, far more likely, he is scamming multiple buyers.

It is possible that he is genuine but my advice is to proceed with extreme caution if at all.