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Visual Journalism

How Trying to Buy Tickets to a Harry Styles Concert Taught Me About the Harsh Reality of Corporate Scams and the True Power of Fan-based Trading

One of my favorite artists is finally coming to Arkansas and I have no idea why.


The moment my sister called to tell me that Harry Styles would be performing in Little Rock, Arkansas, I immediately knew my savings were going to suffer. What I didn’t know was the process of buying tickets would be much more difficult than either of us expected going in.

My sister called the day the pre-sale opened, which meant that only fans with an access code could purchase tickets before they went on sale for the rest of the public aka us. Luckily, my sister had a friend who already purchased her tickets and shared her access code with us.

So it was easy, we would just go through Ticketmaster, purchase our tickets early before anyone else could snatch them up, and then spend the rest of the time planning cool outfits to attend the concert. At least that’s how it was supposed to go.

Tickets went on sale at 10 am and it was 2 pm by the time my sister and I entered the virtual queue through the Ticketmaster website. We waited in anticipation, talking about the setlist, and we even called our mom to share our excitement When it was finally our turn to purchase tickets, we were stunned by the prices displayed. The venue website had listed ticket prices at 3 price points: $65, $85, and $120. But what we saw on Ticketmaster was much different. The prices for the seats we wanted had skyrocketed past our budget and were in the $160 - $300 range. We were shocked by how expensive the tickets were. Looking back now, I was too naive to see the value of those tickets.

After going back and forth between seats and consulting our bank accounts, we decided to choose seats that weren’t too bad. They were in the lower bowl, but close to the back. As long as we could see the full stage we didn’t mind. So we added them to our cart and hit purchase.

But disaster struck.







I wanted to cry.



We started hunting for tickets 4 hours ago, it was now 6 pm and we were both exhausted. We tried, again and again, to try to purchase tickets. We used different computers, our phones, different accounts, but nothing worked. Then our seats were gone and the prices rose, what was once $50 nosebleed seats were now $400. We watched the blue dots turn to grey as tickets slowly dwindled away.

My sister and I decided to try our chances for the general sale, in hopes that we could secure tickets at a more reasonable price.

The next day, I had both my laptop and my phone signed in and ready to go on the Ticketmaster website. My sister was in my ear the whole day through my earbuds. Tickets went on sale at 12 o’clock sharp and we weren’t going to miss our chance. We decided to shoot for easier seats in the upper bowl, near the front. “It’ll be a better view from higher up anyways,” my sister assured herself. So the plan was all set. I would aim for seats in section 221, Row 7 and my sister would be online to pick up anything in the perimeter (222-219) just in case there was an issue on my side.







We were set and determined. I even talked with my professor before class about my situation and that I might be a little preoccupied when they went on sale. Thankfully he was understanding about the entire thing and even encouraged me to do my best (shoutout Professor Reppert).

Unfortunately, after several tickets slipped through my grasp and another error message occurred. I was left with nothing to show for all of our hard work. It didn’t even take three minutes. My sister was further behind in the queue, so it was already too late by the time she made it through. Tickets were officially sold out.

Although Ticketmaster has been selling tickets online for years (since 1996) it has only grown more and more difficult for fans to buy tickets. For years, fans have been complaining about scalpers and ticket prices rising when the money doesn’t go to the artist or the venue. To combat this, Ticketmaster created the very features that were the downfall of my sister and me.

In 2018, Ticketmaster was investigated and even found to be running a professional scalping scam itself. Scalping can pay good money for those willing to invest. Many of the systems that have been put in place to thwart scalpers has actually made it easier for them to purchase tickets.

  1. The waiting room: It’s easy to create hundreds of accounts that would allow you to wait in many waiting rooms at once, giving you many more chances to purchase. I’m sure there are even bots that could do it for you.

  2. “Fan” presales can be advantageous to scalpers as well.Getting presale codes is no hassle when many scalpers have networks or groups that they work with to buy and sell tickets.

  3. Some of the best seats are sold to cardholders with benefits, such as early access (even earlier than pre-sale sometimes!) Which wouldn’t require any kind of verification.

In the end, the true hero to our story wasn’t StubHub or SeatGeek, and it definitely wasn’t Ticketmaster support. It was other fans who were just like us.

After giving up for long enough, I knew I was too determined to let this opportunity slip past. Sure, Harry would be on tour again, and he would be somewhere near Arkansas, like Dallas, Texas, that I could take a 4-5 hour drive to. Great chance for a road trip.

But when would he be here again? An hour away, basically in my own backyard. I would regret it if I didn’t try. I had to take my chances. I knew I could figure out a way to buy smart, people did it all the time. Plus with the show being the day before Thanksgiving?

I knew someone would be selling tickets their tickets eventually. I had time, so I took to the internet. I spent my spare time searching through Reddit, Instagram, and Twitter. I told anyone I knew that I was looking for tickets and posted about my search periodically.



As November 24th grew closer and closer, $500 for one ticket one StubHub didn’t seem as outlandish as it previously had. I continued my search for anyone selling tickets to any seat. I had joined a Reddit community devoted to Ticket Selling/Trading for Love on Tour. Here, I saw lots of people posting about the same issue my sister and I went through trying to purchase tickets. It made me feel less alone going through the search for tickets and a little more hopeful as people got legit tickets to shows through social media.

At this point, Twitter was my only hope to get tickets. In early November, an account contacted me claiming they had tickets, but after trying to verify the tickets, it was apparent that the account was a scam account. I later found the account was tagged as a ticket scammer on one of the fan hubs and I felt more certain that I could properly identify legit tickets.



The fan accounts really gave me the information I needed to purchase my tickets. One of the main accounts was @HSTicketHeIp. The account is run by a fan, Emeley (@cutesyhs), and she constantly retweets people looking to buy, sell, or trade tickets.



But it doesn’t stop there. She also posts about scammers and has an entire thread dedicated to the steps to take to verify tickets. I definitely would not have made it to this show without the help of this account. Accounts like these made me realize the value of online communities. Instead of trying to make a profit off of each other, fans just want to help each other out. Those that know what it’s like to see Harry in concert want to help others experience that.

My saving grace was @gxldensofi. She had replied under a tweet on the Harry Styles Ticket Help page, so I slid in and messaged her immediately. She was very kind and was super cool about the verification process, she sent me a screen recording of the tickets and the payment process went smooth. We even talked about the struggle it is to get tickets on Ticketmaster.

I finally had the tickets. After weeks of searching and saving up extra money, I finally had two tickets to Harry Styles: Love on Tour in Little Rock, Arkansas. The tickets ran me more than I initially would have liked at nearly $200 per ticket. But it was much better than the $400-$600 that some seats were costing people. Plus my mom pitched in some as an early Christmas gift. In the end, the show was totally worth it. My sister and I had a great time and Harry even sang Medicine, which was even better than I imagined









If I ever had tickets to sell, I would rather sell them through Twitter instead of Stubhub or Seatgeek. I could at least verify that a fan whole really needed tickets got what they were looking for. I don’t think I would risk purchasing on a resale site. Stubhub doesn’t even verify their tickets. A “seller” could list them before they have the tickets, never get any, and then you’re out of money. No refunds or anything.

This was one reason why Twitter seemed more legit to me than these so-called “fan-to-fan selling” sites. Twitter was where I could verify who I was talking to, searching through their profile and their feed to see if they’re a real fan or just posting about selling tickets. Plus I could search to see if they’re tagged in any tweets about scammers.

But even with all the measures I took, I was one of the lucky few who had a happy ending. But there are many others who get scammed and still never get to attend. Finding a way to hold these companies for the robberies committed against fans like me or my sister will be necessary for the future. In our modern-day, online crimes should have higher consequences.

If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely plan ahead more to be prepared to buy tickets during the presale. Twitter Harries were my true heroes at the end of the day. Instead of purchasing from companies who front their legitimacy, I would rather try and see what I can find for myself. Fan accounts like @gxldensofi and @HSTicketHeIp are what really connect fans to artists and really care.


Learn more about how scalpers profit off of fans
Ticketmaster Investigation How Ticketmaster's Protections Help Scammers

Ticket scalpers: The real ticket masters

Morgan

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