http://www.ticketdepo.com

I wanted to reward a friend with tickets to a Yankee game – one of the final games of the year. I decided to purchase tickets from StubHub. I realizing the tickets had been marked-up; nevertheless, this was a special event.

Not including the tickets, I spent $4k to in hotel, air and more just to travel to and from NYC.

The “expensive” tickets: over $2k

The original owner of the tickets: A Yankee season ticket holder. Ask me for his name.

When I attempted to use the tickets, the Yankees refused me at the gate. The tickets are invalid.

I telephoned StubHub. The phone rang and rang. I telephoned back and was placed on hold for – well, I gave up. How is a fan going to resolve a serious problem at the gate, when StubHub places us on hold forever?

I complained to StubHub. I was sent the Invalid Ticket Claim Form” and was told by Deju, “this type of situation is rare…”

Deju: “this type of situation is rare”
9-28-08

A StubHub representative, Sue at 415-222-3961, telephoned me prior to receiving the form. She encouraged me to complete the form and return it ASAP; she too stated this type of situation (selling tickets to fans that are fake or invalid) is rare. She said that she would be back in touch with me; that if I wanted to phone her I could…but that her voice mail (at customer service) doesn't work.

I completed the Invalid Ticket Claim Form (odd how the form is titled; they said this was a rare situation) and attempted to fax it back to StubHub using the fax number listed on their form. The fax number doesn't work! Maybe it seems rare to StubHub, because fans are not allowed to actually submit a claim. The form was sent on 9/28/08I telephoned StubHub and informed them that the fax number didn't work. They gave me another: 800-996-7298 I faxed the form, and copies of the tickets for which I paid $2,651.95

What they are simply trying to do is create a platform to connect buyers and sellers. Since they wanted/needed tickets and ticket data at the start, they signed up with TicketsNow. Instead of people here recognizing the creative thinking on this, especially the writer of this piece who didnt bother to ask/understand about the hundreds of thousands of tickets on the site, everyone has made it as if they were pulling a fast one. WRONG.

Second, fan “guarantees” are BS. Look at what happened at TicketsNow at the US Open!! Even with every gaurantee in the world, there will still be big time screw ups. These fan guarantees are nothing more than excuses to take up to **25%** of the transaction as profit! Meanwhile, sites like Craigslist function just fine as a means to find tickets (see recent NY Mag article here: http://nymag.com/news/sports/50465/)…If users take proper precautions, then they will be fine. I know that Livestub also utilizes IP Address capture and the requirement of a working cell phone #. Again, another creative method for Livestub to provide a level of security without ruining the ease of use on the site.

Third, there is nothing 'fishy' about when they launched etc. They registered the domain name a while back and had a sample site up in Jan/Feb. The site/business are new.

Finally – again, just to clarify: They do not sell any tickets themselves. They either allow buyers to contact sellers or allow them to buy immediately via TicketsNow. I know that once they have enough user posted tickets, they plan on removing the TicketsNow tickets from their system. I know they have had thousands of tickets posted so far, and many leads through the site. They are good group of people and I wish them well.

As for the ignorant hating on this thread….

http://pronet.nielsen.com/smallbusiness/content...

beware!

Look. I love VentureBeat and read it frequently; I'm concerned [WOOF] to see a misleading post about a topic I know. I didn't mean to imply that livestub is intending to scam anyone, nor that the blogger is [GRRR] either.

Let's take the most charitable explanation – the programmers/investors thought they had a great idea, but didn't have time to talk to anyone experienced in this market. Then, the author heard the name of a smart investor and uncritically repeated the message, even calling it a 'sound model', without checking if the listings were really commission-free,
doing homework to find similar efforts, or think it through. It happens – all the time!

As to your remarks:
>Just seems like Craigslist with better eye candy – and may at most attract the same kind of low end sellers and buyers. The market leaders have guarantees, customer service, managed delivery and will-call infrastructure.

BINGO – protecting buyers, detecting counterfeits, holding sellers accountable, keep denial and no-fill rates down (well, to 10% or so) – takes real people and real $, which is why TicketsNow etc charge the service fees.

[WOOF] Tickets are notoriously easy to forge, anyone with a PDF editor can.
You don't need to 'seed' livestub with affiliate tickets or use an affiliate clone template to attract unregistered sellers. Craigslist manages without.

So what's likely to happen with our 'innovative' livestub affiliate that doesn't require users to register? From personal [WOOF] experience, I expect we'll see a mess of 'sellers' taking advantage of the uncontrolled environment – and of my fellow venturebeat readers, likely with over 50% no-fill or fraud rate. Could someone then sue the publishers or is it merely 'errors & omissions'? How will they handle the calls from the 10 fans who all showed up claiming the same seat to see the Jonas Brothers only to realize they all bought their tickets on livestub? Will they end up adding a service fee, after getting all this free publicity about no-fee sales?

Bark Back!

from your post:

>Unlike its counterparts, it does not require users to register

Based on this, it sounds like an open invitation for unregistered users to sell unverified tickets. If you have facts contrariwise, I'd certainly be pleased to see them.

It's easy to see what the business model is Not; what would be of interest is some rationale for what the model Is

Tickets are indeed an interesting and fast-moving space, and there are indeed other sites out there moving towards providing transparency and innovating.

I think it's possible for investors to back a company without deep understanding of a market and back naive plans with the best of intentions;

I did not mean to imply that was your or the company's intent, sorry.

For further research, though, here are some of the many sites which already claim to offer no-fees tickets:

justgreattickets.com
concerttickets.org
gottickets.com
freefeeticket.com
cheappremiumtickets.com
hallmarktickets.com

I'll leave it to you to assess the validity of each claim, but each is closer to making an honest claim in that you see $0 fee at checkout. You will also find lots of commonality in the graphical designs which seem to come from a common template.

It is true that there is an affiliate relationship with TicketWebs, which I think LiveStub should make clear, but it's not the site's core long term business model. I added an update to the site when I found this out and I made it clear that the site's interface is misleading. But the whole operation is not a scam.