Vivid Seats is my favorite ticket resale site—here's why

As a frequent concert-goer, I'm constantly hunting for cheap concert tickets to see my favorite acts. As for my boyfriend, a die-hard Boston sports fan, he's usually doing the same—but for sporting events. (Pro tip: avoid Ticketmaster.)

Over the years, I've learned that to get the best ticket prices, you need to compare the costs on all major ticket resale sites: StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, and TickPick. The site I've personally saved the most on (and gotten the best customer service) is Vivid Seats—here's why.

What is Vivid Seats?

Vivid Seats is an online ticket marketplace founded in 2001 by Jerry Bednyak and Eric Vassilatos. Fans can buy and sell tickets on Vivid Seats to sports events, concerts, music festivals, musicals, comedy shows, and more nationwide.

Vivid Seats is a secondary marketplace rather than a primary ticket marketplace, such as a box office. So you'll only find tickets listed for resale by verified fans and professional resellers. It's also a “live marketplace,” meaning ticket prices change based on supply and demand, and may be above or below "face value.”

Is Vivid Seats legit?

Vivid Seats is a reputable, reliable ticket marketplace—I've boughten dozens of tickets from the site without issues. The site offers a 100% buyer guarantee that your tickets will be delivered in time for the event (or your money back), you'll be reimbursed for canceled events, and that tickets are verified and completely authentic.

One thing to note when purchasing tickets: Vivid Seats relies on the seller to transfer the tickets from the website they were originally purchased on to you before the event. This means that when you purchase tickets on Vivid Seats, the seller must initiate the transfer from the primary ticketing platform, upon which you'll receive a transfer offer email from the seller, and you'll follow the instructions in the email to accept the tickets. Since it's up to the seller to initiate the Mobile Electronic Transfer, you might not get your tickets right away.

In fact, from time to time, primary ticketing sites such as Ticketmaster don't release tickets to buyers until the days leading up to the show, meaning that if you buy tickets from Vivid Seats months in advance, the seller may not be able to transfer the tickets for some time. Sellers on Vivid Seats have until the day before the event to transfer the tickets.

Why we recommend it

In my experience, Vivid Seats offers the best promo codes for new users and has the best rewards program for loyal customers. If you sign up for Vivid Seats’ newsletter after making a purchase, you'll receive frequent discounts via email, often for 10% or 15% off your next purchase. Vivid Seats also offers great loyalty perks, including birthday rewards and buy more, get more savings: once you buy 10 tickets, you can cash in your credit toward a free 11th ticket (excluding taxes and fees).

Right now, new customers can use promo code SAVINGS20 at checkout to save 10% on their order.

They've also provided me with great customer service. There was an instance when I had accidentally used my Facebook login as credentials when buying a ticket on Vivid Seats, so the seller had sent the ticket to the email associated with my Facebook account (a now-defunct AOL account). I was already in line for the concert when I realized, and immediately called Vivid Seats to see if they could help. The customer service agent graciously sent me another ticket to the show, despite the error being on my part.

For those who attend concerts and sports games often like me, Vivid Seats is sure to become a repeat destination to save big on your next pair of tickets.

Buy or sell tickets at Vivid Seats