How the service fee works, and what moves it

Three amounts, kept separate

What you pay is always three parts, and a service worth using separates all three:

• Face value: exactly the platform’s number. This must not be marked up. If it is, that is not a service fee, it is resale at a profit.
• Platform fees: processing or issuing charges the platform itself takes, where they apply. Not every show has them.
• Service fee: what pays for the work. The only part the service sets.

What moves the service fee

The fee is not arbitrary. It tracks the work and the risk:

• How contested the show is. A show that sells out in two minutes needs several devices and prepared accounts, far more work than one still on sale a week later.
• The method. The whole job (queueing and buying online for you, proxy booking on prepared accounts and cards) is more work than help with one part, such as the payment step.
• The platform. One that takes international cards and ordinary accounts is simple. One that requires local ID is considerably more.
• How many tickets. Several in one order usually costs less per ticket than a single, because the preparation is shared.
• Notice. Booking close to the on-sale leaves little time to prepare, and sometimes means the job cannot be taken.

Flat fee or percentage

Both exist. A flat fee per ticket is easy to understand and easy to compare. A percentage of face value scales with the order, but has a consequence worth knowing: it gives the service an interest in you choosing a pricier tier.

Neither is wrong, but the basis should be stated upfront, and if it is a percentage, you should know what incentive you are creating.

Signs a quote is not straight

• Face value not separated from the fee, just one total.
• Charges that appear after the ticket does.
• Refusing to say what face value is, when that number is public on the platform and anyone can look it up.
• "Market rate" with no explanation of why.
• A price well below everyone else. Unusually cheap usually means the money is made somewhere else.

How to ask

One sentence does it: "What is face value, what is the service fee, and is there anything else?"

A good answer is three numbers and a "no". An evasive answer is also an answer.