Ticket resale fees: why the checkout price is higher

• List price: what the seller asks for the ticket itself.
• Service fee (also “buyer fee” or “convenience fee”): the marketplace’s cut, usually a percentage of the ticket price, so it grows with the price.
• Fulfillment or delivery fee: a flat charge per order on some sites, even for mobile transfer.
• Processing or payment fee: on some sites, a charge for paying by card.
• Sales tax: depends on the state and the site.
• Currency conversion: if the site charges in another currency, your card company may add a foreign transaction fee and its own exchange rate.

Since May 12, 2025, the FTC’s fee rule has required anyone advertising live-event tickets in the US, resale platforms included, to show the total price with every mandatory fee up front and more prominently than other figures. Taxes, shipping and optional add-ons may be left out of that first number, but must be shown before you pay. The rule does not cap or ban any fee.

Several states had their own all-in price laws first, among them California (SB 478, since July 1, 2024), New York (Arts and Cultural Affairs Law §25.07), Colorado, Maryland and Minnesota. Like the federal rule, they are about showing the total, not capping it.

Washington, D.C. goes further from January 1, 2027 (D.C. Law 26-181, the RESALE Act): for concerts, theater and other live entertainment, sports excluded, a resold ticket may cost at most the original total price plus 10%, the reseller’s service fee is capped at 10%, and speculative sales are banned. The details depend on the event; the law’s text is the authority.

A resale fee pays for more than the website. The marketplace processes the payment, runs customer support, and stands behind its guarantee when a ticket fails; StubHub, for one, says its service fees help fund its FanProtect guarantee. The seller usually pays a fee too, which is part of why resale listings sit above face value before the buyer’s fees are added.

Fees are mostly a percentage of the ticket price, so they grow with it: on an expensive ticket the fee alone can be more than a cheap ticket costs.

No big site publishes one fee rate for every ticket, and a low fee says nothing about the total: a site with no buyer fee can still have a higher total if its sellers ask more. TickPick says it charges buyers no fees at all; the others show the fees inside the first price they quote, as the federal rule requires.

The only fair test is the total for the same seats on the same day. Among the three marketplaces we compare, HelloTickets’ and TicketNetwork’s prices already include fees, and Ticket Squeeze’s own site asked a median 7.6% above its feed price; which one is lowest changes event by event (which ticket site is cheapest).

From each site’s own help pages, checked Nov 2, 2026:

Display settings, fee levels and state rules change; a site that shows fees up front can still add tax or delivery at the last step.

1. Pick the same date, the same section (or row range) and the same number of tickets on each site.
2. Go to the checkout step where every mandatory fee is listed, before you enter payment details.
3. Compare those totals, with delivery and tax included or excluded on both.
4. Check the protection terms and delivery date: a slightly higher total with a written guarantee may be worth more.

Our event pages do the first part for the partners we compare: each price says whether fees are included, and where they aren’t we estimate the total. Search for your event to see them side by side.

We store every price our partners quote, with whether it includes fees. HelloTickets’ and TicketNetwork’s US prices already include them. Ticket Squeeze’s feed gives sticker prices: on its own site the same event on the same day was a median 7.6% higher (2,139 events, Oct 14, 2026), so our pages add that to its feed price and label the result an estimate.

That is why a site with the lowest sticker price can still cost more at checkout, and why our comparison of which marketplace is lowest only counts fees-included prices: which ticket site is cheapest.

1. 1Compare totals at checkout, not listing prices.
2. 2Same date, section and quantity on every site you compare.
3. 3Note whether tax and delivery are in the total or added on the last step.
4. 4Pay in US dollars on US sites to avoid conversion fees, unless your card charges none.
5. 5Weigh the guarantee and delivery date along with the price.

More in how to buy resale tickets without overpaying and the best ticket resale sites, compared.