Warning: Ticket Resellers on the Rise

As excitement and demand grows for seeing live musical theatre (thank you!), another challenge grows with it. Price-gouging ticket resellers have become more common. Here are some tips to become in-the-know—AND so you can help keep other unsuspecting ticket buyers safe!

These unauthorized brokers resell tickets in two ways:

1. Purchase tickets on our website, then wait for you to buy marked-up tickets on their website. This practice is legal in the state of Oregon, but it can be hard on the wallet and lead to complications when attending an event.
2. Sell you tickets they do not actually have in their possession and then purchase the tickets once your transaction with them is complete. This practice is called “speculative ticket sales” and has recently been deemed illegal in the state of Oregon (HB 4024, 2/10/2026), though it is still difficult to combat these kinds of resellers.

Here are some tips to make sure you’re getting the best value on tickets to Broadway Rose shows.

• Start with the right website: https://www.broadwayrose.org. When you’re looking for tickets to a show, always start with the organization’s website. If you Google “Dear Evan Hansen tickets Portland,” Broadway Rose may not always be the top result. This varies based on your browser history. Unauthorized brokers have large budgets for Google ads, which helps them get to the top of many search results—especially if you’ve never visited Broadway Rose before. Nonprofits, like Broadway Rose, frequently can’t compete with that kind of money. Start by looking for the official website of the company producing the show you want to see. We can guarantee you that their website will tell you how to buy tickets.
• Look for red flag language. Phrases like “secondary market tickets,” “site displays resale marketplace tickets,” “prices may be above or below face value,” or “not affiliated with any box office or venue” indicated a ticket reseller. If you see language like this on a ticketing site, it likely means you’re not buying through an organization’s official site.
• Be price conscious. Broadway Rose has adult tickets starting as low as $35, with top dollar tickets generally around $80. Brokers have been known to resell those $35 tickets for anywhere from $300-$600 a piece! Broadway Rose tickets themselves do not include fees, so if you see a fee being added to your purchase before checkout, that is a good indication you are on a ticket reseller site. While we’re honored you highly value our art and think a ticket to see a show could be $300, we want to keep our ticket prices more accessible to the whole community.

Already purchased tickets to a show at Broadway Rose but you’re not sure they’re official?

• Look closely at your tickets. When you buy a ticket from Broadway Rose, you can choose to receive your tickets via email. Unauthorized brokers alter these e-tickets by removing key information so unsuspecting consumers won’t know they’ve been tricked. Broadway Rose puts the price paid for the ticket on the ticket itself—info a broker doesn’t want you to know!
• Ask for help! Sometimes guests don’t know they’ve bought tickets from a reseller until they arrive at the theater. Imagine going to Will Call and picking up tickets you spent hundreds of dollars on, only to find a $35 price printed on the ticket once it’s in your hand. Or maybe you have an e-ticket and the barcode won’t scan at the door. While we cannot refund money paid to another company operating as a reseller, you can submit a chargeback/charge dispute with your bank via their customer support phone number, their website, directly through their phone app, or directly at your local branch.

Theaters like Broadway Rose are doing everything we can to prevent brokers from buying and reselling tickets. We want our audiences and future patrons to have a good experience with our theatre, and that starts with the ticketing process. While we wish we could banish every unofficial ticketing website—until that day comes, we will continue to educate our community so hopefully when someone new finds our theatre they’ve already heard from others how to verify their purchase and look for red flags. At Broadway Rose, we are here to support and help you however we can, and we look forwarding to welcoming you in the lobby!

Thank you to our friends at The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle for sharing this message with us and our patrons!