Resale tickets in the UK: the best sites, the fees and the rules

Resale tickets in the UK are tickets sold on by someone who bought them first. Start with the capped routes. Ticketmaster sellers list at what they paid or less, and Twickets caps tickets at face value. AXS Official Resale allows no more than 10% above the price paid at Utilita Arena Birmingham. Open marketplaces let sellers set the price.

Going to a gig? The UK concert tickets guide shows who sells what. For football, read football ticket resale first, because clubs run their own systems.

What are resale tickets?

Resale tickets are tickets bought once and then sold on to someone else, usually because the first buyer cannot go. The first sale comes from a primary seller, the company that sells a ticket first, such as Ticketmaster, AXS or a football club.

Five terms explain nearly all of UK ticket resale:

• Face value: the original price shown on the ticket.
• Capped resale: resale with a ceiling, so nobody can charge more than a set amount.
• Fan-to-fan resale: one fan sells to another through a service with a price limit.
• Marketplace: an open website where sellers set their own prices.
• Ticket exchange: a football club’s own service for reselling seats.

What is the best ticket resale site in the UK?

The best ticket resale site in the UK is usually the one run by the original seller of your event, because the price is capped. If it has nothing, try Twickets, then an open marketplace. Work down this table in order:

Co-op Live endorses no resale platform other than Ticketmaster’s. The O2 names AXS Official Resale as its route.

How do you get resale tickets for a sold-out gig?

To get resale tickets for a sold-out gig, start at the venue’s own event page and work outwards. Do these steps in order:

1. Find the original seller through the venue’s or the artist’s website.
2. Check that seller’s resale, then try again closer to the event, when more tickets may be listed.
3. Set up a Twickets alert for your event.
4. Compare the marketplaces last, using the final total on each one.

Who should use which route?

• First-timers: stick to Ticketmaster or AXS resale, because buying feels just like buying a new ticket.
• Groups: buy in one order, and remember that a Ticketmaster listing can show seats already sold.
• Families: read the event’s age rules first, because some shows do not let younger children stand.
• Coming from abroad? Most tickets live in an app, so make sure your phone will work at the venue.
• Skip resale if: the first sale is still open.

How do you buy resale tickets on Ticketmaster UK?

You buy resale tickets on Ticketmaster UK the same way as new tickets, from the seat map on the event page. Follow these steps:

1. Open the event page and look at the seat map.
2. Find the pink dots. They mark resale seats, shown with a resale symbol.
3. Choose your seats. The number on a listing also counts seats already sold, so you may get fewer.
4. Pay by Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or Amex. PayPal, Klarna and gift cards are not accepted.
5. Check the face value, which Ticketmaster always shows at checkout.

Ticketmaster says it verifies every ticket on its resale platform. It reissues the ticket in your name where it can, and otherwise tells the venue that you bought it.

Buying a standing ticket? Its row and seat, such as “Row GA0”, are only a system label, not a spot on the floor.

Nothing suitable? Ticketmaster’s advice is to look again nearer the date.

How does AXS Official Resale work?

AXS Official Resale is the resale service of AXS, the company that sells tickets for The O2 in London and Utilita Arena Birmingham. At Birmingham, fans can resell at face value, with a cap of no more than 10% above the price they paid.

The buyer gets an AXS Mobile ID ticket, which is held in the AXS app or the venue’s app. Olivia Rodrigo’s UK-exclusive residency at The O2 shows how it works. Tickets for those nights, from Monday 5 April to Monday 10 May 2027, sit in The O2 app, so a resale buyer receives the same kind of ticket.

How does Twickets work?

Twickets is a fan-to-fan resale site where prices are capped at face value, plus fees. Its home page lists music, sport and theatre events. This is what its help pages say you pay:

Best for: a sold-out gig when you want a face-value price and can wait for a seller to appear. Set up alerts for your event if it has nothing today.

How do you buy football resale tickets?

You buy football resale tickets from the club, through its ticket exchange. Most exchanges are only for people who already belong to the club. Those people are members, who pay a yearly fee to join, and season ticket holders, who have one seat for every home league game.

• Tottenham Hotspur: seats go at face value from season ticket holders and Premium members to One Hotspur Members, up to four hours before kick-off.
• Liverpool: standard seats handed back by their owners go to eligible members at face value, and the owner gets back 100 per cent of what they paid.

Rules differ from club to club. The football ticket resale guide compares them, football tickets in the UK maps every route, and football tickets in London covers the capital’s clubs.

What must a UK resale listing tell you?

A UK resale listing must tell you the seat, any restriction, the face value and who is selling, before you are committed to buy. Section 90 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says so, and it covers both the person reselling through an online resale site and the site itself.

• Where you will be: the seat or standing area, down to the stand, block, row and seat number if there are any.
• Any restriction on who can use the ticket.
• The face value.
• Who is selling: you must be told if it is the platform itself, a business linked to it or the event organiser.

If a listing hides any of these, move on. Then compare the final price with the face value, and check how and when the ticket will reach you.

How much do resale tickets cost?

Resale tickets cost face value or less on Ticketmaster’s fan resale, and face value plus fees on Twickets. On open marketplaces the seller sets the price, so it can sit above face value. The total matters more than the first number you see.

On Hellotickets, for example, sellers set the price and the total appears before you pay. Your tickets follow once the seller lets them go, which can be 1-2 days before the event.

What happens if a resale order goes wrong?

Each resale site has its own rule for failed orders, so read it before you pay:

• StubHub: comparable or better seats, a refund or a credit.
• viagogo: seats that are comparable or better, or all your money back.
• LiveFootballTickets: replacements, or your money back plus a credit.

Is ticket resale legal in the UK in 2026?

Yes: reselling a concert ticket is legal in the UK in 2026, and section 90 sets the rules for what a resale listing must show. The government’s plan to cap resale prices is still not law. Football runs differently, because clubs control their own resale.

Sites that break the new rules would face Competition and Markets Authority fines of 10% of global turnover at most. The Competition and Markets Authority is the UK’s consumer regulator.

By the government’s own estimate, the average resale buyer would pay £37 less. Fans as a whole would save £112 million a year, and 900,000 more tickets would be bought from primary sellers.

How do you resell a ticket in the UK?

To resell a ticket in the UK, start with the company you bought it from, because a capped service is the simplest route. Each one has its own rules:

What are the most common resale ticket mistakes?

The most common resale ticket mistakes are going straight to a marketplace, comparing the wrong price and paying outside a proper checkout. These simple habits avoid them:

• Check the original seller first. Its own resale may have seats at a capped price.
• Compare totals. Add nothing up in your head: go to the last checkout screen on each site.
• Be careful on social media. In August 2026 the government and O2 urged care over last-minute tickets on social media. O2 research put losses to ticket fraud at £150 million in a year.
• Never pay by bank transfer. Stay on the site’s own checkout.

What to do now (as of 31 October 2026)

As of 31 October 2026, there is no resale price cap in law, so check who sets the price before you buy. In late October, Ticketmaster showed a few 2027 concerts as sold out.

• Erasure: Cardiff and Hull had sold out, and the other dates were on sale.
• Deacon Blue: the second night at the Eventim Apollo had sold out.

For dates like those, look at Ticketmaster’s own resale first. Returned tickets appear there at no more than the seller paid.