Can eBay WDW admission tickets be trusted?

[mhuhn23]

Just wondering as I am planning a budget out and am trying to be as economical as possible. I generally buy tickets from Disney no matter what, but whenever I plan a trip for some reason I look at park admission tickets (we are staying at Vero Beach this time) on eBay to see if they are legitimate sellers or not. I always end up erring on the side of caution however.

And also if I'm not mistaken if you did buy off eBay, they'd have to be unused? (ie. a family cut their vacation short and still had 2 days left)

Anyway, this may have been discussed before but I couldn't find it when searching. Any and all comments/regards are appreciated!

And for reference, here is one in particular I find suspcious: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Walt-Disney...?pt=US_Tickets_all_in_one&hash=item3397e455e3

The part in question is " May be used by Adult or child, are not Florida Resident tickets, never signed, finger printed & are not leftover days from multiple day tickets." The part that gets me is adult OR child. The price doesn't change?

 

[Dean1953]

I bought a 10 day plus water parks ticket on EBay lastJanuary. The person was selling the same type of ticket on 4 different EBay auctions, saying his family had to cancel their trip. I linked it on MDE account and it shows as a 10 day plus waterpark ticket and, when I chose FP's, I was allowed to choose all 10 days. I'll find out for sure on December 21, my first day at WDW.

 

[mhuhn23]

I bought a 10 day plus water parks ticket on EBay lastJanuary. The person was selling the same type of ticket on 4 different EBay auctions, saying his family had to cancel their trip. I linked it on MDE account and it shows as a 10 day plus waterpark ticket and, when I chose FP's, I was allowed to choose all 10 days. I'll find out for sure on December 21, my first day at WDW.

Nice! Hope it works out. Maybe it is just Florida residents that get legitimate tickets through timeshares, etc. And flip them online? Who knows...I see a lot of auctions that use the exact same pictures. Most of them don't even mention the "had to cancel vacation" part.

 

[Tom]

I'm sure it works out for a few handful of people, but not only is it illegal to buy someone else's tickets (non-transferable), you assume a HUGE risk by buying tickets from a complete stranger, sight unseen.

I would never buy tickets from anywhere but a reputable source, no matter how much it meant I could save, because it could cost a lot more in the long run.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I'm sure it works out for a few handful of people, but not only is it illegal to buy someone else's tickets (non-transferable), you assume a HUGE risk by buying tickets from a complete stranger, sight unseen.

I would never buy tickets from anywhere but a reputable source, no matter how much it meant I could save, because it could cost a lot more in the long run.

Technically, it is non-transferable once it is used. You can buy tickets all day and give them as gifts and they are perfectly fine. Selling what is left of a used ticket is illegal (in Florida*), but, you can do whatever you want with one that hasn't yet been activated. The real problem is that it is practically impossible to find out what you have when you buy it. Showing up at the gate with a bad ticket can cost a loss of the day and/or a huge additional expenditure to get good ones.

*Any guess what organizations helped to get that law passed?

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

"Let the buyer beware"

Personally, I'd never buy ANYTHING off EBAY. Probably 75-80% of people on there are genuine sellers, the rest are out to scam you out of every £ or $ they can

 

[BuddyThomas]

"Let the buyer beware"

Personally, I'd never buy ANYTHING off EBAY. Probably 75-80% of people on there are genuine sellers, the rest are out to scam you out of every £ or $ they can

All you have to do is look at the seller's rating/feedback. If it is 99% to 100% positive and if there is a bunch of feedback, you are probably safe. I scored a tenth row center aisle seat to a Melissa Etheridge concert last night for thirty bucks. The face value of the ticket was over $100. So eBay is not the evil demon that some make it out to be.

 

[danlb_2000]

Why do the tickets in that auction have an expiration date?

Personally I would be very leery of buying tickets on Ebay.

 

[DManRightHere]

On ebay, you have to use your best judgement. There may be some ebay accounts that only sell tickets for a business. Definitely check feedback, and some people may not know how Disney multi day passes work.

When I was shopping for tickets I didn't. Find much cheaper in ebay. I ended up using undercover tourist

 

[BrerJon]

Remember once a ticket has been used, it will be linked to the fingerprint of the first user, so it will be very hard to get in the gates with unused days. If a ticket has never had any part of it used to get into a park it should be fine though.

I've generally found the pricing differences are only a few dollars if tickets are genuine, so if there's a big discount something might be up, and sadly Disney is very strict about enforcing no entry for invalid tickets.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Remember once a ticket has been used, it will be linked to the fingerprint of the first user, so it will be very hard to get in the gates with unused days. If a ticket has never had any part of it used to get into a park it should be fine though.

I've generally found the pricing differences are only a few dollars if tickets are genuine, so if there's a big discount something might be up, and sadly Disney is very strict about enforcing no entry for invalid tickets.

It's actually a biometric scan. Not a fingerprint.

 

[yensid67]

I would NEVER buy a ticket from any other source than a TRUSTED ticket outlet. I have thought about buying from ebay too, but I too step to the side of caution. As I understand it, say I bought a 5 day ticket, only used 2 days of the ticket, that ticket is still issued in my name and has my finger biometrics linked to it, so I would not be able to sell it...so how can someone sell multi day tickets? I can see if they are individual one day tickets and are unused, but still would side with caution! I would check out officialticketcenter.com/dwtickets.com/mapleleaf ticket outlet...these are the only ones I would trust and they all seem to have better prices than Disney.com

 

[mikeymouse]

I would be VERY cautious!

 

[Gig 'Em Mickey]

Short answer no. If a deal seems too good to be true it usually is. I'm sure there are some out there, but is it worth the risk? Maybe to you it is. Be sure to read reviews though, but even those can't always be trusted as people will create false account to pump up ratings. My advice, if you're not purchasing a package deal through Disney, is to buy from undercovertourist.com. It's not HUGE savings, but it is significant. We've used them in the past.

 

[CDavid]

All you have to do is look at the seller's rating/feedback. If it is 99% to 100% positive and if there is a bunch of feedback, you are probably safe. I scored a tenth row center aisle seat to a Melissa Etheridge concert last night for thirty bucks. The face value of the ticket was over $100. So eBay is not the evil demon that some make it out to be.

Ordinarily I would agree, if a seller has hundreds of positive feedback from buyers and a score in the upper 90's, they are almost certainly a reputable seller. However, with tickets - and especially Disney theme park tickets - the positive feedback may only reflect customer satisfaction with the purchasing process, and not with actually using expired/invalid tickets. The buyer may have left that positive feedback months before realizing the tickets weren't any good.

We'd all like good bargain, but I wouldn't trust an unknown source for something like this.

 

[bingie]

Disney has the final say. If the ticket does not work and you get referred to guest relations, explaining that you purchased a partially used ticket will get no sympathy from guest relations.

I'd buy it if it was $1. Otherwise, it's not worth the risk.

 

[Daniel Johnson]

As some one who goes to concerts far more than I've been to Disney...I can attest first hand to being burned more than once by eBay. And by people with 90-100% feedback. I toyed with idea more than once of buying tickets off eBay or having Florida family get our tickets for us for Disney trips. The hassle I imagined in my sleep alone sent me to the Disney website to get our tickets. The resort rooms were paid for by my uncle, a Florida resident. Checking into all star sports took nearly 45 minutes....different members of the family had to switch magic bands to get into their rooms, since one of the Florida residents had to be staying in each room. Luckily, my mother, wife, and I had bought our Park tickets separately than the other 14 people in the group....setting up fast passes were no hassle...for us three. It was a nightmare for everyone else.
I would steer clear of anything not official. Your mileage may vary....

 

[davidpw97]

I don't know if i'd buy a ticket on ebay but it would depend on the seller ratings. I have been considering buying tickets on craigslist for a weekend trip in December. But I will only buy if the person is local to the Disney area and if they will agree to meet me at a park entrance or guest relations at Downtown Disney so I can have the ticket scanned first to make sure it is legit.

 

[Phonedave]

While I have bought a number of items off of eBay, I don't think I would ever buy a park ticket (or for that matter any tickets).

It is too easy to get burned, and when you do find out you have been burned it is weeks later, and when you are on vacation and the last thing you want to be doing is trying to track down some eBay seller.

Better to stick with authorized resellers (tickets at work, undercover tourist, Orlando fun tickets, etc)

Here is something else to watch out for. One day passes. Watch out for those. Disney is very generous in giving out 4 packs of 1 day park hoppers to legitimate 501(c)3 organization who are going to use them for fundraising. I have seen many of them at silent auctions, tricky trays, etc. Here is the catch, because Disney gave them away, in Disney's eyes, the value of those tickets is ZERO dollars. That means, that if you were to win them at an event (or someone were to sell them to you on eBay) and then you tried to upgrade them to a length of vacation pass, you would find out that they are not worth anything. Sure they will get you into the park for 1 day, but they are not worth anything if you try to upgrade them.

If you had a "regular" 1 day park hopper pass, and you wanted to upgrade it to multiple days, you would get credit for the value of the one day park hopper ($130 or whatever insane price it currently is), but with the tickets Disney donates to charity, you get a big old discount of ZERO.

-dave

 

[thomas998]

I'm sure it works out for a few handful of people, but not only is it illegal to buy someone else's tickets (non-transferable), you assume a HUGE risk by buying tickets from a complete stranger, sight unseen.

I would never buy tickets from anywhere but a reputable source, no matter how much it meant I could save, because it could cost a lot more in the long run.

Not to be nit picky... but non-transferable has nothing to do with being illegal. It is one of the terms of the agreement between Disney and the person that buys the ticket. They can give them away or sell them and as long as they were not issued to a specific name or had been activated by the original owner by using them, there is not only nothing illegal about that but nothing that even Disney cares about. And depending on the state you live in when you have those tickets you may be fully empowered to sell them for more than you paid for them (scalping is legal in some places).

Now frankly I wouldn't trust anyone to purchase that type of ticket on Ebay. I have and will continue to occasionally purchase special event tickets from people on Ebay but only because with those they have a date that they are valid printed on them so I know no one has already used them, and when they show up they generally are cheaper than at the gate because someone's trip was cancelled (unless it is for Halloween and then they seem to go for 3 or 4 times the face value).