Resellers beat fans to Ed Sheeran tour tickets as Ticketek site crashes

Fans wanting to see popular singer Ed Sheeran’s 2018 Australian tour have been left frustrated in their attempts to buy tickets after resellers accessed large amounts of the inventory that went on pre-sale today.

Amid reports that Ticketek’s website crashed during the day, fans have expressed their frustratation at tickets selling out within hours – only to then reappear almost immediately on unofficial reseller sites with huge markups.

Reports suggest that resellers have advertised tickets for Sheeran's 2018 Divide tour online for up to $1,000 each, despite Ticketek selling originally for between $70.16 and $161.90.

Resale websites including StubHub and Viagogo now have hundreds of tickets listed for exorbitant prices for concert dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Ticketbuyers spent hours refreshing the website to get their hands on the coveted Sheeran tickets but were left disappointed at the lengthy wait times and site crashes.

The website has apologised to fans for the crash and long waiting period, but stressed it has no control over the prices of tickets that are resold on unofficial sites.

Ticketek Australia's Twitter page subsequently became swamped with angry users asking why the website had crashed and slammed the ticket seller for allowing scalpers to buy during the presale.

Sheeran's popularity in Australia and New Zealand has seen this happen before, with his 2015 tour also seeing ticket resellers profiting from considerable mark ups.

Tickets will be on sale again to the general public on 23rd May at 2pm for Brisbane, 3pm for Sydney and Melbourne and 3:30pm for Adelaide. 

Images: Ed Sheeran's record breaking concerts at AAMI Park in 2015 (top), Ed Sheeran ticket's for sale on Viagogo (middle) and the official pre-sale site (below).

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