Ticketmaster - How to Buy Tickets

Objective:

This tutorial demonstrates how to purchase tickets on Ticketmaster using your Ticket Collective account. You will be walked through how to navigate to the event page, the average waiting room/queue experience, account verification steps, and the final ticket checkout process.

Refer to the Ticketmaster Buying - What to Look for & Further Guidance tutorial for specific information on the best tickets to buy, including common seating terminology across different venues, how many tickets **to buy per show, what to **avoid (VIP/platinum seats), and more!

Find the event link on your Ticket Collective dashboard.

Open The Ticket Collective website.
Navigate to your dashboard.
Find the event you're hoping to buy for (using provided Artist, Venue, and Event Date) under Recent Events.
Select Opt In.
Finally, you can right click Buy to copy the event link address, or open it in an incognito window.

Log in to Ticketmaster

Once you have navigated to Ticketmaster through the event link, there will be a sign in option in the top right corner.
Sign in using your Ticket Collective email address and chosen password.
If you do not yet have a Ticketmaster account, complete the account creation process first using the How to Create a New Ticketmaster Account tutorial listed within this knowledge base.
When login is complete, you may be prompted to Add a Passkey. Select Not Right Now.
After logging in, click My Account in the top-right corner.

Enter the Amex Presale Tickets section.

Depending on the event, there may be more than one sale option to join (Amex Presale, Amex Presale Preferred, General Sale, etc.). We typically want Amex Presale, unless otherwise stated. Further information on these sale types can be found in the *Ticketmaster Buying - What to Look for & Further Guidance tutorial!*
Once it is time for the Amex Presale to drop - be mindful of time differences depending on your location (ET, PT, etc.) - you should be able to select Join Waiting Room /Join Queue.
Not all events have waiting rooms to join, in which case you will be sent straight to the ticket map.

Verify your email and/or phone number

Email Verification

Before entering the waiting room, Ticketmaster will prompt you to Authenticate Your Account by verifying your email or phone number using a one-time code.
For email verification, select Send a code to my email and click Next.
The verification email will look like the one above. It will be from Ticketmaster to your Ticket Collective email address, and will contain the six digit code to Confirm Your Account. Copy this code.
Navigate back to your Ticketmaster tab and paste the code where prompted. This should complete the account verification process, if you are verifying through email.

Phone Verification

For phone verification, select Send a code to my phone **and click **Next.
The SMS verification will look similar to the one above. It will be from Ticketmaster to the phone number added to your Ticket Collective account, and will contain the six digit code to Confirm Your Account. Copy this code.
Navigate back to your Ticketmaster tab and paste the code where prompted. This should complete the account verification process, if you are verifying by phone.

Remain in the waiting room until it is your turn to purchase.

A queue/waiting room may take a few minutes, or for a very popular event, up to an hour.
Once you have entered the front of the line, the Ticketmaster page will automatically reload and take you to the event map.

Enter the event map.

When it is your turn to enter the event presale, you will see a page like the ones above.
The second photo depicts an event map with zero available tickets, meaning they are all currently sold out. Some tickets may become available again as people take too long to check out with their selected tickets.
The final photo shows what a fairly full event map looks like.
On the right side, there are options to filter the tickets you want to see on the map, including: number of seats, seat prices, All Tickets versus Top Seats, etc.

For specific guidance on what tickets are of best value, refer to the Ticketmaster Buying - What to Look for & Further Guidance

Checking out with your tickets.

Once you successfully cart your tickets, begin the checkout process.
This will start a timer in the top right corner, allowing you a certain amount of time to input your card information (if your Ticket Collective card information is already added, you will just need to input the CVV to checkout).
Once card information is confirmed/entered, confirm that all of your billing information is correct.
Be sure that your delivery method is listed as Mobile Delivery. **If there are multiple delivery options, the preferred method is always **Transfer or Mobile Delivery. If Transfer is not an option, select Print at Home, PDF, or Mobile/Mobile Wallet. Reach out to The Ticket Collective team if forced to choose any of these options.

NEVER purchase physical tickets that need to be mailed, OR non-transferable tickets!

DO NOT purchase insurance!

Before successfully checking out with your tickets, Ticketmaster will ask if you'd like to "protect your ticket purchase" using Ticket Insurance.

DO NOT PURCHASE INSURANCE! Select "No, do not protect my ticket purchase".

This should complete the ticket purchasing process on Ticketmaster. Refer to other Ticket Collective Loom tutorials and/or use the chat feature on your Ticket Collective dashboard for assistance from The Ticket Collective team.

Updated on: 28/05/2026

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