FAQ
Straight answers, before your biggest night.
Which events Cachet fits and which it doesn't, how it compares with other ways of pricing tickets, and what your fans will want to know.
The fit
Is Cachet right for my event?
Cachet is right for events where demand far outruns supply and the right price is hard to know in advance. It isn't right for events that won't sell out: there, ordinary or dynamic pricing works well, because there's time to watch demand and adjust.
A good fit
Stadium tours
A top artist on the road, with far more fans than seats at every stop.
Playoffs and championships
The games a whole city wants to see, where demand outruns every seat and the right price can't be known in advance.
Premium allocations
A small allocation of the very best seats, where every row is worth something different.
Major fight cards
One night, one arena, and far more fans wanting a seat near the action than there are seats.
Not a fit
Events that won't sell out
If seats will still be on sale next week, fans can simply buy them. There's nothing for a sealed-bid sale to settle.
Long runs with time to adjust
A show playing for weeks, selling a little every day, is what dynamic pricing was made for: you can watch demand and move prices night by night.
Demand close to supply
When about as many fans want in as there are seats, a well-set fixed price fills the house, and bidding adds a step your fans don't need.
One price for every fan
If every fan paying the same price matters more to you than what the seats would fetch, a ballot does that more simply.
The alternatives
How does Cachet compare with other ways of pricing tickets?
Every way of pricing a sale trades something off. Cachet trades a price known in advance for the market price of each seat, found by your fans' Bids. That's the right trade when demand far outruns supply, and the wrong one when it doesn't.
| Way of pricing | Who captures the market price | Speed and fairness for fans | Bots and resale | Load on the site | Price certainty for you |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cachet | You do. Each winner pays what they bid, so more of each seat's value goes to you, not to resale. | No race: a Bid on the last day counts as much as one in the first minute. Higher Bids sit closer, so neighbours may pay different prices. | Speed wins nothing. Resellers can still bid, but prices near what seats are worth leave them less margin. | Bids arrive over days, and placing one holds no seats. Seats are placed once, when bidding closes. | You set each Tier's reserve as a floor. The price above it is what the Bids say, known when bidding closes. |
| Fixed face value | Resellers, when demand is high. A price set months ahead can't follow demand, and the difference goes to the resale market. | One price for everyone, but a race to the on-sale minute: the fastest clicks win, not the fans who want it most. | The most exposed. Seats priced below what they're worth, sold to the fastest, are what bots are built for. | Everyone arrives in the same minute, for the same seats. | Certain: you set it. What you can't know is how much is left on the table. |
| Dynamic pricing | You, when there's time to watch sales and adjust. In a sell-out, most seats are gone before prices can move. | Still a race at the on-sale, and prices that climb during the sale can feel unfair to the fans who pay them. | Higher prices shrink the resale margin, but speed still decides who gets the first seats. | The same rush at the on-sale: the pricing changes, the stampede doesn't. | Prices follow sales as they happen. You steer them, but you don't know them in advance. |
| A queue with verified-fan access | Resellers, as with face value: the queue decides who gets in, not what a seat is worth. | Orderly, but fans wait in line at a set time, and many reach the front after the best seats are gone. | Verified-fan codes screen out some bots, but resellers who get through still profit from the gap to the market price. | The waiting room shields the checkout, but still has to hold everyone at once. | Certain, as with face value, and with the same gap to the market price. |
| A lottery or ballot | Resellers, if the price is below market: winners are drawn by chance, and any who resell keep the difference. | Calm, with no race: every entry has the same chance at the same price. Chance decides, not how much a fan wants to go. | No speed to win, but every extra entry is another chance in the draw, so entries must be checked. | Light: entries arrive over days, and the draw happens once. | Certain: you set the price before the draw. |
When each is the better choice
Cachet: when demand far outruns supply
When far more fans want in than there are seats, and nobody can know the right price in advance, your fans' Bids find it, seat by seat. How much that earns depends on demand, which is why Cachet is for sell-outs.
Fixed face value: when demand is close to supply
For a show that sells steadily, or a Seller who prices low on purpose and accepts that some value goes to resale, a fixed price is the simplest sale there is, and fans know the price before they buy.
Dynamic pricing: when there's time to adjust
For a three-week run of a show that won't sell out, dynamic pricing is the better tool: there's time to watch demand, raise prices on the nights that are selling, and lower them on the ones that aren't. That's the job it was built for, and Cachet isn't.
A queue: when tickets must go on sale at once
If tickets have to go on sale in a single moment, at a fixed price, a queue with verified-fan codes keeps that moment orderly. A Cachet sale needs a bidding window before anyone knows their seats.
A ballot: when one fair price matters more than revenue
Some artists price below market on purpose, to keep faith with their fans. If every fan having the same chance at the same price matters more to you than what the seats would fetch, a ballot is the cleaner choice. Cachet is built to find the market price, not to set it aside.
Your fans' questions
What your fans will ask.
The questions your fans are likely to ask about a Cachet sale, with the answers you can give them.
When are my fans charged?
Only if they win, and only after bidding closes. With their Bid, your fans save a card and agree to be charged if they win; nothing is charged while bidding is open.
Winners are charged after the close, the exact amount they bid. Fans who don't win are never charged. Every fan gets a confirmation of their Bid, and a reminder before bidding closes.
Can fans change or withdraw a Bid?
Yes, at any time until bidding closes. A change replaces their Bid, and a fan who withdraws can bid again. At the close, the Bid they have becomes binding.
To stop anyone probing for the price, each sale limits how often a fan can revise their Bid: 10 times in any 24 hours, unless you set a different limit for your sale. A withdrawal is never refused.
What happens to fans who don't win?
They hear when bidding closes, in a warm “not this time” message in your words, which always tells them they weren't charged.
If a winner's payment fails, their seats are offered to the best Bids that missed out in that Tier, at the price each fan bid, for a limited time. Nobody else's result changes.
Can a group sit together?
Always. A Bid for four tickets wins four seats together or none: side by side in one row, or, if you allow it in that Tier, in two rows directly one behind the other. Fans can ask to keep to one row.
Larger groups are harder to seat, so a group that can't be fitted in can lose to a smaller, lower Bid that can.
Does bidding early help?
No. A Bid in the last hour counts the same as one in the first minute. When equal Bids compete for the last seats in a Tier, a lottery decides, drawn from a number committed to before the close and revealed after it, so anyone can check the draw.
When a fan bid, and how often they changed their Bid, never matters.
What do winners pay?
Exactly what they bid, per ticket, and the price they bid is all-in, with fees included. Within a Tier, higher Bids get better seats, so neighbours may pay different prices: the more a fan bids, the closer they sit.
Can fans bid for more than one Tier?
Yes. A Bid is a ranked list of choices, such as four tickets in one Tier, otherwise two in another. Each fan wins at most one of them: the highest on their list that their Bid wins.
Can fans see what others are bidding?
No. Bids are sealed. While bidding is open, you can publish true figures computed from the real Bids, such as the current get-in price, each labelled with what it is and when it was taken. You choose which figures and when, but you can't type one in, and every fan sees them at the same time.
You can also send fans updates on where their own Bid stands, on a schedule you set.
What do fans need to place a Bid?
An account with a confirmed email address and a phone number confirmed by a text-message code, and a card. Each phone number and each card can belong to only one account, so one person can't spread Bids across many.
Tell us about your next sell-out.
We'll walk you through a sale for your event, and tell you plainly whether Cachet fits it.