Ticket delivery methods explained: PDF, mobile QR and transfer

The three delivery methods at a glance

You choose the method when you create the listing. Marketplaces show it to buyers, so it has to match the tickets you really have.

E-tickets: PDF files

Print-at-home tickets come as PDF files, usually one per seat, each with its own barcode. They are the simplest to deliver: you upload the files and the buyer receives them.

• Deliver the original files, unchanged. An edited PDF can be refused at the gate.
• One file per seat, with the right seat on it. Check before you upload.
• If the organiser reissues a ticket, the old barcode usually stops working. Make sure you deliver the latest file.
• Some tickets carry the original buyer’s name. Check the organiser’s rules before you sell personalised tickets.

Mobile QR: codes you can save

Many tickets arrive as a QR code or barcode in an email or app that you can save as an image or PDF. These are delivered like e-tickets: you upload the codes, one per seat.

The method only works for static codes. If the code on your phone keeps changing, it is not a mobile QR ticket but an app ticket, and it needs a transfer.

Transfer: tickets that live in an app

More and more tickets only exist inside the organiser’s or ticketing company’s app, with a rotating barcode that cannot be copied. Ticketmaster calls its version SafeTix. A screenshot of such a ticket does not get anyone in.

These tickets are delivered by transfer: in the app, you send them to the buyer’s email address, and the buyer accepts them in their own account.

• Use exactly the recipient details you are given for the sale.
• Transfer the seats that were sold, no more and no fewer.
• Keep the confirmation of the transfer and upload it as proof.
• Never cancel a transfer that has been sent. A recalled transfer counts as a failed delivery.

Deadlines and the in-hand date

Every sale has a delivery deadline: the in-hand date the marketplace holds for the order. After it the marketplace may cancel the sale and charge a cancellation fee. Where a marketplace gives no date, SyncSeats sets the deadline at 72 hours before the event, and it is never later than 24 hours before the event starts.

Some tickets only become available shortly before the event, for example when an app releases mobile tickets a few days ahead. Know when your tickets will be in hand before you list them, and do not promise a delivery you cannot make.

Delivering early is worth it: with SyncSeats, delivering at least 48 hours before the deadline, or within 6 hours of the sale, earns full marks for your Trust Score.

How the Trust Score works

What counts as proof

For PDF and QR tickets, the files you deliver are the proof. For transfers, it is a confirmation that shows the transfer went out: the recipient, the event and the seats. Upload it as soon as the transfer is sent. At SyncSeats, a person on the fulfilment desk checks every proof before the sale completes.

How delivery works at SyncSeats

The most common delivery mistakes

• Wrong seats or the wrong date, especially with tours that play several nights at the same venue.
• A transfer to a mistyped email address.
• A screenshot of a rotating code instead of a transfer.
• An old PDF after the organiser reissued the tickets.
• Recalling or re-transferring tickets after delivery.

Each of them turns a sale into a failed delivery, with replacement tickets and penalties to pay. If something goes wrong, contact support straight away.

Selling on several marketplaces without selling twice