Data Methodology
Most of the numbers on StubOrder are calculated, not typed in: how many events an act has coming up, what tickets start at, which shows are selling fastest. This page explains where those figures come from, the judgment calls behind them, and what they cannot tell you. If a number here contradicts a number on another page, we would rather hear about it than have you guess.
Where the data comes from
StubOrder is a resale marketplace, and our inventory reaches you through a national ticket exchange. Events, venues, performers and listing counts all originate there. We copy that catalog into our own database about once an hour and build pages from our copy rather than querying the exchange on every page view, which is what keeps pages fast and keeps us inside the exchange's request limits.
The practical consequence is that a page reflects the catalog as of the last refresh. An event listed minutes ago may not appear until the next one, and a listing can sell between the refresh and your click. Live prices and availability inside the seat map on an event page come straight from the exchange at the moment you open it, so the seat map is always more current than the summary figures around it.
What counts as an upcoming event
The exchange sends several kinds of product through the same feed, and not all of them are events you attend. Three are excluded from every count, every "from" price and every "next date" on this site, while still being listed so you can buy them:
- Add-on products. Parking passes, tailgate parties, shuttles, and VIP or hospitality packages. A Buffalo Bills page that counted these reported 47 upcoming events for 20 games.
- Season-ticket packages. A bundle covering a whole season is not a single date, and its price is a five-figure outlier that distorts any price range it lands in.
- Postponed events with no announced date. When an event is postponed, the exchange holds its record with a placeholder date decades in the future rather than leaving it blank. We do not print that date as if it were real: those pages say the date is to be announced, and the event is not counted among upcoming dates until a real one is published.
Each of these appears under its own heading on the pages where it exists, so the schedule you scan is the schedule, and the extras are clearly extras.
How prices are described
Every advertised price on this site is written as "about $X" and is deliberately rounded up from the lowest listing price we hold. Two reasons. The lowest listing is often a single seat or a limited-view section that sells quickly, so quoting it exactly advertises a ticket that may no longer exist. And the figure we hold is the listing price, while your final total also includes any delivery charge and tax added at checkout.
A price range, where one is shown, describes the range of starting prices across the dates listed: the cheapest seat at the cheapest date through the cheapest seat at the dearest date. It is not the span from the cheapest seat anywhere to the most expensive suite seat anywhere, which would be a true but useless number.
The seat map on an event page is the authority. It shows live per-listing prices, and the order total shown at checkout is what you pay.
How "selling fastest" and "most popular" are calculated
We record how many tickets are listed for each event once a night. "Selling fastest" ranks events by how far that number fell between snapshots: a big drop means inventory left the market quickly. Rankings are also gated on scale, so an event that went from four listings to one does not outrank an arena show that shed hundreds.
This is a demand proxy and we describe it as one. We can see that listings disappeared; we cannot see whether they sold, were delisted by the seller, or were repriced onto a different record. Anyone claiming an exact sold count from public marketplace data is guessing.
Ranking by raw inventory alone was tried and rejected. It measures supply, not demand, and it promoted whichever event happened to have the most tickets sitting unsold.
What we do not do
- We do not invent facts about a venue. Parking rules, run times, bag policies and age limits are set by venues and productions and change without notice, so we link to the venue rather than restate them.
- We do not aggregate third-party star ratings into review markup.
- We do not publish an event date the exchange has not actually given us.
- We do not set ticket prices. Sellers do, and prices can be above or below face value.
Corrections
If a figure looks wrong, tell us through the contact form and include the page address. Because these numbers are calculated rather than written, a correction is a change to how the figure is derived, and it takes effect everywhere that figure appears rather than on the one page that was reported.
For how buying, delivery, fees and cancellations work, see how buying on StubOrder works and the 100% buyer guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
Where does StubOrder ticket data come from?
From the ticket exchange our listings are sold through. We copy its catalog of events, venues and performers into our own database roughly once an hour and serve pages from that copy, so what you see reflects the exchange as of the last refresh rather than a live query on every page view.
Why does a "from" price say "about"?
Because it is an estimate, not a checkout total. Listing prices move constantly and the lowest one can sell while you are reading the page, so we round our advertised figure up rather than quote a number you may not be able to buy at. Delivery and any tax are added at checkout, so always check the order total before you pay.
Why does an event count exclude parking and tailgate listings?
They are add-on products, not dates you can attend. We still list them, in a separate block, but they do not count toward the number of upcoming events, set the "from" price, or become the next date.
What does "selling fastest" measure?
The drop in the number of tickets listed for an event between nightly snapshots. A large drop means inventory left the market quickly. It is a proxy for demand, not a verified sold count, because we can see listings disappear but not why.
How do I report a number that looks wrong?
Use the contact form and include the page address and what looks wrong. Corrections to how a figure is calculated are made in the code and apply everywhere that figure appears, not just on the page reported.
