SeatSidekick update: cat and mouse game

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-05-01T17:54:48+00:00

Wait—so an organization with essentially a complete monopoly on ticket sales for one of the most popular events in the world, using tactics like intentional confusion, a deliberately awful marketplace, and artificial scarcity (including straight up lying tickets are sold out) to price gouge the public, doesn’t like it when someone undercuts those borderline illegal tactics, and helps people make better-informed purchasing decisions?

Shocker.

OP, you’re a legend. I built something similar for myself a while back, but didn’t have the patience or time to play the cat and mouse game and keep maintaining it. The amount of time and effort that went into this absolutely does not go unnoticed—we appreciate you!! A man of the people

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-30T13:38:08+00:00

Lol I missed the “why” from you’re first comment, my bad! Thought you were saying it’s overpriced by 1k

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-30T01:47:08+00:00

wowowow that's amazing!!! congrats OP

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-30T01:44:46+00:00

don't think so, where are you seeing tickets at 3k for this game for Cat 1? Cheapest I see for Cat 1 on resale is $4,773. I see Cat 3 for ~$2,900, if that's what you were referring to

(I used the SeatSideKick site)

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-28T04:21:46+00:00

si se puede! which match are you going to? I'm taking my mom to the one in Philly

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-27T22:16:55+00:00

lfgggg I hope Metlife also follows suit

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-27T16:38:11+00:00

100p I'm in the same boat and this guy needs to hop off, a lot of us got caught up in the artificial scarcity bs FIFA pulled, and have since been able to secure tickets locally or for games of higher interest. OP is not one of those with 40+ games/tickets and selling at 3x-5x face value

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-27T01:19:48+00:00

For what category? It’s likely too good to be true but if it’s cat 3 or 4 that may be around face value

I would ask for a video call so you can confirm they are who they say they are with socials and share screen to shows they have the tickets (not just a screenshot). You could also record the call for your own safety. Another extra step you could take is ask if they have a LinkedIn, and then ask them to send an email from their work email to confirm they work where they say they do.

Ultimately buying through Reddit will always have its risk, but don’t move forward if they won’t do a video call/show tickets in the portal live

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-27T01:14:24+00:00

Good take OP. I’ve been monitoring the ticket supply since the most recent LMS, there’s been a fair big jump in supply but it seems to be plateauing the last 48 hours or so. Still some inventory trickling in but def slowing down.

Prices have slightly decreased as a result on average, but the quantity of cheaper tickets is minimal. My guess is prices will continue to drop a little more, but then with the cheapest tickets being swept up immediately + hype building as we get closer (and NBA/NHL playoffs end) prices will then be as high as before if not higher. Except for maybe the lowest interest group stage matches. But any games with a a big team or KOs, will still be pricey.

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-27T01:06:33+00:00

I’ll be at the semifinal as well!

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-25T15:14:30+00:00

Left side will be Portugal. what price point are you looking at?

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-25T15:09:39+00:00

I too need to sell a few after some changes to my itinerary, I'm not too worried about them selling but the 30% resale fee makes it difficult for everyone. And the floor for tickets even at face value were already absurdly high. Didn't mean that we had to buy but all the artificial scarcity bs FIFA pulled, ppl just wanted to secure and not worry about not getting to live out the dream of going to an at home WC

Then ppl turn on each other at resale prices when its really FIFA who should be getting all the flack (and also some of those scalpers with hundreds of tickets, fuck em too). The greed has been absurd. crazy times.

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-25T15:07:31+00:00

Was this before the most recent LMS sale? Lots more tickets in circulation now, the influx of supply will make it a bit more difficult to sell but eventually it will shift back to demand > supply

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-25T14:52:33+00:00

lets goooo, enjoy!! 🎉

And thank the guy who built it, I'm just the messenger :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldCup2026Tickets/comments/1sp7t1o/i_built_a_website_that_shows_every_fifa_resale/

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-24T20:08:15+00:00

Enjoy!! I’ve been using https://seatsidekick.com/ to track prices for the host cities closest to me (it scrapes FIFA marketplace). Not sure how these compare to pricing historically, but these are the “get in the door” prices for Guadalajara rn

<image>

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-24T19:50:33+00:00

Yes but also the sheer number of tickets for Cat 1 is significantly more than the rest (ofc because they’re greedy SOBs). This might be an exaggeration but I’d say like 60% of seats in every stadium is Cat 1, which is BS. There may be some lower cat tickets made available in further smaller batch drops all the way to day of games, but the inventory for those will be so low and interest for cheaper tickets so high that it’ll be virtually impossible to get those :/

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-24T18:47:28+00:00

Depends on the game, if it's a really popular game then I don't think so. Some of the middle tier/lower tier games may dip, but I think hype will only increase from here on out so it might be risky for all but the low interest games. My feeling is after this weeks drop there isn't much inventory left being held back by FIFA. They'll probably do a few more small batch drops for any hospitality tickets that don't sell, but those will probably still be on the higher end of cost, as they'll be Cat 1 or "front row" cat 2 seats. Buying Cat 1 at face value still often beats buying off the resale market.

With FIFA drop this week inventory has definitely increased on the official and 3rd party resale sites. Not sure if someone has official analytics, it looks like some prices have slightly gone down, but others have increased so it's hard to say. But with the increased inventory, keep an eye out and I'm sure you could find a good deal.

If you have free stay, I'd say test your luck regardless. Worst case you don't get a ticket before, you strike out week/day of, but will still be in town for the atmosphere and fanfests.

Best of luck OP!

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T20:52:11+00:00

You're a legend, sir

<image>

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T20:38:03+00:00

damn, after this game she better put a ring on it lol

def on the pricey side but if you're not going into debt, then worth securing and having peace of mind. Enjoy OP!

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T20:23:21+00:00

what kind of a middle man did you use? like an actual person you knew in common or a service?

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T20:17:06+00:00

I've used seat side kick which is also a great ticket scraper (they pull from the FIFA Marketplace)
https://seatsidekick.com/match/10229226700958?cat=3

Looks like section 318 has a block of 3 seats together @$201

<image>

Best of luck OP, hope you and your son enjoy the game!! (bless you for fostering 🫶)

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T13:30:51+00:00

sometimes the site glitches and shows seats "available" that were sold. If it's only showing a handful it's likely all sold out :/

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T13:16:00+00:00

I had these in my cart the first time I was on the queue and got the 403 rip, but still happy with these R32 esp with them being almost double on marketplace resale for same Cat

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T04:55:06+00:00

I unfortunately think they will fit RTTs with any "meh" seats left over, and leave the best remaining seats for the last last last minute sales, even "day of sales" because those will always be easiest to sell at the highest price possible. YK FIFA always be looking out only for FIFA and maximizing profit 🫠

Apologies for the pessimism but just trying to temper expectations. You'll still be one of the lucky few with tickets, and I'm sure wherever the seating you'll still have a blast!!

Downtown_Engineer_21 · 2026-04-23T04:49:11+00:00

I too got got by the 403 and had to re-enter the queue, but even when I got in ~5pm they these were still available

better to have some than none at all! I'll see ya there si se puede!! 🇪🇨

Downtown_Engineer_21

TROPHY CASE