Goldstar Discount Tickets

Goldstar.com is a discount ticket broker for theatre, comedy, sports, festivals, tours, spa, museums, attractions and other tickets in Los Angeles and several other metropolitan areas in the United States. (It is NOT affiliated with Goldstar Tickets in the UK.) Los Angeles doesn't have a TKTS booth like New York City for getting half price tickets to shows, but Goldstar is way more convenient since you can get your discount tickets online in advance, including for major Broadway shows at the Pantages Theatre or the Los Angeles Music Center, concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Concert Hall, The Greek Theatre or The Forum, and sporting events at major LA sports venues.

In order to purchase discounted tickets, users must sign up for a free membership with a valid email address. Once you sign up for a free membership at www.goldstar.com, you have access to the listings of events with discounted tickets. You can choose to have event listings and alerts emailed to you, or just go online and check them when you're looking for something to do.

You can search for events by date, category or keyword using the Filter box in the center of the page. Click the All Events link to view the different categories. They include things like theatre, comedy, music, or sports, attractions, tours, or classes, holiday, date ideas, singles, family or under $10 to name just a few.

There is a service charge for ticket purchases, just like every other ticket site. The service charge for "free" tickets is usually higher than other tickets.

Once you purchase tickets for an event, they are either delivered digitally or available to pick up at "Will Call," or sometimes at a separate table at big events. For rare events, tickets will be mailed to you. The tickets are provided directly by the venue, not by Goldstar. It states on the website that you have to claim your tickets at least 15 minutes before the event or they can release those seats to someone else. As long as you can get there with time to spare, I can't see a down side to using Goldstar in Los Angeles, and personally use them all the time.

If you live in LA or are just visiting, checking Goldstar.com before you pay full price for tickets is a no-brainer. If you're just going to be in LA for a short time, you can sign up to see what's available, then unsubscribe after your trip.

Pros

• It's free to join
• Discounts for a wide variety of events
• Free tickets to some events
• Email alerts notify you when new events become available
• Service charge is less than most ticket vendors
• Weekly event summary
• Alerts when new events are added
• Subcategories make it easy to find what you're looking for

Cons

• You must pick up your tickets at least 15 minutes before the event, or they can be resold.
• If you sign up for a lot of categories, you can get a lot of email
• Discounts for popular events can be small, and some tickets that are pre-release tickets are not discounted at all.
• The service charge varies for each event and is sometimes high.

Note: The review refers only to the website Goldstar.com, which is NOT affiliated with Gold Star Tickets in the UK. More specifically, the review is based on experience with Goldstar.com in Los Angeles.