Today I finally learned what all those extra fees you have to pay for when you buy tickets to events and shows through ticketing services. It seems pretty obvious now but the extra $5 service fee you pay is what the ticketing service makes for selling you the ticket. The processing fee is also a price to get the tickets to you and therefore there is only one processing fee per order while the service/convenience fee is per ticket (so the ticket seller can pay their employees and stay in business). So basically the tickets WOULD be cheaper if event planners were in the business of selling tickets but they are not, instead we must pay for the service of purchasing tickets, which seems a bit odd. What is even more odd is that since ticketmaster seems to have a monopoly on being a ticketing service, I don't see why the posted price isn't simply the base price with the negotiated fees included. There you have it, next time you complain about the extra fees, just remember that the people you buy the tickets from are only seeing that $10, not the $90 you paid for that Britney Spears concert :)