Share your concert ticket scoring secrets...

For deals, I also keep my eye on Stubhub and Craigslist. But sometimes I'll go to the venue and look for someone who's just trying to unload a ticket. I saw the Police for $10 in 2008. I got a freebie for Neil Young in 2012, and even if you can't find a deal you can usually get something for around face-value. But not always. I came up empty trying to find anything outside of Madison Square Garden for Rogers Waters doing the Wall.

The biggest key is quantity. If you're only looking for one ticket, it's much easier to find a deal, or even just to find a good seat during regular online sales.

 

I read the whole thread prior to posting. But, once I've decided to pass on something it's usually a done deal. No looking back or checking in later.

 

Almost always, some great seats are held back. Unless it's a monster show, they'll show up close to the date of the show. It's pain to keep checking, but when you nail third row center for a sold-out show three days before the show, it makes it all worthwhile.

 

Craigslist a day or two before the show. If no cheap tix I dont bother. Cant plan that far ahead and generally wont pay big bux

 

For people who buy on Craigslist - what's your criteria for deciding whether or not the tickets in a listing are legit or not?

 

I've done well with artist presales. I only do them if I don't have to pay to access them. Got front row center for Costello (and on other tours 2d row and 3d row), front pit tickets for Arcade Fire, great seats stage side for Radiohead, 2d row and 3d row for Jeff Mangum's solo tour.
I've also done well on shows I don't care so much about waiting tip almost the last minute and checking about 10 days before a show periodically for tickets to be released. Got 2d row Arcade Fire tickets like that once, and almost got Brian Wilson 3d row center, but it wasn't in my budget at the time. I apparently just tried to get seats to feel the pain of missing it!

So I do what I can with presages or waiting, and if presage didn't give me good seats, then I just take my chances with public on sale. I've only scalped tickets once in my life, and have done really well for the most part just working the known methods

 

Show up for the concert and try to scalp for cheap. 100% of the time people will need to get rid of tickets for a show. Keep track of whether people are offering to sell or offering to buy the closer you get to the venue (buyers' market vs. sellers' market).

The more expensive the show, the easier it is to score tickets at the entrance. For example, if a regular ticket price is $100 bucks for a mediocre seat, you should be able to pick up great seats for $150. Mediocre seats at $50.

I have been able to get a good price at every show that I have wanted to get into. I have ended up with seats in the first few rows occasionally as well. Some times scalpers/promoters/etc are dumping great seats 5 minutes before the show. Just be willing to walk away if you do not get a good price or good seat. All tickets become worthless when the show starts. Let the scalpers know the price you are willing to pay for great seats. They may get back to you in 20 minutes. People will show up late in taxis and have extra tickets that they will sell for nothing.

I never buy tickets when they go on sale unless it is a small venue with general admission. You can always, always get decent seats at the venue one way or another. I scored tickets to the Grammys one year when I was in LA with my techniques.

 

No criteria. I just trust people and have never had a problem. Most people are good people, and don't want to rip off someone who has their phone number, email, etc.

 

Most shows (even by major top-tier acts) in arenas and larger theaters in the U.S. offer some pretty great seats the final week before the show date. The promoter, management, agency, and artist all how ticket holds and in many instances, they hold on to these tickets until the final days before the show. So, if you are patient and lurk around tickemaster, suddenly a great seat will appear from these holds. It is a gamble because sometimes a sell out is a true sell out, but often, great seats appear during that final week (even the day of the show). I worked at a major promotion company in the past and I remember releasing great tickets from artist holds the week of the show at a random time during the day when I got the green light from the management company.

 

For me if I can not get seats to my liking on a pre-sale or day of sale, then I don't just settle for what's available I will wait until i get what I want.

There is rarely a show no matter when it sells out that you can not get seats comparable or better than what You could have got when they went on sale. I usually will end up getting seats through ticketmaster in the two week period before the shows scheduled date. The problem is that you need to be checking ticketmaster every day and every hour or so but they do pop up.

As far a getting them the night of show from a scalper, that used to be a good ideal before the Internet. Now a days you don't see nearly as many people that are selling, way more trying to buy, to turn around and sell.

 

I have scored seats in the first few rows by waiting until closer to the show date. That is especially true for shows that have ridiculously priced VIP tickets. This summer I was fairly certain the $1,250 VIP's for the KISS/Def Leppard show would not sell out (or sell at all?) so I waited. I happened to check TM right at noon on a day about a week and a half before the show. It showed several tickets in Row "D" available which I assumed were fourth row and that was good enough for me. Turned out they took out the first three rows for staging so those were front row dead center seats that were clearly released once the VIP sales period ended. I have noticed that it seems great seats are sometimes released at noon (got an Iron Maiden pit ticket the day of the show at noon after seats further back were there that morning). Another trick is to go to the box office around 5PM the day of the show. Sometimes (not always) the arena/band/etc. releases tickets that were held for whatever reason. I got 5th row dead center to Clapton last year after I decided to stop by on the way home from work.

 

My wife works for the largest rock station in NH.
She used to work for the largest sports station in the country.
Lots of free tickets!

 

That is definitely not the case in NYC. I scrutinize Craigslist posts very carefully to come up with a best guess as to whether a listing is legitimate. Then I try to have a little back and forth over email to see if the seller can write above a 3rd grade level. The higher the level of writing, the more likely I am to close the deal.

 

How many times have you been burnt, and what exactly happened? You showed up and the ticket was counterfeit?

 

Well, personally, via Craigslist, 0 times, because of my method. I bought counterfeits outside a Steely Dan show a few years ago which is why I started to be more careful. I don't know how it's possible to trust the independent resellers dealing in cash in an era when it's so easy to copy tickets. The internet is flush with stories about people getting ripped off on Craigslist.

I'm not talking about the nice people who just can't make it to the show anymore, and I'm not talking about about postings that link to legitimate 3rd party sites. I'm talking about individuals with the sole intention of reselling. I don't see enough profit in the NYC market to justify them doing it without selling fakes, at least some of the time.

 

I don't think paying tons of money to scalpers really qualifies as a "secret"!