Ticketmaster strategies

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by setalpgninnpsekil, Mar 11, 2015.

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  1. setalpgninnpsekil

    setalpgninnpsekil Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Disclaimer: I do not know if this belongs in Music or Off-Topic, so apologies if this is in the wrong place.

    I do have a question for you all about that little Ticketmaster countdown clock. When a show is in high demand, do you wait for the clock to automatically refresh the page? Do you refresh it yourself? If so, at what point? If you wait for the clock to tick down, how early do you get to the site to do it? Etc. etc.

    Also, feel free to share any other tips you have for getting Ticketmaster tickets, such as already being logged into your account, having your CC info copied so you can just paste it in, etc.
     
  2. guidedbyvoices

    guidedbyvoices Old Dan's Records

    Location:
    Alpine, TX
    Best chance at getting good seats at face value are through presales, usually via the artist or label sites. They don't get all the best seats but you have a better chance of getting in and buying especially for high demand shows.

    If I have to buy via ticketmaster, it's all luck. I make sure my computer clock is set to the atomic clock, set up a tm acct with all my info and log in. Then about 20 seconds to go start f5ing. While you can sometimes pull crap, toss em back and try again as others release their choices, my experience has been that the best pulls are the first or second one.

    If all else fails, I've gotten GREAT seats by waiting till the week before the show and periodically checking tm for last minute seats released. I got 2d row center for arcade fire once doing that
     
  3. blair207

    blair207 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fife, Scotland
    I use 2 laptops and allow one refresh with the clock and click the refresh like a maniac on the other. I also have both laptops about a foot away from the router.
     
  4. setalpgninnpsekil

    setalpgninnpsekil Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Does one method of refreshing work better than the other?
     
  5. blair207

    blair207 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fife, Scotland
    If I only had one I would refresh manually. Also the faster a broadband connection you have the better.
     
  6. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    The "countdown" on TM is so new that I don't have a "strategy" for it yet. I've used it on other sites - ComcastTix, Tickets.com - and it's always been a crapshoot. Sometimes I've gotten through 1st via waiting, sometimes via refreshing.

    I hate the countdown/virtual waiting room thing - it's easier to get through via good old F5ing!
     
  7. fourfeathers

    fourfeathers Forum Resident

    Location:
    North America
    This is a topic close to my heart, as I've become something of a ticket snob lately! I definitely don't wait for the clock to refresh the page. As soon as that sucker hits three or four seconds, I'm refreshing. Has worked successfully as recently as the other day when I pulled second row floors for Prince in Louisville tickets. However, it really is all luck, and it all depends when they release tickets. Sometimes for SUPER high-demand shows, it's so crazy right at the start that I'll pull nothing, but half an hour later, I'm pulling dead center floor seats in the first five rows.

    As others have said, your best bet is getting in on a presale. Most presales are absolute garbage, with only a few good tickets and a LOT of **** (designed to get the people desperate enough for a presale to lock in a purchase on any ticket available to them), but sometimes you find a great artist or promoter who will reserve some truly awesome seats for their fans.

    If you're desperate, waiting until a day or two before the show for some artist or production holds isn't a bad strategy either.

    Also, if you do get shut out, I find that even for sold out shows, about a month after the initial onsale, you can find the best prices on the secondary market.
     
  8. mshare

    mshare Forum Resident

    I've consistently done well with the TM mobile app.
     
    jmpatrick likes this.
  9. Digital-G

    Digital-G Senior Member

    Location:
    Dayton, OH
    All of these choices are better than it used to be - going to the local supermarket's ticket counter and waiting your place in line (after tickets have gone on sale, mind you) while the workers hunt around for seating charts. Hey, they weren't buying the tickets and didn't really care how fast the line moved. You talk about a crap shoot.

    Oh, yeah, that's the other thing I always do - preload the seating chart so you actually know what seats your tickets are for. Some of these have gotten much better and DO show you where the seats are located.
     
    ARK likes this.
  10. ArpMoog

    ArpMoog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    This subject makes me long for the days when I would camp out for tickets pre WWW days.
     
    mmars982 likes this.
  11. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    tm is in cahoots with stubhub and all the other ticket liquidators

    used to be you could log in the first few seconds and get front 4 rows

    they take the best seats and reserve them for people who will pay top dollar

    I also hate that you can't tell if 1 or 30 is in the center or right in front of the pa speakers
    most venue seating charts will not tell you that

    sometimes I try getting just one seat a minute in to the sale if my other seats are so so, or keep trying throughout the day as the blocks of seats fill up

    sometimes better tics show up 2 hours later as they are trying to fill the slightly less desirable seats first

    In New Orleans presales generally are very mediocre seats

    I will never again pay to be in the Dave Matthews club which gives exclusive offers to members in a raffle - 3 tries I'm out

    Yes had two levels of fan tickets - one about $30 more for 5-10th row seats and many goodies including exclusive T - CTTE/GFTO/TYA tour
    the second were meet and great for like $200

    sometimes I can find someone desperate on stub hub a few days out from the show
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2015
  12. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    My strategy is to not buy tickets to shows where TM is the only way to get them.
     
    ytserush likes this.
  13. Ron Mexico

    Ron Mexico Forum Resident

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    If the artist is one that has the outrageously priced VIP or Platinum tickets wait until a week or two before the show because eventually (usually around noon on a weekday) those unsold seats get put back into the pool. A few examples: a block of front row tickets for KISS/Def Leppard last year were put back in right at noon about ten days before the show. A pair of platinum Eagles tickets in the third row were released on a Monday before the Friday show last year. Iron Maiden didn't have VIP seats but did release some in the pit at noon the day of the show. You just have to keep checking but more often than not some great seats are released in the days leading up to the show.
     
  14. jmpatrick

    jmpatrick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    I've A/B'd ticket offerings online and through the TM app. The App has always pulled better seats for me.
     
    mshare likes this.
  15. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    please elaborate

    this is a phone app? ipad too?

    have to check it out as I am using a super fast network when I buy seats
     
  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Vedder, is that you? :D
     
    ARK and mrjinks like this.
  17. BeardedSteven

    BeardedSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    Refresh myself the second the clock winds down. It never seems to refresh on its own... For high demand shows it really is all about luck. I snagged a ticket to the first Prince show in Louisville but I know I wasn't refreshing/clicking faster than anyone else. Just got lucky.

    And yes, if there's a presale do some digging to find the password if you need to (scour twitter, FB pages etc.) as that can be a way to beat the crowd for some of these shows.

    Always (!) be logged into your account before hand and have saved credit card info etc. They generally will give you enough time to enter it in before you lose the tickets but it certainly makes it a faster process.
     
  18. BeardedSteven

    BeardedSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    That sounds nice. And I hate Ticketmaster/LiveNation fees as much as anyone else does. But boycotting TM shows would simply mean missing out on too many of them....
     
    ARK likes this.
  19. The Slipperman

    The Slipperman Forum Resident

    Waiting until about a month before the show to really start checking has worked very well for me in the last 5 years. As others have said, tickets made available in presales and the onsale date are often bad and TM is trying to sell the worst seats to people they know are ultra fans and want to make sure they get any kind of a seat. This new platinum and resale crap that TM does is basically TM doing their own scalping. When the ultra ridiculous prices don't work, they will come down about three weeks to a month before the show. I have waited until the day before the show sometimes and once even went to Rush with no tickets at all and ended up paying $10 above face value for some OK 12th row seats. I wouldn't discount doing that either, nothing is really sold out.
     
    mrjinks likes this.
  20. jmpatrick

    jmpatrick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    Mine is on an iPhone. I would imagine it runs on an iPad as well.
     
  21. setalpgninnpsekil

    setalpgninnpsekil Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I'll definitely have to check out the mobile app now. Previously I had been using the mobile site in conjunction with my computer, but it appears the app is the way to go. And it also appears that the consensus is manually hitting refresh a couple seconds beforehand and not waiting on the countdown clock. Thanks for all the tips!
     
  22. EddieT

    EddieT Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    I try not to use TM. I buy most of my tickets from Stargreen in London. They of course have a much smaller allocation but they don't sell theirs so quickly. I tested them against each other for Foo Fighters tickets for Wembley when they went on sale. Got 4 pitch tix from Stargreen immediately. TM website kept 'loading' due to demand. Same price. In fact I think TM's handling charges are higher.
     
    LivingForever likes this.
  23. br6388

    br6388 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Homewood, Illinois
    Back in the day before computers, I always had better luck calling into Ticketron or of course camping out.
     
    zen likes this.
  24. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    the recent Bob Dylan show in New Orleans set for May
    The Saenger never has good seats available
    I dialed in first three seconds

    My machine hung up for 9 minutes, I though oh no
    it come up with 5th row seats
    I was shocked
     
  25. Bart

    Bart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    My strategy is to over-pay on Stub Hub :( At least that's what I end up doing about 75% of the time :(
     
    zen and audiotom like this.
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