Over the course of the past few weeks I have fielded a few questions from friends and readers who are worried they will not get tickets to see Lady Gaga. Some are afraid that tickets are completely sold out and want to know what to do. Others are worried that resale prices will only go up.
Here is the skinny; a concert can “SELL OUT” at the box office, but a concert is rarely permanently sold out. To friends and readers a like, below are three solid strategies for getting tickets to Lady Gaga and other concerts coming to your town this summer. Caveat: acquiring highly desired items is not supposed to be easy, diligent effort is required. In following this advice you will need to try each method (especially 1 & 2) more than once until you are successful.
Strategy 1: Visit the primary sellers website (TicketMaster, etc) on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings between 9:45 and 11am in the two weeks leading up to the show you want to see – I like trying to find tickets at 10 and 10:30am, which is when they release previously held back tickets. I have snagged great tickets this way for everything from Coldplay to Pearl Jam.
Strategy 2: Scour seatgeek.com and fansnap.com in the ten days leading up to the show of your choice up until 72 hours before. Both sites scour different reseller ticket sources and allow you to search by price, which eases the search process. Ignore tickets that are out of your price range and don’t let high prices scare you – in some cases brokers price tickets higher as a defensive strategy against arbitrage. If you don’t see a price you like, wait. Pointers: I like SeatGeeks buy/wait recommendations but I can’t speak to their accuracy, while FanSnap gets direct ticket inventory feeds from a larger pool of resellers.
Strategy 3: On the day of the concert with no tickets in hand, go the the venue 2 or 3 hours before showtime and stroll the tailgates looking for extras. This is probably best done by an extrovert, but the idea is you surf the barbecue and beer parties making friends and asking if anyone has an extra ticket. Scalpers utilize the strategy all the time and they usually try to buy tickets for below face value. Most people are very happy to sell tickets for the price they paid, less fees.
If you follow through on each one of these strategies I can almost assure you will find a pair of tickets at or near face value. Now, if you need evidence to support the suggestion that prices will be favorable in the few days leading up to the concert, see Resale Prices: What Goes Up…