Ever buy tickets for a concert off the street?

[aarono]

I've always stayed away from buying scalped tickets in the event they may be fake, etc. but I talked to a guy at a recent Metallica concert and he was telling me he buys tickets for a show a few minutes before every concert on the street. I thought surely he does this for good seats and gets ripped off but he told me he saves money doing this for every single show except when he went to see Billy Joel and Elton John.

He went on to tell me he's gotten seats valued at $70 for $40, saved about $35 on a Kiss ticket when they came through on their 35 Alive tour, etc.

I didn't see how this made sense as the scalpers need to make money (perhaps they get the tickets very cheap themselves?) but I have no experience buying them so I don't know. I was curious if anyone has done this before and what their experiences are.

[drteeth]

No, but I've sold spare tickets at the door (at ticket price).

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by aarono

I've always stayed away from buying scalped tickets in the event they may be fake, etc. but I talked to a guy at a recent Metallica concert and he was telling me he buys tickets for a show a few minutes before every concert on the street. I thought surely he does this for good seats and gets ripped off but he told me he saves money doing this for every single show except when he went to see Billy Joel and Elton John.

He went on to tell me he's gotten seats valued at $70 for $40, saved about $35 on a Kiss ticket when they came through on their 35 Alive tour, etc.

I didn't see how this made sense as the scalpers need to make money (perhaps they get the tickets very cheap themselves?) but I have no experience buying them so I don't know. I was curious if anyone has done this before and what their experiences are.

I dare say it makes sense. They'll have made huge profits in the hours before the gig. And with those last few tickets, if they don't sell them in the last few minutes, they aren't going to sell them at all.

Making a loss on something is better than making nothing at all

Tho on saying that, I've never bought scalped tickets, but I have sold a ticket (at face value) just before a gig.

[playinpearls]

i haven't been in a long time, but on the tool Lateralus tour i bought some tickets in nashville off some guy for 30 bucks off the price... he tried to haggle, but i told him take it or leave it...he took it. Judging by his looks, he was certainly not going in there!

I'd be more cautious about doing it now. With the technology available to produce fraudulant tickets, i'd be too scared to take the chance. But ticketmaster sure does make you want to...especially with their 15 dollar convience charge. ugh.

[XtreO]

A friend of mine got a ticket to Metallica last year (or was it the year before that?). The ticket was not fake. He did however have to pay full price for them and a little more, meaning he ended on about 170 usd, while the original price was around 150-160.

[Mark Latimour]

Only to smaller gigs where the face value doesn't matter. The key is not to buy them off scalpers, but to buy them off the people who the scalpers are trying to buy them off. For example if a ticket is face valued at 20, a scalper will often offer 10 (usuallly with one real 5 note and one fake). If you offer the person 15 you will usually get the sale and a real ticket and annoy a scalper (always a plus)!

[FL Knifemaker]

Not since the dawn of the internet era.

[buzzbass]

Stub Hub is your friend. It's never let me down

[MatticusMania]

I was once near House of Blues Hollywood passing out flyers for my show the next week at a nearby place. Face to Face was playing and my friend wanted to see them. He bought 2 tix off a scalper for face value. $15 each. Not a bad show.

I once had 4 free passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain given to me by my sister. The expired the day we were using them, but it was just me and a friend. We sold the other 2 at the gate to a family for $20, and so they could see we werent trying to rip them off, used our tickets right before them.

[karrot-x]

The one and only time was this past summer at a Jason Mraz concert. My girlfriend and her friend went but didn't want to drive. I figured if I was there I might as well see the concert, the face value was $80, they payed $95. I payed $25

[ADbassman]

I usually do some kind of switcheroo on the day of the event via craiglist. For example, when I saw NIN last may, I bought 4 tickets for $100. I then turned around and sold 2 for $50 a piece and kept the remaining two for me and my friend. Free NIN show? You bet.

[iamlowsound]

I have sold, but never bought.

lowsound

[stratovani]

Back in 1978 Jethro Tull came to the Montreal Forum, I wanted to see them but the tickets sold pretty fast. So I decided to take a chance and buy from a scalper. I hung out in the small park right in front of the Forum, found someone selling tickets and bought one for $10.00, which I thought was a lot! I went in, found my seat (decent, but not great) and waited for the concert to begin. About a few minutes before Tull took the stage a couple showed up, the girl's ticket was identical to mine. Turns out mine was counterfeit!. So since she had the Real McCoy I let her take my seat and I sat next to her, thinking I might have to move if someone else showed up to claim the seat I was sitting in. No one did, so I sat there for the whole Tull concert, which was excellent by the way. Those were the days! Somehow I don't think you could get away with that nowadays!

[aarono]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

I was once near House of Blues Hollywood passing out flyers for my show the next week at a nearby place. Face to Face was playing and my friend wanted to see them. He bought 2 tix off a scalper for face value. $15 each. Not a bad show.

I once had 4 free passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain given to me by my sister. The expired the day we were using them, but it was just me and a friend. We sold the other 2 at the gate to a family for $20, and so they could see we werent trying to rip them off, used our tickets right before them.

This reminds me of when I was in Wisconsin Dells. You pay extravagant prices for these run down themed motels that included "free" tickets (hence a motel room costs $120 a night) water parks, theme parks, etc. After 2 days of roller coasters and water slides it was time to go, I can't remember how but we ended up getting a spare ticket or two from the front desk.

I wasn't one to let this ticket go to waste so I went to go scalp it at 9 AM when the parks opened. I wasn't getting much action on the streets so I figured I'd inch myself closer and closer to the gate. Within half hour I find myself within about 50 feet of the gate trying to peddle this ticket to families walking up the gate.

Before long one of those expensive two wheeled contraptions is flying towards me with a bald security guy in the cockpit. "Get out of here with that ticket, now!". So as I was leaving I finally got some action and a family bought the ticket and I made $100 pure profit.

__________________

I think I'm going to go to the concert area and just see how the scene is. If I can get a ticket for cheap so be it. If not I'll just head home.

[warnergt]

I've got a story for you.

I bought a pair of tickets for a Madonna concert from a scalper out front
of the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Then, with the tickets, my wife and I
tried to sneak in a 35mm camera with a big lens. The ushers detected
the camera at the entrance and told me I couldn't bring it in. I insisted
that, if I left it in my car, it would be stolen. So, they escorted me to the
security department to check the camera. They left us waiting in a
sizable line down at the security station in the basement. After the
ushers walked away, we did too. We found our way to our seats with
the camera and big lens ready to get some good pics.

Then, a couple arrives with a pair of tickets for the same seats that we
have! Of course, they go get security. Now, I'm sweating bullets as
I bought these tickets from God knows who and I'm holding a big
camera which is strictly verboten. Security arrives and asks to look at
my tickets. I produce the tickets and they compare the tickets side by
side. They are identical in every way. The security woman says, "One
of these is a forgery!"

"Duh!" I thought. But now I am really panicing because I've
got the camera and I've probably got the bad tickets. The security
woman asks, "Who was here first?" "I was!" I answered (thinking
being first has to be a good thing).

The security woman said to the other two ticket-holders, "Come with
me. We'll find you some seats."

Whew! That was the end of it. I saw the concert and got to take the pictures.