When is the Best Time to Try to Buy Tickets for a Sold-Out Show?
This has all happened to us. A gig is announced and before we can buy tickets, it’s sold out. But as all veteran concert-goers know, there are always tickets to be found. Lifehacker has this tip:
The folks at Priceonomics used Coachella as an example, and they found that the best time to buy tickets is about 4-5 weeks after the show sells out. That’s about the time the hype has died down, people who want their tickets are comfortable with them, and the secondary market has yet to really light up with overpriced tickets. You’ll still pay more than face value, but you’ll get the best price you can get going forward.
Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Sometimes the best time to buy tickets to that sold-out gig is the day of the show, after all the gear is loaded in and the promoters sees if there’s extra space for seating.
Anyone have any other tips that don’t involve scalpers? (Thanks to John for the link.)
Search on twitter the week before the show. Somehow this is happening quite often, people rush for tickets but on the week before almost everyone seems to be selling tickets for the show, and if there are a lot, no one will succeed overpricing them so you can surely find some at face value or even less.
Not always a success, but kijiji/craigslist day of concert
after my years of working in radio. I tell people on game day or the days leading up… people are always blowing them out and you might get under face-value!
The Concert Gods reward persistence. If you want tickets to a sold-out show, make finding them your priority. Check Ticketmaster daily; hell, check Ticketmaster ten times daily. Most big shows release a bunch of seats. Some of these are called “production drops,” and their location won’t be known till the show’s been loaded into the venue. Some are artist holds; Springsteen, for instance, has it in his contract that a certain percentage of a venue’s seats are to be held back from the main on sale and released in the weeks leading up to a show. Above all, with prices spiraling out of control, listen to performers who don’t suck and who reward fans with good presales. Performers who don’t suck don’t put their fans in the back of the venue; if they’re like Pearl Jam, for instance, they give fan club members the best seats of the building, feed off their energy, and make the show better for everyone.