Buying tickets from a scalper
I’ve had quite a few experiences over the years in buying tickets from scalpers. I’ve bought them for hockey, baseball, and football, both here in Canada and in the US. I’ve always gotten tickets, they’ve always been really good seats, and the prices are always cheaper than the internet ticket you will find. The big problem people have is they don’t want to spend all that time and money travelling somewhere and find out they couldn’t get tickets and end up watching the game in their hotel room. I’m here to tell you that won’t or at least shouldn’t happen. Here’s what I’ve learned…..
Get out of your cab at least 3-4 blocks from the stadium. Every city has different laws, some say it’s illegal, some say it’s illegal to make a profit, some don’t care. Scalpers do stand right out front of a stadium at times, others will be a couple blocks away. What are you looking for? You want the guys with a mitt full of tickets and lots of bling. He’s a pro and pros don’t rip people off, it’s their living. They are tough to negotiate with but persevere, they want to make a sale. If an individual is selling a pair of tickets be careful. They may be stolen. Scalpers don’t sell stolen tickets because you could go and find him again the next week. I’ve bought tickets from a woman who’s husband had to work late and she was trying to sell them. That felt safe to me. One other thing to watch is the bait and switch. You are looking at two tickets with good seats but when you leave the scalper you don’t even notice until your in the stadium, you are now sittting in the boonies as he switched the tickets while you were paying him. Again, the pros don’t do this as a rule, but it’s something to watch out for. Here’s some examples of where I’ve been and what I paid. Keep in my mind I aways for football like to be at around mid field 20-25 rows up. I have nearly always gotten the best ticket available, quite often player’s tickets. In Seattle I just paid $40. for $50. Mariners tickets and sat behind the Twins dugout. Keep in mind this is a lousy Seattle team, hence the cheaper tickets. Bears preseason tickets I paid 90 for $100 tickets, again this is preseason. In Denver for a Sunday night game when it was snowing I paid face value, great seats, but it was snowing. San Fran I paid face value, and had Jeff Garcia’s father sitting behind me. Great seats. One time I paid 240 for Monday night in Oakland. I never talked to a scalper for fear of what might have been.
These scalpers are fast talking and street wise. They like to play the part so let them do so. Try not to be unreasonable with your bids so they don’t walk away. You must at least offer face value for an NFL regular season game because it’s only going to go up. Green Bay is coming to Seattle this year, a good seat would have been 250 or so. But with no Brett and a couple losses you may find a real good set for 150 on game day. Not on the net as right now 150 will probably get you a nose bleed. I’ve got a scalper in Seattle who has a web site and cell you can get in touch with should you ever want to. As you can see all my expereinces have been good ones. I too know what it costs to go and stay for a night and would never want to get skunked but so far I haven’t and I’m optimistic enough to continue going with out tickets and knowing I should get some.