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cheap tickets at the door - part 3



A couple folks have e-mailed w/ questions about buying tickets outside a show.

I have some basic rules for scalping tickets at the door:
- take a seating chart of the venue with you
- never buy the first tickets you see
- check with the box office an hour before the show
- only buy great seats (within 25 rows of the stage)
- 1 or 2 tickets together are easy; 4 together are usually available, 3 is tougher
- speak up, talk to people walking by, and compete w/ the scalpers who are trying to buy up the tickets
- don't believe what people tell you about availability, where their seats are, how hard it will be to find better or a better price - (mostly there are two kinds of people selling tickets: those who will lie to you and those who don't really know the market or even the venue)
- never deal with the professional scalpers unless there are no other great seats (ignore them - use your time to talk to the people walking by)
- don't feel bad about lowballing with your initial offer (you can always come up), or getting tickets below face value. Most selling tickets will ask for extra if it was a seller's market (but that's less and less likely as prices have gone up).
- here a general rule I apply: the older the audience, the fewer people show up w/o tickets (yet you can usually count on 50-100 pairs of tickets for sale outside at an arena show)
- watch out for the scalping laws where they apply (in Philly the cops will confiscate tickets and cash if they witness a transaction - unless you have a "vendor's licence"). Be discreet with the tickets, cash, and seating chart in such situations.

Andy