Tickets:Anyone know if "dropped tix" are for real

[jjgittes]

A co-worker of mine says he recently purchased second row seats for the Roger Waters performance of "The Wall" here in Los Angeles..the DAY BEFORE the show. He told me his girlfriend tried some strategy called Waiting for Dropped tickets. The way it breaks down is this:

The scalpers buy up all the good seats but they are in danger of being stuck with them as the show approaches. He then said about 48 hours in advance these tickets may actually end up back on ticketmaster for face value. I never heard of this before. A second rumor I heard sometime ago was that StubHub might actually drop the price of tickets the closer to the date of an event. In this case, it was an NFL game.

 

So can anyone tell me if this is true? Has anyone ever tried this? You know, it sort of makes sense with a show like Roger Waters where I could see not many people excited to pay a highly inflated price for (Half of) Pink Floyd.

[jesse2112]

I think theres some truth behind this

[ioc]

This does raise an interesting question.

 

How soon before a show's date should one start scouring the various ticket sources for discounted [read: less scalped] good seat tickets?

[ioc]

...and has anyone gotten great seats this way?

[drgrendel]

Yes.....plenty of times. As one other poster suggested on another forum, have a ticket as a back-up just in case this method fails to provide a "premium seat." In other words, it is not 100%, but it does happen (in my case 15/17 times I have tried it).

[Snaked]

it has nothing to do with brokers.

[Rush-O-Matic]

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 12:53 PM)

...and has anyone gotten great seats this way?

 

Well, I don't know about this way:

QUOTE (jjgittes @ May 22 2012, 12:42 PM)

The scalpers buy up all the good seats but they are in danger of being stuck with them as the show approaches. He then said about 48 hours in advance these tickets may actually end up back on ticketmaster for face value.

 

I cannot speak to the validity of "dropped" tickets coming from scalpers who fear they are going to be stuck with tickets.

 

But, there are good tickets that have dropped in the last 48 hours before a show. I have gotten inside the first 5 rows several times only hours before a show, including last Time Machine Tour and Van Halen a couple years back. Both times, I paid face value. (And the Rush tickets were only like $90, not VIP pricing.)

 

There are several sources for these tickets that I know of, besides scalpers:

- a certain number of seats in wheelchair or disable seating are saved until nearer show time; once a certain window is reached, they drop these back into the pool. This varies by venue, sometimes a week out, sometimes 24 hours out.

 

- the band, the promoter, the record label, the venue and other associated groups all have a certain number of tickets promised to them as part of their touring deals. They use these to ensure family members, staff, dignitaries, special clients and so forth will get good tickets to the show. Once show time nears, if those groups don't need the tickets, they release them for sale, often at the last minute.

 

- new seats open up the day of set up at the venue. Rush tickets have already been sold to concerts this fall, and they haven't even finalized a stage set up yet. The venue and promoter work together to make sure a certain number of seats are available in a certain floor set up. What if the final stage arrangement were to impact the seating? Most floor seats are set up the morning of the show, because of other uses at the facility. (VH, for instance, has part of the stage that comes out into the floor seats for DLR to walk on. Each number of seats can't be exactly the same at each venue.)

 

- there may be some combination of these things that opens up other seats, too. That's how I got good seats in Nashville on TMT show. There were three floor sections, with aisles in between. I believe that some dignitary was promised good seats, but there were no tickets left. So, on the first 5 rows, they just added seats in the aisle to accomodate them. (I think there about 6, can't remember, which opens about 60 great seats at the last minute.) I got 2 on 4th row, that I bought through TicketMaster on my phone 3 hours before show time, while driving to the venue.

 

- these aren't on TicketMaster, but sites like StubHub have last-minute good seats, too. And, those may come from scalpers or brokers who don't want to get stuck with them. Sometimes, too, you have people at venues that are season ticket holders. They pay a premium to get good seats to every event, but can't / don't go to all of them. They use StubHub to make their money back. As show time nears, they drop the price.

 

So, there you go . . . I just killed my own chances of getting good seats at the last minute by giving out all this info.

[ioc]

That's good to know. My seats aren't bad, but they're not awesome either. I already got tickets for my group, primo seats are for me, if I can get one.

[Janie]

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 10:53 AM)

...and has anyone gotten great seats this way?

I took this approach years ago for getting tickets to a Lewis Black show. The afternoon before show day, I scored front row center.

 

So, yes, it can work. Not always but sometimes it does.

[ioc]

So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster)

[Snaked]

it's a crapshoot.

don't rely on it to work.

 

 

I had friends in Atlanta for opening night of the S&A tour 5 years ago who got shut out because they tried to go this route... they ended up on the lawn that night.

 

 

can you get lucky sometimes? sure.

but those who don't know how things work in the ticketing industry are at a great disadvantage. if you're going to risk it make sure you have a decent backup ticket in your pocket in case things don't work out.

[Rush-O-Matic]

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM)

So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster)

For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.

 

And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.

 

(Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.)

[ioc]

QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM)

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.

[BrightAntennae]

Rush-O-Matic is 100% correct. Not sure how I feel about him passing out this info

 

I have searched for tickets on the day of the show and found floor seats like Row 5 and better. I have also seen nothing.

 

It's a major crap shoot and not one I'm willing to take on Rush....without a good backup.

I have rolled the bones with other events and have done well.

 

Ideally, it works great if you can buy two sets of tickets (one during the sale and then one on the day of the show) and have a plan to unload your intial purchase if you were able to score better seats. Like sell them to a friend or relative etc.

 

Good luck.

[MCM]

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM)

QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.

[MCM]

I scored an excellent Van Halen ticket this way, the morning of the show Ticketmaster had tickets for sale that were not there the day before.

 

I scored a single third row for Rush in Vegas last year about a month before the show. Don't know where that ticket was the day before when I was looking and and it was the only one available in that section at that time. Go figure.

 

[greyfriar]

QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM)

QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.

[danielmclark]

QUOTE (greyfriar @ May 23 2012, 02:16 AM)

QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.

[2112rush]

QUOTE (danielmclark @ May 23 2012, 07:38 AM)

QUOTE (greyfriar @ May 23 2012, 02:16 AM) QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.

[rushfanforever!]

QUOTE (2112rush @ May 23 2012, 08:11 AM)

QUOTE (danielmclark @ May 23 2012, 07:38 AM) QUOTE (greyfriar @ May 23 2012, 02:16 AM) QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.   Priceless...if only more people were like this, the world would be in a much better place!

[Rush-O-Matic]

QUOTE (rushfanforever! @ May 23 2012, 08:55 AM)

QUOTE (2112rush @ May 23 2012, 08:11 AM) QUOTE (danielmclark @ May 23 2012, 07:38 AM) QUOTE (greyfriar @ May 23 2012, 02:16 AM) QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.   Priceless...if only more people were like this, the world would be in a much better place! Seriously, you guys stop adding clappy hands!   And, just FYI, I was inspired to do this because of something similar another fan did. When I went to the Jacksonville show on the second leg of SnA, I had back of floor ticket. I met up with some fans at a pre-show party arranged by Rushtour.com folks. I was by myself, and knew no one. Everyone was friendly and cool. One of the dudes I hung out with briefly had scored a last-minute better seat. He gave me his, which was better than mine, and he suggested we give mine to another fan, which I let him do. It worked so well the first time, I did it the next time I had the chance. There are others out there who are Rushily generous. Pay it forward!

[Apollo]

QUOTE (2112rush @ May 23 2012, 08:11 AM)

QUOTE (danielmclark @ May 23 2012, 07:38 AM) QUOTE (greyfriar @ May 23 2012, 02:16 AM) QUOTE (MCM @ May 23 2012, 02:24 AM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 03:58 PM) QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ May 22 2012, 03:50 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ May 22 2012, 01:31 PM) So to be clear: all these [potential] awesome seats were scored through the promoter website? (livenation/ticketmaster) For concerts in my experiences, yes. Some venues also have box office sales day of, and some of those are venue-driven, some TicketMaster driven. But, I have bought good "day of" seats to sporting events at StubHub, and know a friend who has gotten good "day of" seats through StubHub for concerts.   And since it was brought up, as others have mentioned, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get good seats. The times I have gotten lucky, I got squat in the presales, and bought my "backup" lawn or nosebleed seats. Once I scored the new ones, I dumped the others to a buyer at the venue.   (Actually, for one Rush show several years ago, I had seats around Row 20 on the floor. I bought a "day of" ticket on row 5 at the venue box office. About 20 minutes before show time, I walked up to the nosebleeds. I found a young guy in a Rush T-shirt sitting by himself. I asked him if he was by himself, and when he said "yes," I just gave him my row 20 seat. It was worth the cost of that ticket to see his face light up. After about 3 "Are you serious?!" he finally got out of his seat to head for his upgraded seat on the floor.) Class act.   The advice in this thread is true, it works most of the time but is not guaranteed.

[drgrendel]

Not enough stars in the world to give you for that awesome display of humanity!

[Jaminbenb]

I've seen instances where the band has seats for family or guests and release them, promoters have seats and release them, etc. I think Zappa was famous for having several front row seats, and if his family was there, they used them, if not..they released them for sale...

 

My local theater takes "subscription" tickets of people that can't make a show for some reason, and will sell them on the person's behalf the day of the show, and other things like that. Scalpers? Maybe you can find a week before deal, but I'm sure they have ways of getting rid of them.

 

My family has had college football tickets for YEARS...if everyone in the family is not showing up, and we aren't able to sell them, we've been known to find some poor soul (usually students) waiting outside the gate looking for tickets and give them to them...with the stipulation "you walk in with us now"... my father in law gave away two tickets to some students several years back and found out that they SOLD them (at a mild profit, but a profit none the less) to a couple (we knew because they ended up sitting right next to us) and he asked "So what did YOU pay for these seats?" making it sound like he bought scalped tickets as well....So ever since then, we have a "rule" to prevent it!

[jmdyyz]

day of show@venue 1st row $5 adl fee at windoe day of show -oh boy!