IS there such a thing as a public sale anymore ? Or it that a thing of the past ?
I tried thism orningto buy tickets for Baltimpre. Small place . About 13,000 seats.
They were all gone by thime ticketmaster put them up . What gives with that crap ? Is the brokering pricks grabbing THAT many tickets where the general public just doesn't even have a chance to buy a ticket ? Something is just not right with this system and it needs to be changed somehow. So the way it is right now is an average fan can't go to ticketmaster right at the time of sale and STILL CAN"T get a ticket ? Either the system is broke or something stinks about this whole process. And everyone wonders why people gets pissed about
ticket prices . This tour is expensive enough already without having to go through a third party(scumabg brokers) to get a ticket.

Right the second time - i.e., IT STINKS.

I havent taken part in the presale once this tour, and I never will (unless club gigs are announced, which aint hap'nin). Get two computers, both hooked up to DSL/Cable/some other highspeed internet. Go to the ticketmaster page for the show exactly 5 minutes before it goes on sale. You get at one computer, someone else at the other. Hit refresh every minute until you get to the one minute countdown. Then do it every 15 seconds. When the page is finally up and you can buy tickets you will go through and find great seats. Do this 5 minutes after they go on sale and you'll find crap seats. Thats my advice. It has worked every time this tour.

I was on the second they went one sale and I couldn't even get two together in Baltimore. Makes me very curious. Wether they are all bought up by the pre sale people . In which they are paying and extra hundred bucks . Or something is really fishy going on. I even took a chance earlier this week with the presale
the day they announced the show and there weren't even any floor seats available.
The best they had was about six sections back
on the side or all the way in the back. So it looks like no Stones this tour.
Guess I will have to wait for the HBO show

they will be unsold out soon. exactly when. who knows but it will only last for 6-12 hours dependind on how many people are onto it. check ticketmaster two weeks and two days before show

There now seems to be about 4 different types of presales for almost every concert - which begs the question, "when is a presale not a presale" ?

Combined with the amount of tickets being creamed off to brokers and insiders, its a wonder there are any tickets left by the time of the 'official' public sale for some of these concerts.

If its any consolation (I know it isnt), the problem isnt just confined to the US although it does seem to be worse over there

Its quite obvious to me from everything I've seen so far that they DELIBERATELY hold back many of the cheaper seats when the tickets go on sale in order to con people into panic-buying the most expensive seats, thinking its their only shot at tickets. Then some of the mid-priced ones mysteriously become available a few minutes later

A friend of mine and myself were both online for the rs.com presale for MSG the other day and all we were offered for about 25 minutes were $450 tickets (so much for Cohl's announcement at the press conference that these tickets would only be around 5% of the total of tickets available...a bit hard to believe when youre being offered obstructed view seats at the side for $450 in the exact same row that you paid $164 at the same venue 3 years earlier..). All of a sudden, $179 seats suddenly appeared and we got them pretty easily. I know that many people say this is because of credit card purchases for these seats being rejected or potential customers being offered them and turning them down and therefore making them available again, but I dont believe thats going to happen in many cases, especially as this pattern of such seats being made available.
seems so commonplace.

Unfortunately the whole system is akin to a lottery when it comes to being offered tickets. Strike that, its a racket, not a lottery



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-08-28 05:59 by Gazza.

For Las Vegas there were no floor tickets on sale at the presale or at the public sale - go figure

I agree with Gazza they are holding back the cheaper seats first. My sister wanted to take her three kids to Boston in January. She tried for the $60 dollar seats for 15 minutes Yesterday first 4 then 3 and then 2 and finally one. No luck I told her to keep pluging away. Twenty minutes later she was able to by 1 pair and 2 singles only of $60 seats. I also noticed that alot of seats in Boston three years ago that were $160 are now $450. MSG I pulled up seats in section 220 if you count the floor there its actually 4th level. It was also a side view only for $450 cut the shit. I have also noticed the smaller midwest markets are cheaper $350 tops and not as many of thse seat as east or west coast venues. I paid $160 section 105 row A first row off the floor in Columbus Ohio,
These seats are a little more than half way down the Arena dead even with B-stage most Big name citys these are $450.00.

I bought two tickets at exactly 1 min after they went on sale for the DC show. I ended up getting last row in the balcony. Next time I'll just buy them on ebay or a scalper at face value

the problem with the tickets is this, its such a big business the right hand doesnt know what the left is doing , ticketmaster doesnt even know who has what tickets, and what tickets they are selling they work day to day as these concerts are rushed to try to deter scalpers but the brokers are scalpers too arent they, its a million dollar business

1981 - had to buy from scalpers to get to Philly and Hartford; MSG was impossible, couldn't even find a ticket to scalp

1989 - waited on line 6 hours for nosebleed tix to Shea

VL (RFK) and No Security(MCI) tours - nosebleeders from ticketmaster over the phone

B2B - too broke to buy

Forty Licks - nosebleeders on ticketmaster's internet

2005 - nosebleeders to MCI and Charlottesville bought on first public sale days, MCI was the minute they want on sale, the other was hours after

- side view tix to MGM Vegas through tixmaster, bought yesterday (not sure when public sale began)

Overall, prices have gotten a lot higher, but easier to get (internet) and haven't been shut out of a show (still hope to get to Baltimore and Miami if a Feb. date is added)