My Pre-sale experience / Buying Tickets Opinion

[cpriddims]

This is my experience buying Police tix. I think it might be good info for anyone who hasn't yet, but is planning on buying tix, and is freaking out (like I was) about how to get the best seats, or seats at all.

I started out with a Best Buy code AND a Fan Club code (both mine of course). I was saving my BB code (for 2 tix) for a possible Atlanta show to open up so my wife and I could go. I wanted to use my FC code to get four tix to go with my wife and 2 friends that live near Tampa.

I logged on to the Fan Club site to get my code right as Tampa went on sale. As you may or may not know, the Fan Club site totally crashed due to a ticket broker hacking program. The fan club site blocked it, but still caused the site to crash. Meanwhile, not knowing this, I was still trying to get in, thinking that FC people were getting in and I was going to lose out on Tampa tix if I didn't do something quick!

So I said screw it, and used my BB code. I got two decent tickets (sect 116 row K) but then had to get on two days later for the general public sale to help my friend find two tickets close to us. We logged on together (while talking to each other via cell phone) Saturday when the Tampa tix went on sale to the public and snagged a decent pair of 2nd level seats.

Part two below...

[cpriddims]

IN MY OPINION (and from my one experience only)...

1. Best Buy codes get you great seats, but you need to grab your code quickly when the "Get Code" sign is showing for the show you want. Make double sure that you want to spend your BB code on that show because once you request it, your one and only BB code is used, and there is no turning back to try for a different show. I did get lucky. For Tampa, BB codes were still available on the second day BB tix were open (during the 1st day Fan Club snafu) and I still got decent seats. This is not guaranteed of course.

2. The Fan Club Code gets you great seats, but in general, several rows, or a section or two further back (on the floor and sides) than the best buy allotment, only because the BB tix are available FIRST. If you use the FC code to search for seats, be ready and on time for the initial opening time of the FC pre-sale. I suggest NOT to take the first seats you see. Give them up and search a few more times. You will normally find better seats. I actually found better floor seats the longer I searched, but no guarantees. There were great upper level seats (over or near the stage) available for the FC code the entire 30 minutes I was searching. BE AWARE! The FC site could crash again if another hacker tries to get in. If that happens, just hang tight and check the site regularly for updates. If the site crashes that means no one can get to codes so don't freak (like I did). In this case, they will fix the site and delay the FC pre-sale for another hour or so.

3. If you don't have a Best Buy Code or Fan Club code, DON'T WORRY. You can still get tickets as long as you do the following:
a) Log on to Ticketmaster and create your account (updating all billing info) well ahead of time of public ticket sale.
b) Double check that you are taking into account your time zone versus the time zone where the event you want to buy tickets for is. DO THE MATH CORRECTLY!
c) Fifteen minutes before tickets go on sale to the public for the event you want, log in to your ticketmaster account, then search back to that Police event you want. It will say tickets are not available yet, etc. Refresh your screen every 2-3 minutes until the ticket window pops up and tickets are ready for purchasing.
d) After you select your quantity to search, when you have to type in the ticketmaster code, it is not case sensitive, so stare at the code for a quick second or two, say it back to yourself as you type quickly, then hit enter immediately (no need for mouse clicking)
e) Don't get too greedy, buy the first, second, or third set of tickets that come up to ensure that you have tickets!
f) After you have purchased tickets, go ahead and search again for more tickets. If you find better tickets, you can always sell the other ones for face value.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Thanks for the primer for the new folks, cp. Looks great to me!

People may want to read the thread about Ticketmaster locking you out if you search too many times, too. The short answer is that it's an IP address block, and there are some ways around it (although running out to the coffee shop to use their machines seems to be the best for some.)

[mudspoke]

I've gone through the ticket buying experience on all three levels (BB, FC, and Public) and agree with everything that was said by cpriddims. The only thing I'd add is that it's better to buy 2 pairs of 2 tickets together than 1 set of 4 tickets together, but that is probably pretty obvious.