Find the best Tickets

Purchasing tickets on the secondary market has gotten infinitely more complicated since Ticketmaster entered the resale game. Years ago, when Ticketmaster was busy trying to prevent the resale of tickets, you were assured that if you purchased your ticket through Ticketmaster, it was a face value ticket. But that is no longer the case and Ticketmaster clearly took the position “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” but worse! Ticketmaster now sells tickets under the moniker “Verified Reseller” which seems somewhat obvious if you aren’t already predisposed to the idea they sell primary seats at face value.

As an example, we took a look at The Eagles 2022 Hotel California tour. Navigate to the Eagles official website and you’ll find all the tour dates and links to Ticketmaster for tickets. We clicked on the Savannah, GA event scheduled for February 19, 2022 and immediately found tons and tons of available tickets. But on closer inspection it becomes clear the event is actually sold out and the only tickets available are tickets on the secondary market at prices that often far exceed prices on the original secondary market like CheapSeatsTickets. Navigate to the “Filters” box and uncheck the “Verified Reseller” button and you will quickly discover the event is actually sold out.

Does that mean the tickets on Ticketmaster aren’t any good? No. But it does mean that you need to compare apples to apples and we did exactly that. We looked at several different seats and found that Ticketmaster tickets were as high as 35% higher than our exact or similar seats. We found seats in FLOOR D Row 4. Ticketmaster has them priced at $679 per ticket with a $312.34 service fee and a $2.95 processing fee for a total of $1,673.29. CheapSeatsTickets has the same seats in FLOOR D Row 4 with a ticket price of $482, a service fee of $250.64 plus delivery and taxes for a total of $1,273.57. We’re talking about a $400 difference for the exact same seats!

CST also has more inventory in more locations at lower prices. Our lowest priced pair of tickets will cost you $454 all in per ticket. Ticketmaster’s lowest priced ticket will cost you $489 and that’s in the upper level – ours is in the lower level.

So don’t be fooled by the branding as the original or official seller. And new security measures placed on tickets by most venues mean you will have legit tickets as long as you buy from an established reputable reseller. Remember, CST has been handling tickets in the secondary market for 17 years and we were able to refund every cancelled event through Covid. We stand by our tickets and offer the best service in the biz.

It’s been more than year since we last blogged about a ticketing event. The San Francisco 49ers were gearing up to face the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020 Super Bowl. And then it seemed the whole world came to a screeching holt! It was definitely a difficult time for everyone, and the ticketing industry would face some serious challenges. But as a veteran of the industry, CheapSeatsTickets stood behind every purchase made and issued refund after refund after refund for cancelled events.

And we’re still standing!!!

Things are definitely starting to open up, even if the numbers are a fraction of what they used to be. While many states are welcoming fans back in larger numbers, many are following health guidelines and allowing fans back in limited numbers. But any number is better than nothing! Baseball is welcoming most fans back between 25 – 50% capacity. And we are starting to see artists planning summer and fall concert series. We do expect Broadway to open up in the fall even though overseas venues are already seeing fans back in the seats.

The challenges we’ve faced collectively over the past year will make it even more special when we finally get to return to the events we’ve all loved over the years. We were there before Covid, we survived Covid and we will be here for you after Covid. We have your ticket.

The Kansas City Chiefs will face the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Florida on February 2, 2020 at 6:30 EDT. Both home teams took care of business in their respective conference championships with the Chiefs beating the Titans 35-24 and the Niners beating the Packers 37-20.

The Kansas City Chiefs will bring their explosive offense led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The San Francisco 49ers will rally behind their dominant hard-hitting defense. It should be an epic matchup and Vegas expect a close one with early odds favoring the Niners by a point and a half.

The tight end matchup bring probably the two best in the league with George Kittle and Travis Kelce. Kittle, who hasn’t had huge receiving numbers in the playoffs, has been a blocking force for the Niners run game. Expect big numbers from Kelce if the Chiefs are going to have a chance.

It’s going to an epic Super Bowl and you don’t want to miss any of the action. We absolutely have your ticket and you can save even more with promo code MOSTERT at checkout.

 

https://cheapseatstickets.com/3885321/Super-Bowl-LIV

The NFL Divisional playoff games are all set and here are the matchups:

Saturday, Jan. 11
No. 6 Vikings at No. 1 49ers, 4:35 p.m. ET (NBC)
No. 6 Titans at No. 1 Ravens, 8:15 p.m. ET (CBS)

Sunday, Jan. 12
No. 4 Texans at No. 2 Chiefs, 3:05 p.m. ET (CBS)
No. 5 Seahawks at No. 2 Packers, 6:40 p.m. ET (Fox)

Three wild card teams grabbed spots including the Titans with a massive win over Tom Brady and the New England dynasty. We expect some fantastic action and here are our predictions:

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers certainly have the edge with home field advantage and an outstanding regular season behind them. But Kirk Cousins has proven he is playoff worthy after a massive win over the Saints. We think the Vikings will give the 49ers a run for their money but at the end of the day, the Niners will walk away with the win. 49ers 30 – Vikings 16

Tennessee Titans at Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens appear to be the best team in the league and the odds makers agree giving the Titans 8.5-9.5 on the spread. We don’t think the Titans can hang on either side of the ball and Lamar Jackson will take the Ravens to the Conference Championship – and they might even cover the over-under by themselves! Ravens 44 Titans -24

Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs: It’s hard to envision a scenario where the Texans can steal a win in Kansas City but that’s why we play the game. The Texans high powered offense has been anemic in the second half of the season and they barely squeaked out a win over the Bills. We expect Patrick Mahomes to have a banner day in KC. Chiefs 31 – Texans 9

Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Play this game on a neutral site and it’s Seahawks all the way, but that’s not how it works! Cold temperatures are expected in Green Bay for this NFC matchup and that is going to give the Packers a slight advantage. Despite the predictions, we think Seattle is on a crash course with San Fran and they will edge out the Packers in a low scoring affair. Seahawks 19 – Packers 17

Game 2 of the 2019 World Series didn’t exactly start as we would have expected with two All-Star pitchers on the mound. Justin Verlander gave up a pair of runs in the top fo the first and the Astros tied it up with an Alex Bregman homer off Stephen Strausberg in the bottom. By our count, it took Bregman just under 25 seconds to round the bases. Besides the effect the showboating stunt had on the Nationals, did Bregman’s antics piss off the baseball gods resulting in two 7th inning errors (yes, we thought the one ruled a hit was actually an error)?

Talk to fans from every team and someone will give you a karma related story. And you don’t have to go any further than the Nationals. Bryce Harper left at the end of 2018 to join a World Series caliber team. Now he’s watching his former teammates try to sweep their opponents.

The Nationals host a Celebrity Baseball Camp and sources indicate every player that has participated in the event has had a banner game immediately following. Trea Turner attended and went 5 for 5 that afternoon.

We think humility is a necessary part of the game. There’s plenty of time for celebrating – after the game/series is over! And we think Bregman may have put the celebration on display 8 innings to soon.

The question we hear the most from people looking for tickets is often “Where do I start?” We tend to think it’s less about where you start and more about having a comprehensive plan in mind. When it comes to the majority of events, the place to start is the primary market and that usually means Ticketmaster. But face value isn’t always the biggest value which is why we suggest covering several sites in tour search.

In today’s example, we’re looking for interleave MLB tickets between the Red Sox and the Rockies in Colorado. Coors Field is a great venue with a super strong fan base but it’s big which means there are a lot of seats. And empty seats on the primary market are generally only sold at face value. Behind the plate will cost you around $125 per ticket with exception.

Switch over to the secondary market and you will find ticket prices invariably higher than face but often lower. IN today’s example, two seats on Ticketmaster will run you $268.50 for the pair all in about 30 rows behind home plate. We have similar tickets but we’ll put you in Row 26 for $161.17 for the pair.

Why? Well there’s a lot of reasons. Broker owned tickets means they may have been obtained for less than face to begin with. But broker owned can also mean full control over the price.

We also recommend looking at non-broker sites like Stubhub. Stubhub has some broker owned tickets but a lot are owned by individuals. And when the event date is close, people generally will take anything and can dramatically lower the price. In our case, we found similar tickets in the $160 range.

So be sure to check at least three diferrent sites. We recommend the venue, a secondary site like ours and Stubhub. Be diligent and we’re sure you’ll find your perfect ticket.

We had an opportunity to see the Salt Lake Bees take on the Tacoma Rainiers and it was really a terrific experience for everyone. Ticket prices were the cheapest we’ve ever seen (more on that in a second), the seats were fantastic and everyone went home happy.

First let’s start with the ticket prices. Normally around $25, we were able to score 8 tickets for free. Yes you heard that right, FREE! Smith’s market is the stadium’s namesake and you get a free ticket for every $25 spent at the market. We happened to need groceries for the week so our $200+ bill easily covered the tickets. We showed up at the window and walked away with 8 seats in the fourth row just past 3rd base. But the stadium was pretty empty (which is typical before school lets out) so we had an entire section to ourselves on third base. These seats are easily $100+ at just about any major league stadium so much easier on the pocketbook.

Next is the proximity to the players. We were super close – almost too close! Our kids were able to talk to the players and even scored a few baseballs which were later autographed by Buzz. Plus there was plenty to do for the little ones including an outfield train ride, open space in the grass, races, etc.

Finally we got to see a really good game. In this case, the home team hit a walk-off double to win it in the ninth. And while the players weren’t quite as recognizable as the big league names, we saw two home runs and some spectacular play.

We had a chance to also see our local college basketball team play at Golden 1 in Sacramento and had a similar experience. With low prices and fewer crowds, everyone had a great time without breaking the bank. Consider a AAA game or a college game in your future.

The Houston Rockets just needed to win their final game on Tuesday to secure the #2 spot in the west. Unfortunately for the Rockets, OKC had other plans and handed them their 29th loss of the season. But no worries, a Denver loss would still secure the 2 seed; a Portland loss would deliver them the #3 seed but neither of those scenarios happened either. Denver beat the Timberwolves and Portland played 5 bench players and overcame a 23 point deficit to beat the Kings

So James Harden and company will have to face the Utah Jazz in round one and assuming everything goes chalk, they will play the Golden State Warriors in the second round. To get past Utah, the Rockets will have to face a formidable defense and also play at least one game at altitude.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t exactly the classic Rockets-Jazz matchup between Malone and Olajuwon but it should be interesting. The Jazz bring a defensive-minded focus to the court and Harden is, well, pretty much unstoppable. And whichever team wins, it’s gonna be a tough road through Oakland and the Warriors. Should be fun!

When it comes to the NCAA Tournament, it’s generally a good rule to go chalk. The UMBC upset over #1 ranked Virginia in 2018 was absolutely thrilling but it had never happened in the 136 prior attempts and will likely not happen for another 50 years!

But there are certainly matchups where the odds are more favorable. Take the 5-seed vs 12-seed matchup. The actual stats on the matchups puts the odds around 64% for the 5-seed which makes taking the risk pretty good, especially if you’re in a bracket that rewards upsets. And now statistics are showing the 6-11 matchup is another great risk!

So who’s at risk? The pros think despite a great season, Mississippi State could falter against Liberty. And Oregon has been playing great down the stretch which could cause problems for Wisconsin.

Whatever you decide, the tournament never lets us down. We like Michigan State a lot and think that despite the great record, Gonzaga is vulnerable. Truth be told we’re not that great at selections but will be watching it all.

The Golden State Warriors dropped their 11th game of the year falling to the Utah Jazz 108-105…AND IT’S ALL OVER! Of course we jest but it’s hard not to feel like something is fundamentally wrong when the Dubs aren’t steamrolling every team in the league on a nightly basis. But here are some things to consider:

1) In the 2015-2016 season, the Warriors lost nine games during the regular season. Nine games. NINE GAMES! No NBA team has ever held their losses to single digits and there’s a good chance no team will ever do it again (especially after GS handed the championship to LeBron). Think about this for a second – the San Francisco 49ers lost more games that year and only played 16! So when the Warriors lose 11 before the mid-way point, it definitely feels like the sky is falling.

2) The bench is just not the same. Over the course of the Warriors championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018, the only constant coming off the bench has been Andre Iquadala. And Shaun Livingston. Harrison Barnes? Gone. JaVale McGee? Gone. Ian Clark? Gone. Now, the Warriors are relying on a very young bench with guys like Quinn Cook, Jordan Bell and Alfonzo McKinnie. The bench used to build on the starter’s lead. Now they are giving up a few making the jobs of the starters a bit harder when they return in the 4th. Look for that to change as the Dubs solidify their bench work.

3) No Swaggy. Let’s face it, despite the efforts of Curry and Green and Play and Durant, Nick Young was the glue that held the Warriors together. Without Swaggy P, the Dubs are just another team fighting in the West

All kidding aside, the Warriors will do what we’ve seen them do every year and that’s win when it counts. It will definitely be a tough playoff path in the West but we think they’ll be just fine come spring.