This past week, TicketMaster reported it’s second quarter earnings were down seventy percent (70%!). This news combined with recent reports that resold ticket prices for popular acts are selling well below face value means it is ‘super value ticket’ time for fans. Here are a couple of pointers for playing into these market dynamics.

First, if you prefer to buy from Ticketmaster or Live Nation and do not see the seats you want onsale right away, return to the site seven to ten days before the show and you may find a decent pair of tickets at face value, plus the ridiculous fee’s. You may have to come back to the site a couple of times as ticket inventory can change daily, sometimes hourly. For example, on August 5th at 5pm I bought a 7th row ticket at face value from Live Nation for the August 6th Coldplay Show in Raleigh, NC (here is some video I snapped). That same ticket was not available at 3pm. I paid $126 (fee’s included for my seat) and the guy I sat next to had paid StubHub $170 for each of his four seats bought two months before.

Second, if you are a bargain hunter or last minute planner, the secondary ticket market is a good place to look for last minute deals. If you are buying online from a reseller like StubHub, TicketNetwork or RazorGator, I strongly recommend buying at least two days before so you can be sure to get the tickets overnighted. But if that is not enough last minute for your style, you can always just show up to the venue an hour or two before showtime and go hunting. The best way to find deals on tickets at the event is by strolling the tailgate parties and asking or looking for people who have extra’s. At the Coldplay show I mentioned earlier, I saw at least two dozen tickets on sale for anything from face value (without the fee’s) down to 50% off. People really worry they will be stuck with an unwanted ticket so there is always room for negotiation.

Finally, there is a really cool site I recently found called fansnap.com. The site scours ticket resale sites and organizes available inventory by price and seat location. It is super easy to use and free. I’m actually pretty bummed because they beat me to getting the idea launched, but hey, they did it so kudos to them.

As the secondary ticket resale market continues to grow, I am pretty confident that stories of $10 and $20 tickets will become more common. They are hard to come by, but they happen. So, as Mr. Miyagi says, “patience Daniel-son, patience.”