It’s been about three years since I originally wrote this post. I came back here to check it for relevance and made a couple of light edits. This is still by far one of the most common questions that are posed when people ask about tickets. Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Madonna, [insert] your favorite team… in each case, the below are consistently applicable methods for finding tickets for events where tickets are not available for sale on Ticketmaster.com or Live Nation.

Here is the skinny; a concert can “SELL OUT” at the box office, but a concert is rarely actually sold out. To friends and readers a like, below are three solid strategies for getting tickets to Lady Gaga and other concerts coming to your town this summer. Caveat: acquiring highly desired items is not supposed to be easy, effort is required. In following this advice you will need to try each method (especially 1 & 2) more than once until you are successful.

Strategy 1: Visit the primary sellers website (TicketMaster, etc) on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings between 9:45 and 11am in the two weeks leading up to the show you want to see – I like trying to find tickets at 10 and 10:30am, which is when they release previously held back tickets. I have snagged great tickets this way for everything from Coldplay to Pearl Jam.

Strategy 2: Scour seatgeek.com or TicketNetwork.com in the ten days leading up to the show of your choice up until 72 hours before. Both sites scour different reseller ticket sources and allow you to search by price, which eases the search process. Ignore tickets that are out of your price range and don’t let high prices scare you – in some cases brokers price tickets higher as a defensive strategy against arbitrage. If you don’t see a price you like, wait. Pointers: I like SeatGeeks the best at this point becuiase

Strategy 3: On the day of the concert with no tickets in hand, go the the venue 2 or 3 hours before showtime and stroll the tailgates looking for extras. This is probably best done by an extrovert, but the idea is you surf the barbecue and beer parties making friends and asking if anyone has an extra ticket. Scalpers utilize the strategy all the time and they usually try to buy tickets for below face value. Most people are very happy to sell tickets for the price they paid, less fees.

If you follow through on each one of these strategies I can almost assure you will find a pair of tickets at or near face value. Now, if you need evidence to support the suggestion that prices will be favorable in the few days leading up to the concert, see Resale Prices: What Goes Up…