Buying Concert Tickets From A Third Party

My daughter had been asking to go for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ Orchestra since last month. The problem was, she wanted to go with her group of about 5 good friends and no one confirmed anything with her till it was too late.

Finally her best friend said she wanted to go, too, and I tried to book the tickets through the Sistic website but the good but reasonable priced tickets were sold out. I didn't want to spent $150 or more on a ticket! I just don’t feel it’s worth it.

And so the hunt began. I searched high and low for these tickets from third party sellers…. Craigslist… Gumtree… You name it and I was there searching.

I know I had promised myself never to buy tickets from a third party after my last stressful encounter with the Justin Bieber tickets…. But I just had to. I had to take the chance and so my daughter wouldn't be disappointed.

But before I go on about the Lord of the Rings tickets, let me explain about the first time I purchased Justin Bieber concert tickets from a third party….

Back in the day, my daughter was crazy over him and she had asked to go but I flat out said NO in the beginning because I hated that little freak. As time went by, I remembered the time I was her age and I wanted so much to go to the NKOTB concert here in Singapore and my parents went all out to get me those concert tickets. We were not well to do but they still managed to find the money to get it for me….and so I started feeling this sense of guilt.

I was thinking….all her friends would go back to school talking about this freak’s concert and she’d feel so left out. And so that was when I decided to bite the bullet and get her tickets. Obviously I needed two tickets as I had to accompany her. I know my husband would probably prefer to poke his eyes and ears with a sharp stick then to sit at JB’s concert….

Got on to Sistic’s website and just as lady luck has never shined on me…tickets were all sold out!! By the way, I didn't tell her I was getting her the tickets or that I had changed my mind.

I got on Craigslist and found a seller who had two tickets that were $250.00 a piece. I reserved the thickets and two days later, this seller dropped by my house and passed me the tickets as I paid him the $500.00!! There was lots of mixed emotions…. I was happy I got the tickets for my daughter, was sad to part with 500 bucks on JB the freak, and worried right after that the tickets could be a fake or a scam…..

I had sleepless nights. Literally for a week or so I was worried about it and had nightmares about going to the concert venue and being turned away because the tickets were a fake!!

So I took it to the nearest Sistic counter at Parkway Parade and asked the lady behind the counter to verify that the ticket was indeed real. She said, as far as she can see, it looks authentic but advised me never to buy from a third party again.

Well I am now not as worried but still am… if that means anything.

I surprised my daughter with the tickets on the day of the concert itself and as we handed our tickets to the ushers, I prayed like hell it was AUTHENTIC!! Yes, we got in….then I continued to drink my beer/wine and prayed no one had the same seat number as us! Ha! Finally, the concert started, the little assh*le was almost an hour late and that meant I had an extra hour of worrying no one else with the same seat numbers showed up. I am surprised I survived that whole ordeal….not even extra white hairs were formed.

Anyway, when I had to purchase these two Lord of the Rings tickets, I was still suspicious. I even wondered why this person had so many tickets on hand? But after a few exchange of text messages, I kind of trusted this person because the key thing was the fact they wanted to meet me an hour before the event at the venue to do the exchange and payment. I mean, if the tickets were fake, they wouldn't date meet us at the venue right? But why would any more buy the tickets at $98 a piece and sell both for only $150? So being the worry wart that I am, I started to worry about them not showing up on the day and that my daughter will be left feeling disappointed.

Nevertheless, this time round, my husband agreed to accompany our daughter and her friend to the venue and to hang around outside and wait for them to get done. I guess he’d still rather do that than be at JB’s concert… ha.

My hubby finally met the third party and paid for the tickets. I was still worried until he text me to tell me that the girls got in to the venue fine. Meaning the tickets were authentic.

Then he snapped a photo of the tickets and sent it to me. I got pissed because the seller had these complimentary tickets and charged me CAT 3 prices for it? WTF?

However, when I then realized we had paid CAT 3 prices and both my daughter and her friend got CAT 1 seatings…I calmed down. Yeh typical KIASU Singaporean but I really do not appreciate being cheated. Who would?

So I don’t know if my heart is strong enough to go through third party seller in the near future but I am glad I met this guy who sold the Lord of the Rings tickets because now I have a trusted source for these sort of stuff.