What's going on here?

[allucaneatbuffett]

After noticing that very good pavillion seats have become available on TM over the last week for the Nissan Show on Saturday, and posting about it, I did a little looking around.

On ebay, there are still quite a few pavillion seats for sale, with hardly any bids. On this site in the ticket exchange, there are a number of pavillion seats available as well. Some pretty good one's, but also alot in the 300 Section.

I can see why maybe people want to sell the 300 section b/c why would anyone want to pay $140 for a ticket in the 300 section that is only within spitting distance of the lawn, which is half the price.

For those of you who have been regulars on this site for years, I ask you, what is going on here? I almost get the feeling that I am going to go to the show Sat and actually notice alot of empty seats!! I don't ever remember that happening. Is it like this ever year where people are unloading tickets in the ticket exchange?

Is Jimmy losing his appeal? Or perhaps is it just the economy and people not wanting to pay those high prices???

I have been going to JB for 15 years. We have tickets in section 201 on Sat night. This may sound dumb but if we are at the show and there are empty seats around us, that may be a bit depressing to see.

So, I ask, what is going on here?

[Skibo]

Its the economy. Tickets are expensive. Everything else is expensive also. The appeal is still there. Budgets are getting squeezed. The tickets are priced right to squeeze out the scalpers. Unfortunately that price also squeezes out the road warriors that traveled to 4-5 shows a year.

[Tiki Bar]

It has become a buyer's market, apparently for an assortment of reasons.

I've been to 3 shows... Alpine and Saturday Chicago looked full, or near full anyway. Thursday Chicago had quite a few noticeable empty seats.

See previous discussion here...

viewtopic.php?t=69305&start=0

[changingchannels]

its the prices and the economy.

[Caribpiret]

the prices, the economy and I think 2 shows all add up..

[jiggs(2)]

and to add to the high ticket prices, and soft demand, holiday weekends are a tough sell...once people miss out on getting tickets they make up their minds that they're going to do other things. I think there will be very few last minute buyers who will come see the show...with school starting for many kids and colleges, Buffett takes a more 'back seat' than it would in say June or July.

Head out to an amusment park (like any 6 flags this weekend), I bet it will be the least crowded you've ever seen. Many people already have taken their trips and blown their vacation money...great concernt seats and empty coasters are benefits of people staying home and cooking out with friends....

Heck I have 2 lawn seats for Monday's show that I was going to use, but I have to fly out of BWI monday night instead of tuesday...had them on ebay and couldn't get a bid, posted them here for $60...if you've read this far into this post, I'll give them to you just for the asking...they'll come in an email, just send me a PM and I'll give them to ya...pass the good karma on to someone else

[beachy]

I think the ticket prices are way high and sites like stubhub allow people to wait until the last minute to get the lowest price.

I was unable to sell my tickets to the 8/30 show and ended up donating them to The Thank You Foundation. They were thrilled to get the tix and will grab some veterans from Walter Reed Hospital and take them to the show. I feel good about it and will get a small tax deduction.

[z-man]

for years, tickets have been priced too low to meet the demand.
ticket prices have been raised pretty near to the price equilibrium point

[FunkHouse9]

He's playing two shows here which he hasn't done in years. I used to go to multiple shows when I could afford it, but now I can't. So, considering the economy and the ticket prices, I presume many locals may have gone to both shows back in the day but now don't.

The shows are over Labor Day weekend when many people go out of town. So, perhaps many locals who had to decide between a family vacation and a Buffett show for financial and scheduling reasons chose the vacation. Many people may have traveled around to multiple shows in the past may not be coming because of the cost of tickets, gas and everything else.

I have mixed feelings about the number of scalpers taking a bath on these tickets on eBay. On one hand, I'm glad because maybe next year fewer people will buy with the intent of scalping, so it may be slightly easier to get tickets on the on-sale date. (However, I agree with SurfPirate's philosophy that we do it to ourselves, not the scalpers). On the other hand, I now wish I had not bought lawn tickets back in March. There have been so many opportunities to get great seats at face price and average seats or lawn at below face, that I wish I had waited till now to get in on the clearance sale.

[spartan1979]

It's just getting to be too expensive. We see Jimmy just about every year. Last year, for our family of four, it was around $520. It's a lot to see some one I've seen 15 times before.

We weren't going to go this year, but then Jimmy announced a tour stop in here is St. Louis and I figured I couldn't miss him in my hometown. Then I got online and by 10:01 the best tickets available were in the last rows on the far right. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $500+ for lousy seats.

We did end up going by getting tickets through the local Parrot Head Club. But my boys couldn't go since they weren't members.

[allucaneatbuffett]

Yeah, I guess it has alot to do with Money. The more I take a look, for this show, the more it is obvious that people just simply don't want to go Labor Day night, when they have to get up and go to work Tuesday after a long weekend. you just can't party like you want to, nor do you want to get home after Midnight. We all know that Nissan Pavillion traffic.....

Like I said, I am no longer going to camp out for Buffett. Been doing it for over 10 years every year. It is fun b/c it is the same people every year who camp out with me for tickets. But based on what I am seeing now, I could have slept in and waited til now to get tickets, and gotten alot better seats!! unreal.

Who knows how much longer he will go any way.

All that said, I CAN'T WAIT FOR SATURDAY!!!!

[surfpirate]

Yeah, I guess it has alot to do with Money. The more I take a look, for this show, the more it is obvious that people just simply don't want to go Labor Day night, when they have to get up and go to work Tuesday after a long weekend. you just can't party like you want to, nor do you want to get home after Midnight. We all know that Nissan Pavillion traffic.....

Like I said, I am no longer going to camp out for Buffett. Been doing it for over 10 years every year. It is fun b/c it is the same people every year who camp out with me for tickets. But based on what I am seeing now, I could have slept in and waited til now to get tickets, and gotten alot better seats!! unreal.

Who knows how much longer he will go any way.

All that said, I CAN'T WAIT FOR SATURDAY!!!!

The past 10-15 years I always camp out for tix. Like you said, same group of people every year. Maybe we are in the same group .... where have you been camping out for tix? how long overnight? I'm usually camping out about 24-30 hours to be #1 in line.

But .... my rule ..... if I am not #1 in line (maybe #2) I won't camp out. I'm only camping out to get GREAT seats (front row or 2nd row orchestra). I've always been able to get GOOD seats easy enough, and this year you could still pull up orchestra tix this week even.

I've been to 75+ shows over 30 years and have been spoiled by front row tix several times ...... I'll still camp out for my shot at those. But if I can't be #1 in line ... forget it. Good tickets are too easy to get. I've never been "shut out" for tix.

[surfpirate]

The following ad just appeared in the Ticket Exchange forum for the 9/1 Labor Day show (a first time poster):

Got lucky when TicketMaster released more seats... 4 seats available in Section 303, Row G, seats in the low 20's (tix are at home).

Price of $156 is what I paid TM for them rounded to the nearest dollar, and at this time am not willing to take a loss. Please don't ask.

These are real, regular cardboard tickets, so I can't e-mail them.

No personal checks; cash, or might be able to arrange PayPal? Will discuss how to do the exchange over e-mail, but likely will need to be at the concert on Labor Day.

First come, first served - but will prefer disposing of all four at once.

Now why on earth would some think they "got lucky" and buy 4 tickets they can't use to resell for the same price they paid?
Another example of foolish speculative purchases. The YEAR OF STILL HERE is becoming THE YEAR THE BOTTOM FELL OUT OF THE MARKET.

[RinglingRingling]

He's playing two shows here which he hasn't done in years. I used to go to multiple shows when I could afford it, but now I can't. So, considering the economy and the ticket prices, I presume many locals may have gone to both shows back in the day but now don't.

The shows are over Labor Day weekend when many people go out of town. So, perhaps many locals who had to decide between a family vacation and a Buffett show for financial and scheduling reasons chose the vacation. Many people may have traveled around to multiple shows in the past may not be coming because of the cost of tickets, gas and everything else.

I have mixed feelings about the number of scalpers taking a bath on these tickets on eBay. On one hand, I'm glad because maybe next year fewer people will buy with the intent of scalping, so it may be slightly easier to get tickets on the on-sale date. (However, I agree with SurfPirate's philosophy that we do it to ourselves, not the scalpers). On the other hand, I now wish I had not bought lawn tickets back in March. There have been so many opportunities to get great seats at face price and average seats or lawn at below face, that I wish I had waited till now to get in on the clearance sale.

I have been to 4 shows this year, and honestly only had tickets in hand more than 3 days prior to the show once. HOU, I picked mine up about 20 minutes after I got the rental car. DFW was Will-Call because I bought it on Friday and flew out Sat. morning for the show that night. RDU the ticket was delivered the day of the show just as I was getting ready to head out for the venue.

It has gotten to the point where I do not even bother to worry about the frenzy that is sell-day. Duma$$ TicketBa$tard puts 4 venues on sale the same day, for the same artist and screws the fan (think ORD/MKE/IND/CVG situation) who might want to go to two shows. I don't have the stress, and I have gotten to see the shows I wanted to see. Until that fails, I gotta say things work better waiting the initial rush.

[BigR-KyParrothead]

I could have slept in and waited til now to get tickets, and gotten alot better seats!! unreal.

i will never get up early for tix again. i bought great indy tix online just a few days before the show, lots of alpine available this year, bought great st. louis tix in the lot and saw lots of cincy available


i will wait for tickmaster drops or get them in the lots from now on

[Gypsy In The Palace]

The following ad just appeared in the Ticket Exchange forum for the 9/1 Labor Day show (a first time poster):

Got lucky when TicketMaster released more seats... 4 seats available in Section 303, Row G, seats in the low 20's (tix are at home).

Price of $156 is what I paid TM for them rounded to the nearest dollar, and at this time am not willing to take a loss. Please don't ask.

These are real, regular cardboard tickets, so I can't e-mail them.

No personal checks; cash, or might be able to arrange PayPal? Will discuss how to do the exchange over e-mail, but likely will need to be at the concert on Labor Day.

First come, first served - but will prefer disposing of all four at once.

Now why on earth would some think they "got lucky" and buy 4 tickets they can't use to resell for the same price they paid?
Another example of foolish speculative purchases. The YEAR OF STILL HERE is becoming THE YEAR THE BOTTOM FELL OUT OF THE MARKET.

Obviously, I don't know. But, my guess is that the poster got these Section 303 tickets the day of the onsale. Then, TM released some good seats. He bought the good seats when they were released and now wants to sell the Sec 303 seats that he got at the onsale date.

Just a guess.

[surfpirate]

The following ad just appeared in the Ticket Exchange forum for the 9/1 Labor Day show (a first time poster):

Got lucky when TicketMaster released more seats... 4 seats available in Section 303, Row G, seats in the low 20's (tix are at home).

Price of $156 is what I paid TM for them rounded to the nearest dollar, and at this time am not willing to take a loss. Please don't ask.

These are real, regular cardboard tickets, so I can't e-mail them.

No personal checks; cash, or might be able to arrange PayPal? Will discuss how to do the exchange over e-mail, but likely will need to be at the concert on Labor Day.

First come, first served - but will prefer disposing of all four at once.

Now why on earth would some think they "got lucky" and buy 4 tickets they can't use to resell for the same price they paid?
Another example of foolish speculative purchases. The YEAR OF STILL HERE is becoming THE YEAR THE BOTTOM FELL OUT OF THE MARKET.

Obviously, I don't know. But, my guess is that the poster got these Section 303 tickets the day of the onsale. Then, TM released some good seats. He bought the good seats when they were released and now wants to sell the Sec 303 seats that he got at the onsale date.

Just a guess.

ahhhhhh .... now that makes sense - yep. That situation I can understand

[Finnsaremorefun]

Don't worry about the empty seats, they will be full. If you look at the sites the day of a sporting event there's about 2,000 if not more listed on broker sites. Brokers will do anything to get them off there hands and sell dirt cheap at the last minute if they must. Also, remember the tickets on stubhub and many of those sites come directly from concert goers who already have there tickets, but list there's at a ridiculously high price to see if any idiot will bite -- in that case, they don't mind not attending the event. If there are no bites, go check those seats, those ticket holders are sitting in them.

Have no fear! The atmosphere will still be here!