Do Concert Tickets Get Cheaper At The Last Minute?
When I was looking for tickets to an upcoming concert I wanted to go to, I couldn’t help but cringe at the price. Wondering if they get cheaper at the last minute, I did some research to find out.
Do concert tickets get cheaper at the last minute? While it’s possible to get cheaper concert tickets if you wait until the last minute, you’re taking a huge risk that you may not be able to get the tickets at all.
Often times, the hardest part of going to see your favorite band is actually scoring the tickets. Do you buy them right away? Do you buy them from the venue? Do you purchase them through a discount ticket site? How much are you willing to pay for good seats?
The list of questions goes on and on and on. The most important thing to do before buying tickets to any concert is to answer all of these questions before you’re actually at the point of buying the tickets. That way, you’re prepared to make snap decisions on ticket opportunities that can come and go in a matter of seconds.
Do Concert Tickets Get Cheaper At The Last Minute
If you’re wondering whether you should wait until the last minute to get your concert tickets at the last minute, you’re not alone. It’s sort of a risk reward type situation, and a bit of a loaded question.
If you are able to find concert tickets at the last minute, they will definitely be cheaper than if you had purchased them immediately when they went on sale.
The problem with that is that this only applies if you are actually able to find the tickets. There are a few reasons that concert tickets get cheaper the longer you wait to get them.
Reasons concert tickets get cheaper over time:
- The venue has too many open seats to fill
- People with tickets can no longer attend the concert
Concert venues are similar to airlines in the fact that if they still have empty seats just days before the concert, they will drop their prices significantly just to fill the empty seats and make some sort of profit.
However, if we’re being realistic, this is only going to happen if you’re going to see a band or artist that no one has ever really heard of.
Big name headliners are going to sell out almost immediately, no matter how large the venue. So unless you’re seeing some obscure, undiscovered talent, this isn’t something that you should count on happening.
The number one reason people are able to get dirt cheap tickets at the very last minute is because the person or people who originally purchased the tickets can no longer attend the concert. This could be because of an emergency, a scheduling conflict, or they just don’t want to go any more.
But they don’t want to take a total loss on the tickets and they know they can’t sell them at full price, so they’ll sell them to you at a steep discount just to get rid of them. This is your best case scenario when waiting until the last minute to buy concert tickets.
How to Find Deals On Concert Tickets
The best way to find deals on concert tickets is to regularly check ticket sales sites and social media forums. Ticket sales sites often offer great discount categories, and social media forums are where you go to find people trying to dump their tickets.
How to Find Deals On Concert Tickets:
- Check online ticket sales sites
- Join groups on social media
- Join a street team
Online ticket sales sites like TicketMaster sometimes offer great deals like 2 for 1 tickets, special offers for groups of 4 and over, and other deals that will save you a ton of money.
The problem with this is that the deals change on a weekly basis, so if you don’t find a deal that works for you before the concert date, you’re out of luck. This also isn’t an available option if the concert is already sold out.
There are groups on social media forums like Facebook for people buying and selling concert tickets. This is where you go at the very last minute to get your concert tickets. People will post the number of tickets that they have and how much they want for them.
Just be on high alert and watch those feeds because you HAVE to be the first person that contacts them. You could try to haggle the price down, but they’ll likely just go to the next person who’s willing to pay full price. You’re actually better off offering them something like $10 more than what they’re asking.
You’re basically guaranteed to get the tickets and you still got them for way cheaper than you would have from the venue.
A street team is a group of people that advertise a specific concert over social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, snapchat, and instagram. Being a member of a street team and promoting the concert can not only get you cheap tickets, it can often get you FREE tickets.
This isn’t something you wait until the last minute to do though. You want to jump on this opportunity as soon as you can. Just search the website of the band that you are trying to see, and check out whether or not they have street teams available that you can join.
And the cool part about this is that not only are you saving big on the tickets, you often get a chance to earn exclusive extras like front-row seats and VIP passes.
The Best Sites For Buying Cheap Concert Tickets
There are a lot of sites out there for buying “discounted” concert tickets. But a lot of these sites charge a fee that makes the final amount that you’re paying more than an original ticket would have cost.
The best sites for buying cheap concert tickets don’t add on additional fees right before you make the purchase. These are the best sites to score cheap concert tickets.
Best sites for buying cheap concert tickets:
- Stubhub Concert Tickets
- Ticketmaster Concert Tickets
- Coast to Coast Tickets
- Seat Geek
- Ticket Liquidator
- Razorgator
- Ticket City Concert Tickets
- Tickets Now Concert Tickets
- Go Tickets
Stubhub concert tickets allows users to buy and sell concert tickets. The perk of this one is that there aren’t any shipping fees, but their service fees are much higher than the average.
Ticketmaster offers some really great deals like 2 for 1 tickets, $40 and below tickets, special deals for large groups, and more. There are a couple of problems with depending on this though.
The deals are subject to change on a weekly basis, and you don’t know what the future deals will be. So a deal that fits your needs may very well never come up before the date of the concert.
There’s also the fact that the deals are often for a specific concert: you can’t just apply the deal to the concert of your choice. The concerts that have cheap tickets available definitely aren’t going to be your big name headliners.
Ticketmaster does have fairly low fees though, and you have up to 3 days to return your tickets. And in the event that you can’t attend the concert, you can transfer the tickets to your friends (or strangers you pretend are your friends.)
The lowest service fees offered by any of these sites come from Coast to Coast tickets. Their total fees amount to 18 percent of the total purchase amount.
They also offer ticket insurance. There are a couple of downsides to Coast to Coast tickets though. Their customer service ratings aren’t fantastic, and once you purchase the ticket, you are no longer able to resell it.
SeatGeek is a good place to find cheap tickets. Their shipping fee isn’t any more than its competitors, and its service fee is average as well.
You’ll have to do some digging with this one to find the best seats: it won’t automatically find the best available option for you. You also can’t resell your tickets with this one, but they have great customer service.
Ticket Liquidator has exceptional service features, but this is the first on our list where the ordering process becomes difficult.
The customer service is fantastic, but it charges one of the highest average service fees, sitting at 25% of the purchase amount.The shipping cost is average and they offer ticket insurance, but you are not allowed to return your tickets.
Razorgator has the potential for really low prices and they have great customer service. Their service fee is only 20%, which is on the lower end, and their shipping cost is slightly below the average. Another perk is that they do allow you to resell your ticket, they just charge you 15% for it.
Ticket City Concert Tickets is another great place to find deals on tickets, but their service fee is one of the highest at 25% of your total purchase.
They’re shipping cost is about average and their customer service is a 10 out of 10. This is another one though where you don’t have the option to resell your tickets.
Tickets Now Concert tickets is very similar to Ticket City Concert Tickets in the sense that they have great customer service and a thoroughly average shipping cost, but this one is better than Ticket City Concert Tickets because their service fee sits at only 20% of your total purchase.
You also have the ability to resell your tickets with this site for a 15% fee of whatever your total purchase price was. Their service features are also outstanding.
Go Tickets is probably the last place on this list that I would look for tickets. Just like all the others, it is possible to find good deals on tickets. However, there are a lot of downsides to using this site.
It has the lowest overall ratings of all of the other sites, It has the worst service features, horrible ordering service, and virtually no security features. Their customer service is poor and their service fee isn’t the highest out there, but is still pretty high at 23% of your total purchase amount.
And in addition to all of that, you don’t have the option to resell your tickets. It is possible to get cheap tickets here and this isn’t meant to discourage you from using this site. Just be aware of what you’re getting yourself into and I highly encourage you to try the other listed sites first.
In conclusion, concert tickets do not always get cheaper if you wait until the last minute. The possibility that they will get cheaper does exist, but that possibility comes with the risk that you end up paying more for a ticket on a site with a very high service fee, or you don’t get the tickets at all.
