Monster deals in music

Nas

$9.75 No, that’s not the cost of a ticket, but additional charges tacked on by Ticketmaster when we bought passes to this month’s Sneaker Pimps show featuring Nas and EPMD at Roseland Ballroom performance: A $6.65 convenience charge and a $3.10 processing charge added up to almost 40 percent of the total cost. When asked for comment, a Ticketmaster spokesperson refused to go on record, but the gist was: We have costs, some of that cash goes to the bands and, also, imagine a world where we didn’t exist. Nice. Yet we do have some praise for the behemoth. Its auction function—different from a StubHub-style auction, because it’s an original sale—allows you to suss out the market value of a ticket, so you can study up before making a purchase. Ticketmaster gets an allocation of auction tix from the act, fans determine what the selling price should be, and the winning bid becomes the face value. So when a ticket sells, you could say it’s reaching its true market value. Just be careful about actually bidding—if you win, there’s a processing fee, often 10 percent of each sale.

Share your secrets! We've told you everything we know about getting great deals on music tickets, but we know you have your own schemes. Leave your own tips in the Comments box below.