Welcome to the Jungle Of Concert Tickets, Scalpers and Drip Pricing

Concert tickets notoriously sell out in a matter of minutes in Taiwan (most recently Ed Sheeran and Celine Dion  case in point.)

When I found out from FB that my kid's favorite band is touring Asia and coming to Taipei, she and I began the research on how to guarantee a ticket. Personally, if it were me I wouldn't go and spend the money (she thinks I am so lame). Guns and Roses have a few good songs, I watched them back in the day on MTV, but other than that I'd much prefer to see something more mellow. However my kid religiously knows every song on every GnR album, so them coming to Taiwan on their," Not In This Lifetime" tour is a BIG deal for her, and her first REAL concert to boot.

Unfortunately, the experience of buying tickets was anything but Rock nRoll. Tickets went on sale first for GnR official fan members and then Taiwan Citibank cardholders days before being available to the general public. By all sources, tickets were sold out, but it was unclear if it was the pre-sale tickets or ALL the tickets. I knew the venue was a huge baseball stadium, so probably not sold out, yet I couldn't take any chances.

We signed up for the Live Nation membership (free) that had tickets a day before they went public, but unfortunately that was after the Citibank presale and "Sold Out" alerts circulating social media. I had friends who signed up for a Citibank card, just for this show, only to find out tickets were "sold out".

My kid's two classmates (the Taiwanese version of kid Axl and Izzy) were crushed. One curled up in a fetal position under the table in science class, the other I caught standing in the middle of his yard staring off into space, while I passed him on my commute home. Fortunately, one of their older sisters used her Live Nation code to buy them the cheapest (800NT) nosebleed seats. I gave my Live Nation code to a friend who bought awesome seats. I should of waited, but it was my first time, living 10 years in Taiwan, that I ever bought tickets to a rock concert before. (Belle and Sebastian came days before my 40th birthday but I had already bought plane tickets to Borneo.)

I bit the bullet and paid blood money to a scalping company, notorious for drip pricing (you don't see all the fees until the end.)  Basically, I paid double than my tickets are worth. I could have gotten much better seats had I waited for the Live Nation sale date. So my kid looks at me with stars in her eyes (well she did) and eventually she contributed 4000 NT -all that she had- of her saved allowance money. "It was worth it," she claims.

 It's still a gamble that the tickets will even arrive (supposedly a week before the November show), so fingers crossed I get to take her to see her first show, of her most favorite band. While we are on the subject please let the FooFighters be the opening band (which is her and her friends'next favorite band.)