Single game tix for Round 2 on sale Saturday May 2

[Porous Five Hole]

I’ve been watching ticket prices for every game at Key Bank very closely. My two data pieces I focus on is lower bowl between the blue lines (premium) and get-in price. I only use Ticketmonster for comparisons. 
 

The cheapest premium ticket is $503 ($438 ticket plus $65 fee).  This is as low as I’ve seen it for any playoff game. BTW, box office price on Saturday for the same seat was $620. And scooped up quickly. Those folks are wishing they waited lol 
 

The cheapest get-in ticket right now is $296.  Among the cheapest I’ve seen.  

It certainly appears that season ticket holders are taking their season ticket discount…and putting their seats on the market & at current market price. I’m not shaming them for making some money.
 

Just an observation that  prices are down right now. Sooo if you’re on the fence about going tomorrow, I would do it now. 

[Derrico]

Ya prices for tomorrows game seem much cheaper than what I heard others say they paid directly from the team. 

Seems to be a little more demand right now for game 2.  I’m sure it being a Friday night has an impact vs a mid week game. 

I’ve changed my mind and leaving tonight for Game 1.  Can’t wait!  Go Sabres!!

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Derrico said:

Ya prices for tomorrows game seem much cheaper than what I heard others say they paid directly from the team. 

Seems to be a little more demand right now for game 2.  I’m sure it being a Friday night has an impact vs a mid week game. 

I’ve changed my mind and leaving tonight for Game 1.  Can’t wait!  Go Sabres!!

Makes more sense that Friday will have more Habs fans at it than tomorrow's game will have.  People only have to take a 1/2 day off at work rather than at minimum 2 half days and likely 2 full days.

Would be surprised if either game has less than 1k Habs fans or more than 4k.  Purely guessing, expect about 1,500 tomorrow and 2,500-3k on Friday.

But in any case, it's not like there's going to be half a building wearing blue, white, and red.

Could see a game 7 having the most Habs fans at it.  If buying from the Ticketmaster site they'd get their money back if the game doesn't get played, so it's fairly low risk and IF that game gets played it'll be for all the marbles.  So, between buying when tix went on sale (speculatively hoping their team was in it, realizing that even if they aren't, if the game gets played they should be able to resell the tix for at minimum close to what they'd paid) and buying on the resale market could see them ending up anywhere from 3k-6k strong.

[Derrico]

Agreed.  NFW am I selling game 7 tix to those chumps.  Go Sabres!!

[tom webster]

34 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Makes more sense that Friday will have more Habs fans at it than tomorrow's game will have.  People only have to take a 1/2 day off at work rather than at minimum 2 half days and likely 2 full days.

Would be surprised if either game has less than 1k Habs fans or more than 4k.  Purely guessing, expect about 1,500 tomorrow and 2,500-3k on Friday.

But in any case, it's not like there's going to be half a building wearing blue, white, and red.

Could see a game 7 having the most Habs fans at it.  If buying from the Ticketmaster site they'd get their money back if the game doesn't get played, so it's fairly low risk and IF that game gets played it'll be for all the marbles.  So, between buying when tix went on sale (speculatively hoping their team was in it, realizing that even if they aren't, if the game gets played they should be able to resell the tix for at minimum close to what they'd paid) and buying on the resale market could see them ending up anywhere from 3k-6k strong.

My personal experience;

1) You can make money selling your season tickets but selling tickets bought at box office afterwards won’t bring you serious return

2) As much as my friends are trying to direct sales to Buffalo fans, people are scum. One friend sold two tickets for $1000 less than he was offered because guy gave him sob story. After sale was complete, guy posted tickets at double what my buddy sold them for.

3) I understand why some are selling. I sold my extra tickets for half of box office but was offered double box office by a Canadian’s fan. That’s a lot of money to walk away from for someone that has a younger family and accompanying expenses.

[RangerDave]

I have tickets for game 1, Section 120, Row 16, Seats 25 and 26.  DM me if interested. We paid $460 each.

[PASabreFan]

Help me understand: what right does anyone have to profit even $1?

[Porous Five Hole]

9 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Help me understand: what right does anyone have to profit even $1?

Canada just legislated that. Scalping will be illegal.
It has passed approval but yet to be implemented. 

[RangerDave]

How do they define scalping?  X% above price paid?  Because Ticketmaster takes a bite out of each transaction. 

[tom webster]

31 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Help me understand: what right does anyone have to profit even $1?

Really. You purchase a commodity, you have the right to do with it as you please. Why should sports tickets be any different?

I do find myself interested in your contrarian thought on that.

[Wyldnwoody44]

I remember undercover cops being outside the aud and early days of marine Midland arena, if you were scalping, you got arrested. I "believe" you could charge 10% over face value max, but I could be misremembering. 

Def a good thought experiment with this one. I can hold on to a Lego set for 20 years and charge triple, why is it so different with a ticket. Supply and demand, part of how we built our whole economy. 

 

[Derrico]

35 minutes ago, Porous Five Hole said:

Canada just legislated that. Scalping will be illegal.
It has passed approval but yet to be implemented. 

I know and its incredibly short sighted.  Not as someone looking to sell but someone looking to buy.  

47 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Help me understand: what right does anyone have to profit even $1?

There is no 'right.'  It's supply and demand.  Similar to anything else you buy.

[Taro T]

48 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Help me understand: what right does anyone have to profit even $1?

How far back are you going to go on this?  Do the Pegulas have a right to profit off the Sabres?

They don't own their own selling engine (at least not anymore; back in the day, they'd sell tix at the venue, they no longer do that), does the entity providing that selling engine have a right to profit?

If someone bought a seat but after the fact find out they can't use it; should they be able to get their money back on the ticket if they sell it?  Should they also be allowed to get their costs beyond the cost of the ticket back?  

Someone wants to buy a ticket but couldn't be bothered to or was unable to buy a ticket when the ticket originally went on sale.  Should someone that had purchased the ticket when it went on sale be allowed to charge a reasonable fee for giving the person buying the ticket the convenience of having had extra time to decide to buy the ticket?  There is a value to that, no?

If someone personally finds value in getting tickets for friends at cost but somebody else doesn't value that warm fuzzy feeling as much, should that 2nd person be able to sell the ticket at a price comparable to the value of both utilities especially when there is additional demand for the ticket?

What other commodities should people be required to hold onto forever after they've bought them?

The Sabres are selling 2nd round tickets for slightly more than 1st round tickets were selling in the resale market.  If it was wrong for individuals to sell at above the original price, should the Sabres be allowed to sell the 2nd and subsequent round tickets for more than they'd originally planned to do so?  Is THAT right?  

It stinks that there's a limited number of tickets available; not everybody that wants to be in the building is going to be able to be there.  Does the establishment of the Canalside Viewing Party mitigate in any way that scarity of the experience?

Not really expecting you to answer any of these Q's, but their answers, and the answers to several others, all go into answering your original question.

[LGR4GM]

I think opposing fans around makes things more fun. 15k Sabres fans and 4k Montreal fans sounds like a raucous good time. 

Y'all need to go to more college football games. 

[#freejame]

I bought a friend a pair of tickets in 310 for Fridays game and now he can’t go. If anyone is interested in tickets at cost, let me know. $736 for the pair. 

Edited May 6 by #freejame

[SDS]

28 minutes ago, #freejame said:

I bought a friend a pair of tickets in 310 and now he can’t go. If anyone is interested in tickets at cost, let me know. $736 for the pair. 

For which game

[Porous Five Hole]

Get in price down to $258 for tomorrow. Can sit in the lower bowl, top half, around the blue line for $404. 

[tom webster]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I think opposing fans around makes things more fun. 15k Sabres fans and 4k Montreal fans sounds like a raucous good time. 

Y'all need to go to more college football games. 

I will be fine with this ratio and I agree with the sentiment.

 

Also, it’s the state of sports in general. Teams use technology and social media to build world wide fan bases. That, along with the ease to transfer tickets and a host of other factors have made this a lot more common then as little as ten years ago.

[Derrico]

Incredible how much more the Sabres were charging this round vs secondary market.

[quill]

10 minutes ago, Porous Five Hole said:

Get in price down to $258 for tomorrow. Can sit in the lower bowl, top half, around the blue line for $404. 

That's a good deal considering its the playoffs and we're playing the habs. The way things are going, it won't be long until I won't be able to fill up my truck for that.

[Taro T]

8 minutes ago, Derrico said:

Incredible how much more the Sabres were charging this round vs secondary market.

Pretty sure they saw the prices that were getting paid on the 2ndary market for that 1st round series which was the Sabres 1st foray into the playoffs in 15 years and figured that well if people will pay $200-300 to just get in the building and over $400 maybe even $500-$600 for "good" seats for a 1st round matchup when there are 16 teams still in it that they'll easily pay that again for 2nd round.  And it looks like for the most part they were right.  But that the demand for it wasn't nearly as much as they might've thought which is leaving those who bought seats planning to sell them on the 2ndary market in a bit of a quandry.

Thought about getting some extra seats Saturday morning, but saw prices and wasn't sure I'd be able to turn them over to friends at those prices and didn't want to go scalping.  Everyone has their own way of handling stuff like this and there isn't really a "right" or "wrong" way to it.  And it's slightly frustrating to hear/see people passing moral judgments on it.  And that's individual choice as well.  

[#freejame]

45 minutes ago, SDS said:

For which game

Good catch. Friday, game two. 

[Jorcus]

5 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I remember undercover cops being outside the aud and early days of marine Midland arena, if you were scalping, you got arrested. I "believe" you could charge 10% over face value max, but I could be misremembering. 

Def a good thought experiment with this one. I can hold on to a Lego set for 20 years and charge triple, why is it so different with a ticket. Supply and demand, part of how we built our whole economy. 

 

The 10% mark up was a New York state rule back in the day. I never knew anyone who got busted for it though. 

[PASabreFan]

9 hours ago, tom webster said:

Really. You purchase a commodity, you have the right to do with it as you please. Why should sports tickets be any different?

I do find myself interested in your contrarian thought on that.

Why contrarian? To marginalize my opinion? A lot of fans don't like this practice.

[Punch]

Ticket prices have plummeted. 25-33% below face value in some cases?