I have actually purchased my first ticket throught the Beta site. Yes, it's slow, it has bugs, but I received my confirmation and receipt via e-mail almost instantly after completing the purchase. The real pain was having to re-enter ALL your profile info.

Steve100, read above, SemiElite's post about the Beta Site. You cannot get in unless you are on the Beta test list. So, publishing a URL is of no value to people not on the list.