Originally Posted by
blueDC
I think I may have gone about this backwards -- I have flight tickets (upgraded, yay!) and a hotel in Beijing during the Olympics, but no event tickets
If anyone has any ideas about how I can get tickets to Olympic events during the first 4 days of the Olympics -- especially the Opening Ceremony -- without getting raped too badly (twice the face value is OK, I guess), I would be more than grateful if you shared your ideas. Thanks a million!
All I can give you is my experience which, unfortunately, is largely from the pre-internet (or at least pre-modern internet) days.
The tried and true technique was show up at the venue and deal with the scalpers. Often, the prices would be reasonable -- especially for "normal" (not top shelf) events. Sometimes you would pay less than face value. This technique would generally not work for very popular events.
You could also sometimes buy "last minute" tickets from official sources. Not sure that would work in Beijing.
Finally, the best technique was to get a tip that an Olympic team had tickets they were selling. In Atlanta, for example, I happened to be at the hotel where the Russian weightlifting team was staying, and they kept us well supplied with face-value tickets. BTW, I think a lot of the teams would also sell to scalpers, which is how the scalpers got the seats.
Nowadays, thanks to the internet, there seems to be more "perfect information," which can be good AND bad. You're probably less likely to just stumble upon somebody like the Russian weightlifting team, but you're also more likely to get "a tip" that such an organization has tickets for sale. I think watching "insiders" olympic sites (like the gamesbids.com one listed above) may lead us to the necessary ticket sales information. We'll see. My only advice now is not to buy tickets from anyone selling them for more than 100% above face value -- and the only scalpers I've come across so far on the web have truly insane mark-ups.