vanhalen26

There’s a fire sale right now on tickets, below preseason pricing.

I priced my tickets for the Texans at the very bottom early this past week and they sold pretty quick. I’m way better off that way versus what ticket prices have dropped to since in just a few days. And on Monday I’m going to do the same with my Miami game after we crush Washington. There’s no way Canadians are coming to the Miami game in meaningful numbers even if the border gets opened on the 21st by Biden, still too many other barriers, so I’m better off selling early. This sucks. I just want to come to the games already.

Good article. Sums up well how I feel stuck in Canada as well. As a result I’ve had to resell my tickets to. The price has fallen dramatically. Buffalo is a small city for such a big stadium, so take out 15-25% of your season seat holders and the 30% (give or take) of locals who can’t attend due to vaccine status, and of course the prices are going to drop a ton. It’ll probably be close to full game day, your better off selling a $50 ticket for $25 vs zero and there’s enough demand, but the value of the seats are plummeting. Also, 16 to 34 year olds are only 60% vaccinated and I’ll bet they represent a disproportionate number of the fans in the stands, especially for the colder later season games. It’s pretty predictable that prices will remain soft for the balance of the year. They’ll go up a little if the border opens but not too much. As a Canadian it’s highly likely I’ll need a covid test to cross, and that’s $200 here. I bring my wife or kid and it’s $400. I won’t come to many games at that price. Over and above that, only some of the vaccines we used in Canada are recognized as valid vaccines in the US. As a result, even if the border opens many of us won’t be able to attend. Based on the way the vaccines were rolled out, it will probably impact fans between 40 and 60 years old the most. That’s gotta be the sweet spot age for season seat holders who don’t mind traveling for games. I’m dying to go and continue to manage my schedule and tickets on the hope of being able to attend but I’m not optimistic. I’ll break even on my seats or even end up a little in the black, but I’d much rather be in my seats behind the bills bench on the 43 yard line 16 rows up from the team sipping a beer and cheering my ass off. Instead, one of my seat partners is coming by and we’ll be watching the game again from my Toronto home and enjoying it, but also feeling that sense of loss from not being there.

Most pro sports in Ontario are moving to vaccinated or negative test required later this month for both fans and staff. Much more mass acceptance of the concept in Canada, whether that’s right or wrong I’m not going to debate, but that’s my experience with all this.

The border is closed if driving over, but open if you fly. That makes sense, right? Anyways, I found I could fly to NYC and back home for $200 if I go on a low demand day and off times. Figure I may just fly in and out and get my shot. I’ll also need to take a $200 covid test to travel, and might need to take one to return. It’s a mess. The land travel closure continues to be extended by Biden by another month on or about the 21st of each month, so I’m hoping he finally opens it this month. Apparently the concern is that opening Canada and Mexico must be done together, but Mexico still has concerning covid issues (and Canada is better off than the US at this point), so Canada is being held back due to Mexico. Meanwhile Canada opened its borders to US travelers a month or two back, and to global travelers one month after we opened to US visitors.

I wonder what I can do coming from Canada, provided the border even opens. We don’t have vaccine cards or digital passports to show. We have a rather non descript receipt that looks like it came out of a Walmart checkout. Over and above that, the CDC does not yet recognize AstraZeneca which many of us in our 40s and 50s were given. Over and above that, most of us who were given AstraZeneca as a first dose were given Pfizer or Moderna as a second dose, and the CDC does not recognize mixed vaccines as being legitimate (although some studies suggest it’s more effective than two of the same type). Our brilliant Canadian government said the best vaccine is the one that’s available and didn’t consider the travel implications if it doled out a mixed dosing regimen. I got AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer. I may need to fly into any random US state just to get a second Pfizer dose or maybe a single J&J if still offered (just to keep things simple), so I can visit the US when the borders open and also attend Bills games. It’s a gong show.

I get nervous about buyer fraud with PayPal, they can claim tickets not received and from what I read - and despite evidence of seat transfers PayPal sometimes sides with the buyer. I usually only sell to people with an online track record (buying history, long time active forum member, corporate email address, etc) - something that’s traceable for legitimacy. Otherwise I just go with StubHub or ticketexchange and absorb the fees. I’m from Canada and also have amazing seats I have to sell for the home opener. They are behind the Bills bench in section 133, row 16 and it’s a set of 3. I also have a pair in 336 row 31 but might hold onto them a little longer in case the border situation changes and I can attend. Here’s the view from my 3 seats in 133 row 16 for sale. I’d just sell for whatever the current market price is but not add on any of the StubHub or Ticketmaster fees, provided there is a a buyer I’m comfortable with. Otherwise, I’ll just use StubHub or Ticketmaster. if you might be interested shoot me a message.

We seem to get screwed on almost anything digital in Canada on pricing but here’s one where we do well. We get it on a sports service like Netflix called DAZN. I think it’s around $20 a month, and first month is free. I did 4 months last year, cuz all the playoffs are on tv anyways - so with the free month is around $60 Canadian which is about $5 US with our lousy currency! Or maybe $45-$50.

I guess I’m just old. When I was 20 I would think the jokes were funny, now with two teen daughters I just shake my head and think ‘idiots’.

If that’s about the ‘deal’ I could have checked out on the presales, it was actually the Ticketmaster site. They must have made a mistake with the pricing, but I didn’t want to test out in case it corrected during the card processing. It was a surprise.

I think they made some mistakes, I saw some prime lower level sideline seats for $99 each for Washington, NE and a third game for a little bit last night with the schedule release. I had a 5th row pair in my basket at midfield for Washington but didn’t click through as I didn’t want to deal with it if there was an error that got corrected as my card was charged.

I’m in Canada so I hope I can go, but it’s going to be so emotional to be in a full stadium for the bills. Money well spent.

There were some pricing errors on Ticketmaster - for NE and Washington field level sideline seats were $99 each, even mid field. I had a pair for Washington in my basket but didn’t click through when I saw the error as I didn’t want to have to deal with it if they corrected the error later. I wasn’t planning to buy anyways, just comparing the game by game prices to my total cost for seasons.

Will do, I’m certainly not selling now. I’d give my left *** to be at the game. Hoping that it all gets worked out by late August. Steelers are my wife’s fav team (but I married her anyways), so we’ve been to a few games there as well. Seats rock, between the 40/45, row 15 or 16 I think, and home side. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t sorted out by late season, I’m leery about the earlier games unfortunately. I was going to run the Boston marathon in October but didn’t even apply as I assume there could still be border issues at that time to.

I may end up with 3 great seats for sale. I have season seats, but I’m in Canada and no sign yet that the border will be open. And even if they open it, not sure how to prove we’ve been vaccinated, and no idea if we’ll even have our second shots by week 1. This sucks. Also don’t know if a 14 day quarantine will still be required for crossing the border. I think I need to move to buffalo for the season!