Usually, baseball season sneaks up on me. I'm caught up in college basketball and the NBA and all of a sudden I missed my chance to get Nationals opening day tickets. Last year was no different. I wasn't paying attention, I never hit "purchase" when I brought up tickets online, and before I knew it the game was "sold out". (Sold out for me means that there were no tickets available for $25 or under)
One of the reasons people picked up tickets is because there was an assumption that the president Barrack Obama would be throwing out the first pitch. I once sold 2 Wizards tickets I had bought $30 for the pair for something like $80 each the last time Obama came to a DC sporting event. Prez = profit. This time I feared that my attempt to get secondary market tickets for a decent price would be destroyed.
Then some interesting things happened. The rumor that the president would be throwing out the first pitch was crushed and the weather forecast started to show a dreary day. Ticket prices on StubHub began to plummet. I watched day by day as they got cheaper and cheaper, never pulling the trigger. The night before the game the tickets were only $4 each...my roommate and I decided to hold out longer.
On the morning of opening day our hold out brought forth financial rewards. Tickets had hit 75 cents. Not only did we buy tickets for ourselves, but we bought a few more. At 75 cents, why not. We used the other tickets to get to the stadium early, go inside, pick up some free hats before they ran out, then left to go to the bar. When we got back to the stadium for the game, we had 2 fresh tickets to use to get in.
While this is not the best story about getting a low priced ticket in DC (see this story about paying 30 cents for Wizards tickets) It was opening day for a Major League team and I paid 75 cents. I will always be proud of this day.
I just spent $25 for opening day tickets for 2012...Stupid? We will find out...
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