Looking for cheap Taylor Swift concert tickets? Here's where to look.
The fine art of finding affordable tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour takes persistence, collaboration and a good deal of luck.
There's a large element of chance to scoring reasonably priced tickets to the sold-out tour. A few fans have reported being able to buy tickets at face value simply because they were at the right place at the right time. In other words, they happened to be scanning Ticketmaster's site when the events and ticketing platform dropped a new batch of Swift tickets, with no advance notice.
That's where Twitter can come in handy — but first, it can be fruitful to start on TikTok, where fans are sharing tips and pointing others toward the right Twitter accounts to follow.
$49 tickets
TikTok user Jamie, who posts as @meandkarmavibelikethat, has recorded a handful of videos that outline steps fans can take to secure Eras Tour tickets well below the eye-watering prices resellers are asking for.
"This is how I got my tickets for $49. They were like really bad and behind the stage but they were amazing because they were $49," she said.
She urged fans looking for face-value seats to follow Twitter account @erastourticks, which sends outs alerts whenever Ticketmaster drops a fresh batch of tickets. The accountholder, based in Canada, advertises "real-time notifications for the eras tour ticket drops."
As for when tickets become available, there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason, though it seems they generally pop up close to the performance date.
"This usually happens a day before a concert, potentially the week of a concert, but almost always, the day before the concert and the day of the concert, leading all the way up to while the concert is happening," she added. "So follow this account, turn your Twitter notifications on and you will get notified whenever Ticketmaster drops tickets."
Ticketmaster did not immediately reply to a question about when new tickets to Swift's shows become available for purchase.
Another TikTok user, @christiancubacub, is "always going live on TikTok and refreshing Ticketmaster to see if any drops happen," according to Jamie. "So I highly recommend following him too and like if you're looking and it's a day before your concert or the day of your concert I would see if he's live and watch his live and you'll know exactly when to go to Ticketmaster."
Followers of the account still then have to visit Ticketmaster's site and join a queue of other hopeful concert attendees.
Reasonable resale prices
Other social media users scout out tickets from resellers that haven't been marked up for a ridiculous profit. Because of Swift's popularity and the scarcity of tickets, some resellers who have snagged tickets are reselling them for tens of thousands of dollars.
Twitter account @ErasTourResell posts tickets that are being resold for close to their retail price. It's slim pickings, though.
"There are so many of us fighting for every single ticket drop and they usually only post like one one ticket or two tickets and it is a madhouse trying to get picked by the seller to get one of these. But it's worth a short," Jamie, the TikToker, said.
Beware of scams
The rush for seats also means scammers are duping consumers into paying for phony tickets. One consumer said a Twitter user advertised tickets for sale and requested $800 through mobile payment apps. The victim sent the money, but never received the concert tickets.
Other scammers are hacking into Facebook users' accounts to impersonate them and dupe their close contacts into transferring them money for tickets that don't exist.
Consumer watchdog groups urge consumers not to buy concert tickets through online marketplaces like Facebook, Instagram and Craigslist, where scammers may lurk.