Scalpers at Heinz Field

What's up fellow Steelers fans! Excited for tonight! I was hoping to hear from some of you with experience purchasing tickets in the scalping area at Heinz Field for Steelers games. Have you had good or bad experiences? Please share! My family is coming from Michigan for the Jets game and we usually buy ahead on Stubhub, but I am thinking we may get a better deal buying from a scalper there. What do you guys think?'

 

ANYTIME you buy from a scalper...you're chancing being ripped off. While there will be a lot of people who have good luck and get tickets reasonable...you are still chancing being screwed and out all of your money. I would personally NEVER take a chance and hope to get good tickets and not ripped off by a scalper...compared to having my tickets already and not have to worry about being screwed.

 

Haha! The responses are funny.

I've never had a problem scalping tickets anywhere for a game.

I've always gotten great prices from the brothers standing at intersection of North Shore and Tony Dorsett hours before kickoff. Even bought a ticket to the NFL Kickoff game against the Titans for like $120 (I think face value was like $80-$90) a few hours prior to the game and the entire country was focused on that game as the team was celebrating it's 6th Super Bowl title.

The scalpers there, I have found, generally go $20-$40 over face value which is generally a heck of a lot better than you'll find on ebay.

 

So, you've had good experiences, not every one does, myself included, and with conterfeit tickets on the rise it's even more of a risk, you might not even get a seat. When was the last time you bought from a scalper? Tony Dorsett days was a loooong time ago, better times then for scalping.[/quote]


I think he's referring to a street intersection on the North Shore near Heinz Field.

 

I had good luck buying an extra ticket for the Rams game a few years ago,(it was the Steelers 1000th game), when a friend unexpectedly came along, and I needed an extra ticket. Paid face value, right before the game, and wasn`t too worried about counterfeits, as I already had a couple legitamite tix I got in the mail from the Steelers, so I could at least verify, that it looked the same.
I had no luck trying to buy from a scalper for The Browns game a year or 2 ago, when Colt made his first start against us, only because I was hoping to get a discount, if I waited till after kickoff, or right before, but they all still wanted at least 50 bux over face value.
I thought if I watched the first half from a bar on the strip, then went back, at halftime, i might be able to get a cheap ticket, then, but there wasn`t a scalper to be found.
Oh well, it was still MUCH better to watch the game in the `Burgh, at a true STEELER bar, than dealing with all the Clown fans, here in Ohio. I didn`t have the $ for a real ticket, so, I just hoped I could get lucky, and find a deal near gametime, or halftime.
I would be wary about buying from the scalpers, because you never know if it`s a good ticket, but in general, most of them seem to be selling the real thing.

 

With all the on-line fees, delivery charges, taxes, license, dealer prep, etc. I paid for my tickets, it's a little like buying from a scalper. That said, at least I know these tickets are legit, ( I hope, they came from the Steelers ticket exchange.) and I'll finally be seeing a home game in Pitt!

 

I just bought my Steelers/ Eagles tickets from the NFL's ticket exchange and although I thought I was getting an amazing deal, I didn't realize at first it was run through TicketMaster. After all was said and done, it was an additional $125 in service fees and for electronic delivery. (There did not seem to be any way to avoid the electronic fee of $4.95.) The good thing about the ticket exchange is your tickets are guaranteed to be 100% authentic. If I am going to drive all the way from Raisins He##, MD to Pittsburgh I had better be sure my tickets are real!

 

I've bought from scalpers for the last 8 years. Never had one problem ever with a fake ticket, after a while if you go often, you get to know all the scalpers well, most want no business in giving you a fake, they know what to look for better than you do. But as always buyer beware because there are always con-artists out there.

 

You're taking a huge chance with scalpers, I wouldn't do it. Do you really want to travel that far and then have to depend on a scalper? I've waited until about 5 min after the game started a few times and got $90 tickets for $20. However, obviously this isn't always the case. Dealing with a scalper is always a gamble. Hell, I had 2 tickets I needed to unload 3 hours before gametime one time and these ******* scalpers were trying to offer me $40 (20 a piece)for 2 tickets I paid $100 a piece for and then turn around and sell them for $140 a piece. I told them to go pound salt, an hour later they came back and offered $30, lol. I told them to go to hell and sold them to a bystander for face value, $90 a piece while they stood and watched.

 

If it's illegal the Pittsburgh Police sure as hell don't enforce it at all, the Police stand right next to them and work the street lights, why the scalpers just sell away tickets.

 

Its not though, that is the area where scalpers are permitted to do business. Scalping is 100% legal here in Pittsburgh, and there are set guidelines on how and where you can do it. The Ticket Reselling Area is located between PNC Park and Heinz Field, at the corner of Dorsett Way and North Shore Drive (near the Del Monte office building). Tickets can be sold here by anyone possessing extra tickets that they want to sell. No other ticket scalping is permitted near PNC Park and Heinz Field. Fans can only resell tickets in the specified Ticket Reselling Area. Licensed ticket scalpers wanting to buy/sell tickets can do so outside the perimeter established . The boundaries of the perimeter are Ridge Avenue (north), Fontella Street and North Shore Drive (west), Point State Park and the southern sidewalk of Fort Duquesne Boulevard (south) and Anderson Street (east).

 

The guys that stand at the INTERSECTION (think streets coming together) of North Shore Drive and Tony Dorsett Drive have been working that intersection for quite some time. I generally see the same guy there (he has a Cleveland cell number)

Can someone get me that number? I live in Az and I am going back for the Washington game with two budies that have never been to Pitt or a real football game. I would like to have tickets in hand before we leave but stubhub and all those other places the prices are crazy.

 

I'll post it on here when I can, but it'll probably take about a month. I was offered tickets for the Colts game Sunday night but I'm gonna pass. I'm going up to Buffalo next weekend but that won't help. The next chance I'll get will probably be for the Jets game 9/16. Skins game isn't until 10/28.

 

why does a guy that sells tickets in pittsburgh have a cleveland cell phone umber?

 

Scalpers at Yankees Stadium are a bit more 'guerilla,' but they do exist. They kinda work the crowd as they step out of the subway exit and onto river and work the pedestrians around the corner that the McDonald's is on. I picked up tickets for the home opener/ring ceremony against the Angels a couple years ago from a scalper located between the new Stadium and the old one (which was still being torn down at the time). I also scalped tickets for the ALCS in '03 and '04 between the parking lot and the stadium.

The reason you don't see many scalpers at Yankee Stadium: the games don't typically sell out unless it's the playoffs. Even then, I've bought divisional playoff tickets day of the game at the ticket window. Yeah, I was up in the Tiers (row XX), but I was in the stadium and the atmosphere of being in Yankee Stadium in October dwarfs most other experiences in sports.

A guy also gave me some insight to go request a handicap ticket prior to the start of the game if they're sold out. He told me they are required to hold onto 'x' amount of handicap tickets and then they release them to the general public just before the start of the game.

Also, NYPD are cool as hell. They're not gonna bust anyone for scalping there unless they're walking around the ticket office with a giant 'Need Tickets' sign.

 

For most of these guys its a business they sell tickets in both Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

 

Economics. Supply and demand.

He probably lives in Cleveland.

If you lived in Cleveland and scalping was your industry, would you make a one-hour and forty-five minute drive to sell tickets to an event with a waiting list decades long that doesn't move in a market where your product is, by far, the most sought-after commodity?

Or, would you stick around your market where the supply is high and the demand is low as you tried to peddle an inferior product?

There's no real necessity to changing a cell phone number. I have a Los Angeles cell phone number and am currently on the East coast doing business for the remainder of the year.

 

My brother says ( I live on the carolina coast) He can go to any game he wants to at half price. I said how you do dat? His answer was wait till kickoff. Scalpers cut their price in half at kickoff. They want to get out of there with a profit. Unsold tickets=lost revenue. He also at his work is given tickets by vendors who want him to use their product. They usually give him 4 to 6 tickets. When i come home during the season he always takes me to a game (Edit; is he has tickets). He uses all tickets most times but. his daughter a girl about 4'11' tall used to stand in the middle of the scalpers when she attended Pitt. They all watched her like a little sister. She scalped for spending money at school. Another story next post

 

My brother from above post. He was going to the last game of the season and said it was cold as a witches t*t in an iron bra on the shady side of an ice berg. He couldn’t find anyone to go to the game with and had 4 tickets. We were playing the stains/now ratbirds. Ask himself do I want to go in and freeze my butt off or do I want to go 5 minutes down the Ohio River Boulevard and watch it warm at mom’s house?
About that time a guy in a brown stain jacket ran up to him all outta breath said hey buddy, know anyone who has extra tickets? He said I got 4 showing them , How much said the stain? $30 said my brother. The guy stuffed $120 in his hand grabbed the tickets and ran off as my brother was saying for all 4 This is around 1989/90 time frame three rivers. He still gets tickets today as he has not retired.

 

Did anyone manage to get the phone number for the scalpers?