A Tale of 8 Tickets

A year ago I paid a ticket agency $20 toward two tickets to the recent Bruce Springsteen shows. I didn’t take advantage of their services--a forfeit of $20.

When tickets went on sale I had been playing the radio all day due to a tip-off from Backstreets, a Springsteen fan magazine. My bracelet turned out to be the 249th out of 250. I was heartsick. With a friend we bought eight tickets to four shows: $204.

A friend with entertainment-industry connections took me to the show that I didn’t have tickets for.

Of my eight tickets (all of which were bad), I sold four of them at cost, and a friend gave me two tickets for Thursday for one ticket on Saturday.

On Friday, Saturday, Wednesday and Thursday I stood in line at the Sports Arena ticket office and on three of those evenings I got better seats than I had: on Friday (a 20-minute wait) I sold my original tickets for $35 (a $9.50 mark-up) to a scalper; on Saturday (a five-hour wait) I sold my original tickets for cost to a disconsolate couple; and on Wednesday (a four-hour wait), when they were escorting people into the arena as soon as they bought their tickets, I just gave my original two away, telling the guy behind me that if he got tickets to give those two to someone behind him. On Thursday (an eight-hour wait) I didn’t get better seats and used the ones I had.

Altogether, I spent $106 on tickets, and waited in line (counting the day the tickets went on sale) about 22 hours.

I saw all five shows.

Springsteen is the best performer I have ever seen in my life.

I was in the same room with him when he sang “Born to Run.”

In many ways he has made up for me the inequities and dissatisfactions of my life.

RICK SANDFORD

Los Angeles