Does anyone have experience buying concert tickets off Ebay?

Yes, and watch out because they will RIP you off if your not careful. What tickets are you trying to get, if you don't mind me asking????

Prince at the MCI Center in August. I realize some people get ripped off, but most of these sellers have %100 positive feedback making it seem they're pretty trustworthy.

I'm not saying that they will all rip you off. Here's what I find poopy about Ebay, most of the tickets on there, you are going to pay about 200-300% more than the actual ticket, when if you just look around a little, you can usually find someone who will sell them for face value...do what you will though, good luck.

Heather - I would like to suggest http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/, and I also suggest that you post on this site that you are looking for tickets. I was able to score tickets from this site for a concert and it seemed to work out ok.

McGrupp is right about the price increase when people sell tickets off of e-bay, but if you want them badly enough, and are willing to pay the extra money, then go for it. If you're worried that you're going to send the money and not receive the tickets, e-bay will reinburse you for them if the seller does not come through. Although, it sounds like the sellers you are looking at, have a good rating. Good Luck.

So you're finally going to see Prince!

Hee! Yep! I've already seen him twice though. Once at George Mason U. for the "Hit and Run" tour and again at the Warner Theater in DC for the "One Night Alone" small venue tour. I'll see him in Pittsburgh in two weeks for the new "Musicology" tour, plus the tickets I'm trying to get now for DC. It's frustrating me because the scalpers are jacking the prices sky high. A pair of floor seats are easily 300 to 500 bucks. One pair of VIP is on ebay for "buy it now" for $800! Gee whiz. Anyone care to be my sugar daddy?

I saw a clip last night of him kicking off his new tour when I was channel surfin'.
He was just singing, I thought he would at least be playin' one of his freakish
guitars and thank god he wasn't wearing his asscheekless pants.

I also saw a snippet last night about Prince starting his tour. If I heard correctly, all those in attendence of any of his shows will get a copy of the Musicology CD.

asscheekless! ha!

I wish my ass looked like his

I also heard that as well, SMan. More free music for me! Hooray!

Watch what tics you get for the MCI.I have been to 10-12 hockey games there and they have some pretty bad seats down there.


BTW whats the face value of the Prince MCI tics???

You don't have to pay that if you just look around and put a little effort into it. IE - Craigslist, the newpaper, etc....That was my whole point about Ebay being a rip off in the first place...There are already many postings and OFFERS on craigslist...ALSO, HANG IN THERE with Craigslist if you've already posted...There are actually still some honest people left out there...SOMEWHERE...

I know. Mine is one of them. Face value for a pair of tix is around $200 after all the extra charges. Around $78 per ticket. My only offer from craigslist was a pair for $325. I'm trying to negotiate the terms of the exchange now. Greedy, I've been on the MCI web site and brought up the digital views from several sections. I agree, a lot of seats are awful. The only tix I'll even consider are floor seats.

For anyone out there wondering, I do understand the term "scalping".

Well, since this is his "LAST TOUR" (Haven't many others before him said that too?) I'm sure the tickets are very expensive. Hold out though, maybe someone will turn loose of them for AT LEAST face value...Good luck anyway!

Last tour my arse! Yeah they like to use that term to excite everybody but it's supposed to go more along the lines of - its the last tour he'll be willing to grind out all the old hits that he's so popular for. He's into jazz these days.


Thanks for ya'lls help!

Heather I sent you a PM.

Anything on the sides close to the stage lower level would be ok.

I just read in an article today, (Entertainment Weekly), that the cost of the CD is included in the ticket price to the concert. I am so naive. I thought I was getting something for free.

on you Prince! I know you read the HM forums!

I haven't really progressed in getting tickets for DC, but I did attend the Pittsburgh show a couple of weeks ago. My seats were great. I almost fell over when the usher escorted us to them. Um, are you sure those are our seats? Our section had its very own set of bathrooms and inside had two great big beautiful mahogany bars. We were separated from the busy halls of the rest of the arena full of bustle and hustle. The ushers were all like Ask Jeeves and showed a flashlight to light your way when you walked. I was strutting around like I was the official keeper of Prince's lint brush, (he's such a snotty diva).

I won't bore you with the details of the music other than to say it was quite surreal for a Prince fan. Raspberry Beret was not on the set list, Rom, but you would have enjoyed it all nonetheless. I think most people would have enjoyed it, actually. Prince fan or not. He's charismatic and playful with the audience. He made jokes and imitated Beyonce's big butt dance. It was a family type environment as promised. Young and old were there. 80's fashion victims to sophisticated, important looking people, (myself included in the latter ).

I encourage you all to burn or buy the Musicology CD. There is much funk and play to be had within it. BMIC and TX included. I'll even burn you two a copy personally. Just to promote peace and love.

Is this CD new stuff, or all of his old stuff.

It's brand new, WVU. It's not pop though, if you're into that. It's funk with fun.

I'd rather not throw in a subliminal thought, but I doubt you'd like it. But then, I don't know you very well either...

Free your mind and your a$$ will follow-George Clinton

I never really got into Prince, I just really didn't like his music that much. It's weird though because I like 80's music, but I just never liked him. I listen to more classic rock, country, and stuff from the late 90's.

Prince = 80s music. This is false. People tend to think the only thing Prince has ever done is Purple Rain. He's funk, jazz, rock and roll, screaming guitar, pop, solo pianist....and a little 80s happens to be stuck in there because the movie and soundtrack kicked so much ass. Since he started making music, (around 1977 78), he hasn't ever stopped putting out new material. There is new stuff out every year. It's just not as popular and doesn't get air play on the radio.

By Sean Daly
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, August 14, 2004; Page C01

Sound the funky horns and loosen up those groove thangs: His Royal Badness is finally back just the way we like him.

Silly, flirty and flashing nary a sign of the nuttiness that made him a tough sell for too long, a charming Prince kicked off his three-night stand at the MCI Center Thursday, lathering up the sold-out venue with 2 1/2 hours of vicious jams, endless hits and a show-closing guitar solo that would have made an exotic dancer blush.

Well, a sweet, innocent exotic dancer at least. The wee powerhouse is a Jehovah's Witness now, and his sex-charged antics aren't nearly as explicit as they used to be. There's no place on this tour for, say, those infamous bum-revealing pants he used to shock with. (Just as well: The X-shaped stage was placed in the middle of the arena, and that would have made for serious fanny overload.) Such NC-17 tunes as "Darling Nikki," featuring the titular tease and her naughty magazine, have been stricken from the set list. And when Prince summoned a wicked bass line on "I Feel for You," the sing-along smash he wrote for Chaka Khan, his attraction to a paramour was now a "spiritual thing" instead of a "physical" one.

But even a pure-of-mind Prince still can't help but excel at baby-making grooves. Opening number "Musicology," the title track from his new album, is a shout-out to James Brown and Earth, Wind & Fire, one of the sexiest pieces of pure funk he has written. And when Prince took a 45-minute solo acoustic turn at the set's halfway point, strumming out some of his biggest hits ("Little Red Corvette," "I Wanna Be Your Lover," "Raspberry Beret") plus a blues gag about his supposedly regular-guy domestic life ("Ooh, she's got a headache for 17 months!"), the vibe in the arena was still very much electric.

The ageless 46-year-old's newfound piety has apparently made the man more, well, normal. His litany of lunacy -- the Magic Markered mug, the tedious musical experimentation, the doodle-pad art he chose for a name -- has been left in the past. Clad in blousy silk jackets and pants that gave him plenty of room to strut, spin and slide, he grinned and laughed all night long. He crooned a quick reference to his past troubles with the record industry -- "Warner Brothers used to be a friend of mine / Now they're nothing but a monumental waste of time" -- but quickly flashed a "whatever" smile.

He frequently invited women of all ages and sizes onstage, at one point weaving among some 15 lucky ladies. And he routinely asked his fans -- a veritable Benetton ad of hip-hoppers, metalheads, jazz buffs, you name it -- to join him in song by hoisting high a gun-shaped gold microphone.

Not that his loyal "true funk soldiers" needed encouragement: With all worries erased that he'd forever gone the way of Michael Jackson, Prince is once again the most seductive -- and, surprise surprise, most personable -- entertainer working today.

Although he can play just about any instrument invented, Prince thrills in indulging one of the best backing bands in the land. His horn section alone -- featuring all-world saxophonists Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer and too-cool trombone man Greg Boyer -- was worth the price of admission. In the night's funniest moment, during a raging "Controversy," Prince and Parker went head to head, guitar vs. sax. That is, until Prince dropped his ax, screamed, "Maceo, you ain't gonna kill me!" and mock-pouted in an onstage velour chair, plugging his ears at the encouraging crowd noise.

His constantly moving eight-member ensemble, called the New Power Generation and fueled by sticks-a-twirling drummer John Blackwell, was so stop-on-a-dime tight and so well-versed in myriad genres that Prince could summon wild tempo shifts with just a subtle nod of his well-coiffed head (and wow, it's such a giant head for such a little body). Smoother than a DJ spinning vinyl, the band could drop in a teasing sample of a song -- say, the start of "1999" -- then smoothly segue into something else.

When the extended funk of "Musicology" stopped with one seamless "Unh!," Prince didn't miss a beat: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today . . ." he instantly preached over a keyboard drone, sending the crowd into sheer delirium with the spoken-word intro of "Let's Go Crazy." At the end of the rock rave, he pointed to the rafters, and a blizzard of confetti rained on the masses. The flittering scraps of celebration were still falling when Prince, his octave-spanning voice still in mint condition, one-two punched with the dance confection "I Would Die 4 U" and an extra-slinky "When Doves Cry."

Almost every minute of the show was designed to keep backfields in motion. After the acoustic set, the final chunk of the evening was a full-band assault of faves: "7," "Pop Life," "U Got the Look," "Kiss."

And then came that utterly love-sexy solo during the inevitable encore cut, "Purple Rain." As lighters were lit and the throngs ooh, ooh, ooh, oohed, Prince cradled in his nimble hands an altogether naughty purple guitar that looked like his symbol moniker, albeit with a long, winding tail that left little to the imagination. As the li'l wizard picked out the dreamy chords that have ended so many high school dances, he sounded like Jimi Hendrix. But even better, as he caressed that instrument in a steamy (but monogamous, of course) embrace, he looked like the Prince we've waited so long to love again.
___________________
I was there. Envy me.

Thanks to Phish for introducing me to Craigslist, although had I known two more shows would later be added, I wouldn't have gone the scalping route. I had thought I died and went to heaven when Prince did Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. I thought I was going to spontaneously combust.

Sounds like a truly orgasmic experience.

Now aren't you glad you came?

Absolutely.

You're welcome Heather! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm a HUGE Led Zeppelin fan and as long as it's done well, I am usually delighted whenever a band covers Led Zeppelin. Of course, when "P. Diddy" covered one of the LZ songs, I almost had a stroke - it was truly pitiful.

P. Diddy did a Zeppelin song?! I don't even want to hear it. That has AWFUL written all over it.

Well he "sampled" Kashmir...worst part Jimmy Page performed with p diddy on a MTV awards...

Here's Jimmy playin' the begining of the song and p diddy walks out beating his chest with one fist singin'...

this image lives with me now...

the horror...

What the hell was Page thinking? He was beating his chest? Sounds like a train wreck. I'm disgusted.