Let’s start by saying that I am super pumped to be going to Citi Field on Monday, and I will be sitting in Section 509 with my father, Steve.
Now, until a couple days ago, we were ticketless. I’d entered every conceivable ticket lottery out there, and I was unable to get two tickets. Watching prices rise on StubHub and sites of that nature, the inevitability of watching the games from home was settling into my mind…until everything changed.
My father was scouring the ticketing sites, and he saw a man on Craigslist selling two tickets for a total of $350. Normally, that’s a ripoff, but with the current market, that’s a downright steal. My fear was that they were counterfeit, so I gave the guy a test.
My father texted him early in the day and the guy told him he’d text my dad later on because he was going to be in the area near where we live. My dad agreed, but I wanted to take every precaution. The guy didn’t know me, so I called and left a message, and I also texted, saying I was interested, but to my surprise, he told me the tickets were spoken for. He even said he’d save my number for future reference.
The exchange took place around 11 p.m. that night in an Applebees parking lot on Sunrise Highway in Bellmore, and my dad had two hard-copy tickets, only the phone number and first name of this guy and he was $350 (we split cost) poorer. Earlier in the day, my dad called the ticket offices, and they said they could verify in person, and my father happened to be working just blocks away from the stadium the next day.
Thank goodness he went to the Stadium early, because the suspense was killing me. I warned my father, the frequent joker, not to mess with me on this topic. He gave the woman at the ticket office the tickets, she went to some back area, and came back to confirm their legitimacy. Now the reality that we’re going to be in the stadium on Monday is setting in.
I just looked at StubHub, and as of 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, before fees, the cheapest pair of tickets in my section is going for $350 per ticket. With StubHub fees, the total would have been $826, which equals $63 per ticket in fees alone. The bottom line? We saved almost $500, and we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the game from the friendly confines of Citi Field. Now, we’ll be right where we belong, amongst the core of Orange and Blue Nation.
Let’s Go Mets!
