Best way to score good seats through Ticketmaster?

[dtw]

My top two favorite bands, Yes and Dream Theater, just announced they're going to tour together. Needless to say, my 911 restoration budget is out the window for the rest of the year, and I'm going to be catching as many shows as I can. My wife and I followed Yes for a week in '02 and I scored tickets ranging from "OK" to "Very good". Unfortunately, at the time, I had to secure tickets on a modem connection through Ticketmaster.com. This was not optimal, obviously.


This time around, for some of the shows, I'll be able to get to a Ticketmaster outlet here in NC when the shows go on sale, even though the shows will mostly be in other states.

-Will local outlets sell me tickets to out-of-state shows?
-What's got better odds: using a good DSL connection and scoring tickets through ticketmaster.com, or showing up at a local ticket counter when tickets go on sale?
-What other tricks have you all had success with? I'm not really willing to pay "broker" prices.

[RickM]

I used to work with a guy who was good friends with the Yes drummer. He used to invite me to see them backstage.

Wish I still had the contact.

Believe it or not Ebay sometimes has some pretty good ticket deals.

[84porsche]

Do you have access to a Tower Records - they usually have the same seats but you don't have to pay convenience fees - also go to the venue and buy tix directly if it is not excessively far - ticketmaster only get so many seats, the venue gets others and brokers(legal ticket scalpers) get the rest.

[dtw]

I don't have a Tower around here in NC. Unfortunately, all the venues announced so far are in NY, VT, and PA. An interesting idea just came to me though- maybe phone sales through the venue?? I'll check on that.

I didn't know that's how brokers got their tickets! Wow.