Finally Four

Today a wish of mine came true. For the past couple days, I have been trying to get tickets to the Mariners opening game. I came really close a couple days ago. Then, I found a seller on eBay selling several sets of tickets to the game.

Three of the ticket auctions ended today, more like early this morning. I set my alarm, and got up early to bid. I watched the first two sets of tickets to see how the bidding went. They both went up around 20 dollars in the last 10 seconds. The auctions ended one after the other, so I had only a few minutes to bid. It was finally time to place my bid.

I sort of panicked with around a minute left in the auction. I had another page open to refresh, and one to bid. I could no longer see the amount of time left, so I bid. It was a rather rookie bidding mistake to bid with so much time left. There was just under a minute left. I was the high bidder. I kept refreshing hoping I wouldn't get outbid at the last second. To my amazement, I won. My highest bid was $77.89, and I won it at $76.00. That means someone offered just under my highest bid. And I was right, it had followed the pattern of the other tickets and gone up around $20 in the last minute.

These seats are great. It is a group of 4 tickets to the sold out game. Not only that, it is lower level seats near third base. If I were to buy these tickets directly from the Mariners, they would cost me over $65 dollars a seat, and over $250 total. Not to mention this is a sold out game, and tickets are going for sometimes over double face value on craigslist.

I think there are several reasons they went so cheap. You had to read the fine print on the auction, the tickets can be picked up at will call at the stadium because there is no time to have them shipped. This also meant you didn't have to pay the $30 shipping fee listed for him to next day ship them. On top of that, the auction ended early in the morning. Another set of 4 tickets this seller was selling basically comparable to mine were purchased for $300 in an auction he had ending in the middle of the day.

The funniest part about getting the tickets was how much sleep I got. I was so excited and nervous about the pending auction and last chance to get tickets the night before, I couldn't fall asleep. I worried my alarm clock wouldn't go off, or that I wouldn't wake up. Not to mention whether the computer would work in the morning. I finally did fall asleep, but had to get up early to bid. After the last minute bidding war, my adrenaline was pumping. I was so excited, I had trouble falling back asleep.

In the end, I am really happy about getting these tickets. I have been trying so hard to get some. I am even more thrilled that I was able to get 4 tickets, so my dad and two sisters can enjoy the game with me. Not to mention the great price, and fact that my sister chipped in to buy the tickets. And thanks go to my mom for getting up early and allowing me to use her eBay account. I know I said I was banned from eBay a short time ago, but I just couldn't help myself. This was such a steal.