OK - You've Tracked Down The Show You Are Interested In, Taken The Time To Familiarize Yourself With The Seating Chart, And Now You're Ready To Grab Some Fantastic Seats!

You Really Want To Use Two Browsers - Really!  Even If You Are Just Practicing, Use Two Browsers So You Can Get Used To Bouncing Back And Forth!

This Might All Look A Little Confusing ( Which Is Why I Suggest That You Practice In Order To Get An Idea Of How The System Flows ) But The Whole Idea Here Is This: You Can Put The Initial Seats That You "Pull" On Hold For Over Ten Minutes In Most Cases ( The Time On The Final Page Will Sometimes Vary, But You Will Have Whatever Time It Displays - I've Seen As Short As 4:45, And As Long As 6:15 ) While You Continue To Search For Better Seats! Keep In Mind - Tickets Will Get Hung Up In The System While People Decide Whether Or Not They Want Them - Sometimes Credit Card Authorizations Get Denied, People Get Kicked Off Line Etc... If You Continue To Pull Tickets You Might Just Find A Better Pair Than You Initially Pulled. Also, Brokers Will Dump Seats That You Would Love To Have - I'm Not Going To Buy Tenth Row Seats For Resale, But I'm Sure You Would Love To Have Them At Face Value - Right? It Is Likely That I, As Well As A Hundred Other Brokers Will Be Releasing Seats That You Want, So Be Sure To Keep Searching As Long As You Can Before Buying The First Seats That You Pulled ( Unless Of Course They Are Fantastic Seats! ). 

Trust Me - Once You Get Through This Two Or Three Times It Will Seem Like Second Nature - I've Detailed The Process Here But You Don't Have To Take Notes - It's All Rather Straight Forward And The Hints And Tricks Will Get You Through It Like A Pro!

While It's Important To Note That Ticketmaster Limits The Amount Of Hits Any One IP Address Can Generate Within A Specific Time, The Good News Is That It Is Highly Unlikely That You Will Experience This Problem. The Single Biggest Cause Of This Is Too Many Refreshes BEFORE The Onsale Starts. You Definitely Want To Be The First In Line And The Way To Accomplish This Is By Refreshing The TM Page Before The Sale Starts, But Wait Until 15 Seconds Prior ( Use Your Computer's Time Or A Cell Phone ) And Then Refresh ( F5 ) As Fast As The Page Will Reload.

Once The Event Goes Live, You Will See Many Pull Down Menus - On Your Initial Pulls, You Will Want To Leave Most Of These At ~Best Available~. You Will Have To Select How Many Seats You Want, But Leave The Price Window At ~Any Price~. If This Is A Presale That Requires A Password, You Will Of Course Have To Type The Password.  If The Password Is Long ( More Than 5 Characters ) I Will Always Type It Into A Blank Document, And "CONTROL C" it - And Then "Control V" It Into The Password Box In Order To Save Time. Click On The "Look For Tickets" Box, And You Will Be Taken To Another Window Where A Security Check ( AKA Captcha ) Will Be Required.

TM Currently Uses Two Word Captchas - Some Are Rather Easy, And Others Are Just Horrible. If You Do Not See A Captcha Or Are Only Seeing A Few Letters Of The First Word, The Cause Is Almost Certainly Your Browser.   Frequently, If You Enter The Entire First Word Followed By A Space, And Then The First Two Letters Of The Second Word You'll Get Through ( But Not Always ). Captchas Are NOT Case Sensitive, And You Can Ignore Punctuation Except For The Space Between Words.  The Single Best Hint I Can Give You To Get Through The Captcha Is This - If You Hit The "Enter" Key Twice, It Will Quickly Give You A New Word - This Is Far Faster Than Trying To Puzzle Out A Word. If I Do Not Instantly Recognize The Words That Are Given, I Always Use This Trick. Once You Successfully Enter The Captcha, You Will Be Taken To Another Page That Says "Searching". This Is The Perfect Time To Quickly Move To Your Second Browser And Start The Process All Over Again - You Have 2:15 Minutes To Get Back To Your First Browser, Which Is Plenty Of Time.

Once The System Displays Tickets, You Have 2:15 Minutes To Either Select The Seats Or Dump Them - And Then Some!  If The Seats Are Terrible And You Absolutely Do Not Want Them ( Or - If They Are Not As Good As The Ones You Have On Your Other Browser ) Do NOT Hit The "Search Again" Link At The Bottom Of The Page - Instead, Hit Your Browser's "Back" Or "Previous Page" Button Three Times Which Will Take You Back To The First Page ( Sometimes This Takes Four Clicks - If You See A ~Page Expired~ Notice Displayed, Try The Back Button One More Time ) And All Of Your Previous Inputs ( Number Of Seats, Password Etc ) Will Be There - Just Hit Your "Enter" Key And It Will Take You Back To A New Captcha Page.

Assuming You Have What Look Like Decent Seats, You Can Take That Page To The Next Step By Choosing A Delivery Method, And Then The "Continue" Button, Which Will Take You To Where You Can Either Sign In, Or Create An Account. You Have An Additional 2:30 Minutes To Accomplish This - Once You Get To This Page, It's A Great Time To Check Your Other Browser, And Get It Searching Again. After The Sign In Page, You Will Still Have 5:30 Minutes To Take The Final Step And Purchase The Tickets - Do As Many Additional Searches Using You Other Browser As You Can During This Time!  If You Pull Better Seats, Dump The Tickets You Were Previously Holding And Use That Browser To Continue Searching - A Little Like Playing Leap Frog! I Generally Do Not Give Up On A Show Until At Least 12 Minutes After It Goes On Sale.

A Few Last Notes: After My Initial Pull On Any Given Browser ( Assuming I Am Not Satisfied And Dump The Seats ) I Will Tool Around With The Drop Down Windows That We Ignored Initially. The "Best Available" Function Is Ideal For An Initial Pull, Because Time Is Critical - After That, It Can Sometimes Help To Specify Perhaps "Left Center" As Opposed To "Best Available". The System May Consider "Best Available" To Be 20TH Row Center, Whereas There May Be Some 10TH Row Left Center Seats Available. Obviously, You Want To Make Sure That You Are Not Too Far Off Center!

Lastly, Some Venues Will Not Allow A Single Seat To Be Left In Any Given Row - If You Search For Three Seats As Opposed To Two ( Or Five As Opposed To Four ) You Can Sometimes Grab Fantastic Seats - Even If You Don't Need The Additional Seat, You'll Still Do A Lot Better Than If You Have To Purchase Seats On The Secondary Market! This Is A Somewhat Rare Thing, But Certainly Worth A Try After You've Done Several Searches.