Well traveled person here, that has been to their fare share of OSU away games. I prefer buying game tickets straight from the university or ticketing sites but I've also had some success buying from scalpers. After years of thinking "I'm too smart to get conned" my luck finally ran out.
I didn't have any luck finding tickets online within the budget I set for my wife and I but we drove to Blacksburg anyway. We were about four hours early for the game so I started campusing the grounds to see what the market was like. Most guys wanted $500+ pair which was more than I was willing to spend. While still in the vicinity of the scalpers I saw a woman in her forties with three children walk into the area. She had four tickets in her hand and began a conversation with two of the scalpers about selling her tickets within earshot of my location. They were lowballing her and she began to look frazzled.
Looking back that's when I screwed up. I saw a woman with her kids looking desperate, being pressured by two men. So like a jackass I ride in on my white horse, cash in hand, to not only help her but help myself.
The scalpers get angry at me for butting into their business dealings. I try to ignore them while offering the woman $350 total for two of her tickets. While we're working on the deal the scalpers are still hassling me about "messing with their business." They start offering her slightly more total money for all her tickets than I was offering her for two. She finally agrees to my price and says, "let me make sure I'm giving you two together" and shuffles the tickets. I get tickets 4 & 5, in section 510, row G. Happy and eager to get away from the scalpers I give her my money and quickly head back to where my wife is sitting and we head towards the gate.
Once at the gate we handed over our tickets, they won't scan but after the a quick conversation between a gate security agent and a supervisor we're allowed to pass. As we passed we heard the supervisor say that they were having trouble with their scanners. We found our seats, started conversing with the local enemy, took some photos and got a bite to eat. Then about ten minutes from kickoff two groups showed up; one group had seat 4, the other seat 5. That's when we knew we were boned.
Looking back I'm pretty sure the woman and the scalpers were working together. I think she had one real ticket, or a very good fake ticket, on top and shuffled me out the fakes. The scalpers were distracting me from concentrating on the tickets and most of us don't expect "Susie B. Homemaker" with her kids to run a con on you.
Not wanting to get escorted out of the stadium we quickly exited "our section." I then attempted to calm my hysterical wife and come up with a battle plan. Since we were already in the stadium I wanted to make the best of the situation, my wife reluctantly went along. For entire first half we hung around wherever we could get a decent view of the game, or the scoreboard, without drawing the attention of the police or stadium security. Finally, halfway through the 3rd quarter the VT faithful started heading out we got a little braver and grabbed some real seats. We got to finish the game in comfort, enjoy the celebration and Carmen Ohio but overall it was not a good day and put a damper on our entire weekend.
I know if you play with fire long enough you'll get burned, which we definitely did. Be smart out there sports fans. If it can happen to me it can happen to you too. Use one of the many ticketing sites, they may cost more and have some fees but it's definitely better than essentially throwing your money away.
Go Bucks!
