There's no single magic day to buy tickets — the right time depends on how demand for a specific event is moving. This guide explains the pattern behind resale prices so you can judge whether to buy now or wait, category by category.
The short answer
Resale prices are set by supply and demand, and they move in one of two directions as the event nears. For a high-demand event — a fast-selling tour, a marquee game, a hit Broadway run — prices tend to rise as inventory thins, so waiting usually costs more. For a softer event, sellers who still hold inventory close to the date often cut prices to move it, so patience can pay off.
The skill is telling the two apart. The rest of this guide is about the signals that tell you which one you're looking at.
Concerts
For popular tours, the cheapest moment is often right at the initial on-sale, before resale demand builds. If you missed that, watch the listing depth: a show with hundreds of available listings has soft demand and room to fall, while a show down to a handful of listings is a rising market where waiting is risky.
Browse current concert prices and note the number of listings and the get-in price — those two numbers together tell you far more than the price alone.
Sports
Regular-season games for non-marquee matchups are the classic case where prices drift down toward game day as sellers clear inventory — weeknight games especially. Rivalry games, playoff games, and giveaway nights behave like high-demand events and tend to hold or climb.
You can compare get-in prices across a league on our sports pages, where each team's cheapest current all-in listing is refreshed daily.
Theater
Broadway and touring productions often price weeknights and preview performances below weekend shows for the same production. If your dates are flexible, shifting from a Saturday night to a Tuesday can be one of the biggest single levers on price.
Signals to watch
Three signals tell you which way a specific event is moving: listing depth (many listings = soft, few = tight), the trend in the get-in price over a few days, and how close the date is. When our data has enough history, some event pages surface a recent price trend — use it to see the direction, not just today's number.
When waiting backfires
"Prices always drop at the last minute" is a myth for anything in real demand. For sought-after events, last-minute buyers routinely pay the most, and the best seats are long gone. If an event is clearly hot and you know you want to go, the lowest-risk move is to buy once the price looks fair rather than gamble on a drop that may never come.