For the hottest matchups - say, the NCAA Final Four or NFL playoffs - box office competition can be fierce.
First, check for presale access. (The NCAA, for example, has a raffle for face-value tickets eight months in advance.)
No luck? "Right after the primary market sells out, prices spike," says Marianne Jennings, a business school prof at Arizona State who studies ticket sales.
But they should mellow out. Monitor broker sites - find legit ones at natb.org - and compare prices on Stubhub.com, which guarantees purchases.
