As an aunt to two twin teenage boys with a birthday coming up, I recently found myself in a bit of a dilemma as to what to get them for a birthday gift.  I do not have any boys of my own so it is not the first time I have found myself in that position.  As the "cool" aunt who has been guilty of spoiling the boys over the years, when I found out they would kill for tickets to a WWE event that was coming to a nearby town around the time of their birthday I embarked on a mission.  I was going to find cheap WWE tickets no matter what.

First of all, I know next to nothing about WWE wrestling. I do know that professional wrestling in general and the WWE in particular are something of a phenomenon.  Generations of rabid fans pay top dollar for tickets, DVDs and all manner of merchandise and collectibles from action figures and t-shirts to WWE ringtones, trading cards and just about anything else you can slap a logo or a superstar's picture or catchphrase on.  Furthermore, I have not been to an arena concert or sporting event in several years.  I was determined not to let the facts get in the way, however.

I am pretty Internet savvy for a bird my age and a highly skilled online shopper so I figured I would not have too much trouble tracking down three cheap WWE tickets for sale, two for the boys and one for their dad.  I was not wrong about being able to buy decent WWE tickets online for a fair price, but it did take a little bit more effort than I thought it would.

The Search for Cheap WWE Tickets Begins

The first thing I had to do was find information on the event. The WWE website has a handy section with information about upcoming live events. Finding the venue, date, time and details of the WWE Smackdown event in our area was a piece of cake. They also provide links to the primary ticket vendor for the event, in this case Ticketmaster, and the venue website so I thought my next move would be to check out both of those sites.

The arena website had full details of the wrestlers scheduled to appear and the main event bout. Helpful information about seat locations, parking and arena policies was also provided, but there was no way to purchase tickets directly through the arena box office online so I went to Ticketmaster next. Finding WWE tickets on the Ticketmaster website was easy enough via their search feature. Unfortunately, what I would consider good tickets were not available via Ticketmaster probably because the event was just over two weeks away. I could get my family in the building, but I thought the boys might be a little disappointed by the view. Ticketmaster would be my fallback plan if I was unable to find WWE Smackdown tickets elsewhere.

Next, I checked eBay. There were some pretty good seats available through open auctions and some with Buy It Now prices listed. Some were offered by folks with little or very little feedback while others were offered by people who clearly were professional ticket brokers. Face value for the tickets ranged from $20 to $60. I felt the markup by most of the eBay sellers was a little too high. After all, cool aunt or not, I was looking for cheap WWE tickets, not tickets at any cost.

Still determined to fulfill my mission goal, I went to Craigslist next. I found a recent ad from someone in my area with four WWE tickets for sale. I only wanted three, but I assumed the seller would be unwilling to break up the set and decided I would rather pay for an extra ticket than pay an excessive markup. That way the boys or their dad could bring a friend. I sent a brief email asking about the tickets and mentioning the birthday in case my story was heartwarming enough to get me a discount.

Cheap WWE Tickets Acquired

I got an email back the next day. The kind gentleman in possession of the tickets was willing to sell them to me for face value if I was willing to meet him at his office downtown to pick them up. So the next day that's what I did. I was so pleased, I even bought him a cup of coffee at the Starbucks across the street.

As you might imagine, the boys were absolutely thrilled. So was I as I proved to myself that it is possible to buy cheap WWE tickets online if you put in a little effort. My nephews even asked me to come along so in a few days, I will be attending my first WWE wrestling event. I have to do some research to find out more about WWE wrestlers John Cena, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy and several other wrestlers I'm going to be seeing, but I'm actually pretty excited.