Your Best Seat in the House to Terrific Ticket Bargains -- Savings Experiment

Not so long ago, snagging a ticket to a concert or sporting event was as simple as sauntering up to a booth with cash in hand.

Holy Hot Stub: You could buy a ticket to the first Super Bowl in 1967 for $10, and not worry about missing the action. The game wasn't even a sellout. Tickets to the last Beatles concert ever in 1966, just four months earlier? Between $4.50 and $6.50 (with more than 17,000 empty seats at Candlestick Park).

So why is it that today, if Lady Gaga staged 45 minutes of synchronized sneezing, or Miley Cyrus announced "Hanna Montana's Lipsynch Bonanza 2010," that tickets would be so freaking hard to get? Among other things, the ways people gain admission have multiplied faster than you can say "boy band." People use computers and charge cards; smartphones and ticket agencies; search engines and public auction sites. So numerous are the options, we wouldn't blame you if you thought you needed a ticket just to queue up to buy some tickets.

But really, it's not that bad. Your friends at WalletPop have done the requisite research -- manning the phones, laptops and long lines so you don't have to -- all in the name of giving you a reserved seat to the bargain hunting. Care to join the show? Join us, then: We reserved a seat just for you, and you're just in time to watch the curtain rise on another Savings Experiment.