EXO 피캩잉 (Ticketing) Experience

I count myself extremely privileged to feel disappointed about not getting EXO tickets on the first try. Like I booked Venice for my wedding, and flew out all my rich friends, kind of privileged. But since I have been spoiling myself alot lately, this i the kind of complicated feeling I haven't felt in a while.  

As I told my coworkers during my work break/crash out, this comeback and seeing EXO at their first post break concert has been my dream for years ( at least since they went on military break and people started calculating when they would come back). When I found it hard to decide what to do with other areas of my life, my resolve didn't break in knowing I wanted to see EXO. A tad bit Delulu but it worked for me. Now that smoke screen is beginning to clear a little and the truth is, I may not be able to see EXO and here's why.....

1st: as an international exo-l, I had to buy tickets on melon global. The site is for anyone without a Korean I'd/phone number/Kakaobank account. So basically, I couldn't just Google translate the page and buy a ticket. I also in the hopes of getting a ticket, signed up for the EXO Weverse fan membership. This membership, in my opinion, has no true value except to buy things that would rapidly be sold out (like a concert or exclusive merch). I also paid for my sister to do the presale since I would only be able to buy one ticket if got through. Verifying for presale was simple once I figured out that I couldn't use my home internet to buy tickets since it turns the Melon global site into a 404 error. Using my hotspot I signed up for presale and verified my account via passport and face scan. At this point is it that crazy to feel I can get a ticket 🤷🏾‍♀️? 

 2nd: The tickets go on sale  Thursday, February 12th at 6 am est. In prepartion I wake up at 5am  to set up my laptop, and get changed to leave for work. I wake up my sister and we wait for the clock to hit 6. Now as an American fan I am used to buying tickets via the devil's favorite site, Ticketmaster. The instructions are clear, I can put in my payment Information beforehand, and there's a queue/waiting room from 15-30 minutes before the sale starts. The main enemy are scalpers and people willing to spend more money than me. Melon Global said hold my tea, because why did the webpage crash as soon at 6AM sharp? 

When it came back up ~10 mins later I was 50 something thousandth in line. 50k in line for a venue that has 15k seats, so I knew I was not gonna win but I stayed in the line with hope. The hope grew as the queue number steadily decreased. Only to be dashed as the pop up window puffed away landing me back on the melon page. Was I mad, yes, did I try again, YES, and to what end -> no seats left 😔

3rd: SM Global Tickets 

The international exo-l exclusive global travel packages go on sale at 7am est. At this time I am driving to work, and trust my sister to get buy a package for us. Unfortunately a wrench was thrown into our plan on that they added the 'economy air' package so when my sister looked she wasn't sure which one to pick. All the twin packages were then gone. After all this time I began to calculate the prices on my head, bad idea!  So when I started looking at the single packages that started at 600 I was getting cold feet. In addition I didn't understand that both economy and deluxe could get vip for and extra 23. However, the only vip left was standing and in my stubborn frustration I decided I would only spend 600+ for seated vip(trauma from Riize GA in DC). I have since felt desperate enough to fathom spending $1000 to see EXO. To no avail the global packages evade me even now. 

So anyhow it's been a week and several crash outs later I am checking the tickets daily to snag a ticket. I still plan to visit Seoul around the time of the concert and have fun one way or another. But I plan to be in the concert, and I better be. 

(My dream is still to see ot9 EXO but Ill make do with EXO Planet #6)