For the SYW tour, I went through Ticketmaster for 3 Bay Area shows and got something like the 15th row floor, 21st row floor, and 10th row floor. I did the computer thing right when they went on sale, and I may have had my roommate, friends, and/or boyfriend doing the same. It would be too hard for me to wait until the day of the show, though I may do both and just use the better tickets.
If I remember correctly, I tried going to Fleetwood Mac fan club route (which I think is sort of the same thing as the VIP mode this time around) and got really ticked off because I paid whatever the price was to join but couldn't get any decent tickets.
For Lindsey's show in SF on the GOS tour, I went through
www.ticketstub.com. I bought tickets for UNDER face value, for the 5th row, slightly off of dead center. O bought them 4 or 5 days before the show. It was unbelievable. But I think that was because the concert hadn't sold out. I looked for other tickets last week for the Pretenders and Amos Lee and all the prices were above face value.
For the Dance tour, I won 5th row seats! That was the best
Good luck to everyone. And just remember that even if you don't get front row, there will be a tour companion DVD to make you feel like you were closer than you actually were.
Kevin