Tips for Olympic ticket buyers

Still looking for Olympic tickets? Some shopping tips:

• Check out CoSport. As of Tuesday, the official U.S. ticket seller had made a handful of events available — unannounced, over the past several days — at cosport.com. Company officials say no large new allotments are expected. But it might pay to keep looking. Also still available were CoSport travel packages at much higher prices.

• Watch for news at vancouver2010.com about the official resale site the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) keeps promising for fans to sell tickets they can't use. It's unclear whether the site will be open to international buyers and sellers.

• Many black-market tickets are advertised for sale, usually at prices from two to five times face value, on various Web sites, some of which try to look like official vendors. Unless the site is cosport.com for U.S. sales (or vancouver2010.com for Canadian), be warned: You could buy a ticket from one of these Web sites and not receive it — or you could receive it and still find it invalidated at the gate by VANOC because it came from an unauthorized seller. Many in the business believe that's an idle threat. But it's your call.

• Beware of Craigslist or eBay sellers advertising actual tickets. The real Olympic tickets have not been printed, and won't be for another month or two. If you're buying from an unofficial source, you're only buying the promise of a ticket right now, not the ticket itself.

• If you really want to go, consider taking a leap of faith and driving up to the Games. Based on past Olympics, tickets generally are available on-site. Depending on the event, they're sometimes sold for much closer to face value, and lower than black-market prices from months earlier. If you strike out, tickets should at least be available to nightly "victory ceremonies" in B.C. Place stadium.

But last-minute street shopping will be difficult for any events at Whistler. Your ticket to a Whistler event is actually a ticket to a bus to get you up there. Without one, it's going to be next to impossible to drive up the Sea to Sky Highway.

• Consider the Paralympics instead. Tickets for all events at the March 12-21 Paralympics — alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling — are on sale to U.S. customers at cosport.com. Disabled athletes compete in the same arenas used at the Olympic Games. The events are fascinating, the competition inspiring, the atmosphere more relaxed — and the tickets considerably less expensive. You can watch alpine skiing, for example, for $21, and see some of the greatest competitors alive for far less money.