It's happened to me a couple of times recently. Turns out spending 2+ hours getting to and from a venue in DC and paying $30 for parking on a Tuesday night was a much less tempting prospect once I got past the ticket buying FOMO.
I have pre-bought instores for some huge in stores at Grimey's lately with Needtobreathe and Brothers Osborne. Didn't go to Needtobreathe one because it was raining and today is the Brothers Osborne one and I don't have much interest in going. Granted Grimey's is like 45 minutes from my house. Least they will still sign my record even if I don't go so there is that.
@mgp Yeah I live the far western suburbs of Nashville. The shows that work best for me are 7:00 a clock on a school night when I am already around Nashville for work. Weekends shows are usually a tough sell unless it is someone I really want to see.
I started that when I lived in Louisiana and would have to drive to Houston to see shows. Especially when I went back to school. Now back in Nevada, I’m trying to be a lot better about it because I was mostly a hermit for 2.5 years.
I don't buy tickets if I feel like I'm on the fence. Then if it sells out I think "That's okay, people who really wanted to go get to go instead." that's happened like 3 times this summer with Big Thief, Kurt Vile, and Dinosaur Jr.