Ticketmaster queues are killing me. How are you guys getting good seats without paying resale?

I just spent another hour staring at that spinning circle for the new arena tour. I got through the waiting room right at the start time, but there were already thousands of people ahead of me. By the time it let me pick seats, everything in the lower bowl was gone or marked as a platinum package.

It feels like there's so much prep work just to track down the right access links before a big tour drops. How do you manage to secure good seats without paying double on a resale site? Do you just stick to the standard mailing lists? I'd love to know what your normal routine is when a major tour gets announced!