Wednesday night, I felt like I was sitting at the center of the universe - at Consol Energy Center while Paul McCartney entertained me and 18,000 other fans with favorites from the Beatles, Wings and his solo career.

But with the events leading up to the concert, I wasn't so sure I'd be going - or that it would be worth the money (which, as you'll see, was a lot).

Months ago when I found out that Mr. McCartney would be playing, I marked the date and time of sale in my Outlook calendar. Five minutes before the online ticket window was scheduled to open for first sales, my Outlook alarm goaded me to log into the Ticketmaster website to grab five tickets for my family.

Unfortunately, despite my early arrival, I was out of luck. No tickets to be had at any price at the time they were to go on sale.

Dejected at missing a performer that I've wanted to see for more than 30 years, I told my family. My son, with some help from my wife, decided to surprise me for Father's Day by buying two tickets to the show. Why two tickets instead of five? Because he bought the two tickets over the Internet from a ticket broker for $384. Five would have broken the bank in my wife's eyes.

I was very happy on one hand; very nervous on the other - because my son found the broker through a search engine, didn't check out his credentials and gave them my credit card number. Not that I minded the charge - it was the possibility that the broker might have been a crook - a concern that became particularly acute after the broker e-mailed to say it would be weeks before we get the tickets.

So I jumped on the Net and on my phone - trying to find the company behind the company that sold him the tickets. He bought from letsplayballtickets.com, a distributor for Oklahoma-based TotallyTickets.com. BBBonline, the website of the Better Business Bureau, said TotallyTickets was a member and had several reports that didn't appear to be resolved.

But I reached the company by phone and grilled that poor employee for 15 minutes before concluding the company was probably on the up-and-up. So I hung up and kept my fingers crossed. The e-tickets finally arrived and we went to the concert. Just in case the tickets were counterfeit, I brought extra cash to purchase from a legitimate scalper near the concert.

I'm happy to report the original e-tickets were scanned successfully by the person at the gate, and we were let in to watch Sir Paul perform his magic on and with the crowd.

The woman next to me told me she also bought from a broker; and although she didn't remember the name of the broker, she remembered the price - and it was even more than we paid. That took away some of the sting of knowing other people bought their tickets online just prior to the concert date at prices significantly less than we paid.

But we were in the concert, surrounded by other fans with their smart phones - snapping photos and taking poor quality videos. Mr. McCartney was excellent, and I held up my brightly lit smart phone (in flashlight mode) to let him know - the way we used to light matches. I didn't see anybody else in the crowd doing it. They just clapped loudly and stood.

In the end, my son, the lady next to me and I all agreed - we paid a lot to Internet scalpers; but it was worth every penny.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.