Like a tight end snagging a touchdown pass, 49ers fan Lalo Barragan grabbed two tickets for the team's next game on Sunday, a chance for San Francisco's first division championship and shot at the Super Bowl since the 1994 season.
"This is historical," said Barragan, a Windsor resident who considers himself a lifelong Niners fan. "I want to be there."
The seats in Candlestick Park's upper deck cost $820 on eBay. Barragan said he and his brother, Brian, will easily spend more than $1,000, with driving, parking and tailgating.
"I said, &‘Let's just do it, let's go,'" Barragan said.
On Sunday, the Barragans will be among more than 70,000 fans watching Coach Jim Harbaugh's surprising 49ers take on the New York Giants, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl XLVI.
"Anything's possible once you're in the playoffs," Lalo Barragan said, recalling the upstart San Francisco Giants' World Series triumph in 2010.
Now it's 49ers fever gripping the Bay Area, but the economic chill - and spiraling second-market ticket prices - will keep many fans away from the Stick on Sunday.
"Out of my price range," said Kevin O'Malley of Santa Rosa, lunching with friends at the Fifth Street Grill. "If I had a little more disposable income," he said, leaving the sentence incomplete.
Walter Brusatori of Sebastopol, who dates his affection for the Red and Gold back to 1946 when Frankie Albert was quarterback, said he'll be watching the NFC Championship game on television at home.
"I love the 49ers," said his wife, Mary. "They're my babies."
Officially, the team will hold a season ticket holder pre-sale via Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and then offer a "limited number of tickets" to the public at 1 p.m.
"We expect them to sell quickly," Niners spokesman Steve Weakland said.
Many fans are turning to second-market sources, like eBay, craigslist and Stub Hub, for tickets. On Monday morning, craigslist posted about 1,000 offers for game tickets, most of them from dealers.
Stub Hub, a website where season ticket holders sell their tickets, listed nearly 10,500 seats available, starting at $288 and running as high as $5,000, $10,000 and even one at $30,000.
Upper deck seats in the same section were priced from the low $300s to more than $1,200 on Stub Hub.
Fifty yard-line lower level seats would set you back $900 to $2,500 or more.
"It's not an option," said Trey Dunia, a lifelong fan from Sebastopol.
Overwhelmed by the cost of tickets online, Dunia said he had to "get creative," posting an offer on craigslist to be a fan group's designated driver in exchange for a seat.
"I doubt it will work," he said, "but I might as well try. If Alex Smith can score two touchdowns in two minutes, then maybe I can get a ticket."
Santa Rosa attorney Chris Andrian, a Niners season ticket holder since 1979, said he could understand why someone would sell a ticket this week for $500 or more.
But his answer, should anyone ask, is "an emphatic no."
Andrian, who saw Dwight Clark haul in "The Catch" in the 1981 season NFC Championship game, anticipates more playoff glory in 2012.
On Saturday, the Niners beat New Orleans 36-32, topping the team Andrian figured was the best in football. "Now you have to believe they can win it all," he said.
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