O's Fan Fest

[geoff]

Re: O's Fan Fest

I did not see any Berken Jerseys but who knows they could have had one.

[BergerKing22784]

Re: O's Fan Fest

My thoughts on fanfest.

I went to fanfest last year but I went just as someone who was going with friends and did not really take it in like a collector. This was my first fanfest that I did it like a collector in 8 or 9 years.

Autograph policy....

Previous years they would have player times posted and which stations they were going to be at and when. Well as you can figure people want the stars so lets say Adam Jones was going to be at a line at 3pm. In previous years people who really wanted him would line up many hours early outside the autograph station causing a big cluster of people to be there. So the casual non true collector fan most likely wouldnt get them as they didnt know how this game really works that the early bird gets the worm.

This year the O's thought they solved the issue. What did they do? They didnt tell you who was going to be at at stations until 1 hour before they signed. Well there were so many people there you just had to get in a random line that you didnt know who was going to be at your table until 1 hour before hand but if you didnt do this you wernt going to get the random player. The O's workers were so surprized that people were just making their own lines for autographs for players they did not know who would be at the table but this is what you had to do to get autographs.

Basically if the signing was at 1pm you would start making an unoffical line at 11am at 12pm they would announce the players you basically had to hope it was someone u wanted or you just wasted an hour of your life standing in a line for nothing. at 12 they would let you in the offical line for the 1pm signing. You basically had to do this all day.

I luckily figured this out early on and got almost everything I wanted signed so I am happy with my results but there were still lots of non collector casual fans moaning and groaning because they would not be getting the superstars autographs as they did not join these unofficials lines and wondered why the Matt Wieters line was full 4 seconds after it was announced he would be in that line.



Game used section:

I love the fact the Os have a game used section. I did not purchase anything from it because I do have issue with it. I think other than the most high dollar items of the superstars they dont really know if the items they are advertising really are game used or not. The O's have stacks and stacks of "game used jerseys" of players who hardly played any games with the team or even were on the 25 man roster for more than a week or two, yet they have dozens of their "game used jerseys"? I find it hard to believe the non superstars wore a new jersey for every game they sat the bench while on the team. Looking at the jerseys I saw many that did not show any use whatsoever. The O's dont use strip tags on their items. For that reason I shy away from them because I just dont truly feel they are game used.

[allstarsplus]

Re: O's Fan Fest

More like he's the guy who pulled the Matusz out of my hands...not a pleasant morning for me.

I am trying to keep score here so let's see how close I am.

They had 1 Markakis which was on the silent auction and went for only $600

They had 3 Wieters in the game used room.
They had 1 Matusz in the game used room.

Any Adam Jones or Brian Roberts jerseys?

So what did the Wieters and Matusz jerseys sell for?

[mr.miracle]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Andrew as far as I can tell you are correct on all fronts in terms of number and names. I did not see any Jones or Roberts Jerseys. The jerseys mentioned went for $100.00 each.

I know people are offering ten times that amount or more in some cases for the Wieters. So, to sum it up, there is no reason to wonder why people are literally beating each other up to get to the game used room as soon as the doors open. If you are lucky enough to grab a couple of the few prime players or prospects jersey's that are there, you can turn them if you so desire for five to ten times what you paid. All going to those who show up the earliest and getting into the room first.

I honestly wonder why in some ways players like a Wieters, Jones, Markakis, Reimold, Roberts and prospects like Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, Patton, and the like are not kept on a seperate table or something and given tiered pricing levels. I am willing to bet that if they started the Wieters and any Markakis, Jones, etc off at like $750.00 people would have still bought them. Top prospects they could have charged like $300 or $250 or whatever and the same thing would have happened. While it would still seem like a chaotic approach, I bet that would cut down slightly on people charging the room all in the hope of scoring one or two top players to flip on ebay.

I know several forum members who as previously mentioned are die hard Orioles collectors that have no plans to flip these items. However, dealers and the like can have a field day all for showing up at the crack of dawn and standing outside the earliest.

[geoff]

Re: O's Fan Fest

I was Standing there Watching The Markakis in The Jersey Auction.I was there til The End.I knew I should have Bought The Markakis but did not have The Funds from what I bought earlier.I would have givin up on alot of what I bought to get that Markakis in The Auction if I only knew.I was saying it was going to go really High.I was so Surprised it did not go High.I might be Kicking mySelf for A While on this One as I could have had it.But oh Well I got other Good Stuff And am Happy with What I got at FanFest.

[allstarsplus]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Andrew as far as I can tell you are correct on all fronts in terms of number and names. I did not see any Jones or Roberts Jerseys. The jerseys mentioned went for $100.00 each.

I know people are offering ten times that amount or more in some cases for the Wieters. So, to sum it up, there is no reason to wonder why people are literally beating each other up to get to the game used room as soon as the doors open. If you are lucky enough to grab a couple of the few prime players or prospects jersey's that are there, you can turn them if you so desire for five to ten times what you paid. All going to those who show up the earliest and getting into the room first.

I honestly wonder why in some ways players like a Wieters, Jones, Markakis, Reimold, Roberts and prospects like Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, Patton, and the like are not kept on a seperate table or something and given tiered pricing levels. I am willing to bet that if they started the Wieters and any Markakis, Jones, etc off at like $750.00 people would have still bought them. Top prospects they could have charged like $300 or $250 or whatever and the same thing would have happened. While it would still seem like a chaotic approach, I bet that would cut down slightly on people charging the room all in the hope of scoring one or two top players to flip on ebay.

I know several forum members who as previously mentioned are die hard Orioles collectors that have no plans to flip these items. However, dealers and the like can have a field day all for showing up at the crack of dawn and standing outside the earliest.

Brett, no doubt on your assessment on the pricing as you would think Wieters could be a $1,500 jersey and for the right price a lot more than that. Wieters potential is huge with upside.

The Nats last year did it fair in my opinion. They sold no name jerseys for under $200 and any of the starters were put in hourly silent auctions and drew big crowds.

[mr.miracle]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Brett, no doubt on your assessment on the pricing as you would think Wieters could be a $1,500 jersey and for the right price a lot more than that. Wieters potential is huge with upside.

The Nats last year did it fair in my opinion. They sold no name jerseys for under $200 and any of the starters were put in hourly silent auctions and drew big crowds.

Andrew:

That does make the most sense. Once you got beyond those few name jersey's on the tables, there was just nothing. I would think that plan would make the most sense as overall, the items in the silent auction were fairly poor. In fact, of the say 15 - 20 total items, most were signed game issued bats of players like Jones, Roberta, signed team balls, signed balls of individual players etc. They could and should have pulled items like the Wieters jersey's, the top prospects like Matusz, Tillman, Arriata, Patton etc. and put them in the silent auction. That way, every person gets a chance to either bid or pass and the remaining jersey's bats, etc. end up going for the same price with no pushing/shoving etc. You would need to let everyone know in advance what you are doing of course to cut down on people trying to break Usain Bolt's 100 meter dash world record getting inside the door to the Game Used Room.

Someone said they had a Ripken batting helmet, that should certainly have been a silent auction item, how the heck does a #8 helmet make it into the large helmet bin??? Its not like the questionable Markakis batting helmet with the 21 on it where you dont know what year it was from and who might have worn or used it. Rip has worn that number since 81 until its retirement in 01, so it obviously had to be his helmet.

Anyway, so many ways this could have been done but sounds like the Nats have it pretty much right on.

[allstarsplus]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Andrew:

That does make the most sense. Once you got beyond those few name jersey's on the tables, there was just nothing. I would think that plan would make the most sense as overall, the items in the silent auction were fairly poor. In fact, of the say 15 - 20 total items, most were signed game issued bats of players like Jones, Roberta, signed team balls, signed balls of individual players etc. They could and should have pulled items like the Wieters jersey's, the top prospects like Matusz, Tillman, Arriata, Patton etc. and put them in the silent auction. That way, every person gets a chance to either bid or pass and the remaining jersey's bats, etc. end up going for the same price with no pushing/shoving etc. You would need to let everyone know in advance what you are doing of course to cut down on people trying to break Usain Bolt's 100 meter dash world record getting inside the door to the Game Used Room.

Someone said they had a Ripken batting helmet, that should certainly have been a silent auction item, how the heck does a #8 helmet make it into the large helmet bin??? Its not like the questionable Markakis batting helmet with the 21 on it where you dont know what year it was from and who might have worn or used it. Rip has worn that number since 81 until its retirement in 01, so it obviously had to be his helmet.

Anyway, so many ways this could have been done but sounds like the Nats have it pretty much right on.

No way that is Ripken's helmet and ended up in there. Has to be an explanation like a number peeling off.

If it is, it is the steal of the new decade!

[Manram]

Re: O's Fan Fest

No way that is Ripken's helmet and ended up in there. Has to be an explanation like a number peeling off.

If it is, it is the steal of the new decade!

I have to agree. You would have to think the Orioles would have noticed that

[mr.miracle]

Re: O's Fan Fest

I have to agree. You would have to think the Orioles would have noticed that

Lets just remember, this is the Orioles, the people working the tables at the event were not exactly Einsteins. With this team, nothing ever surprises me.

[Manram]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Lets just remember, this is the Orioles, the people working the tables at the event were not exactly Einsteins. With this team, nothing ever surprises me.

This is true, but you just wonder how they would not catch something like that

[orioles03]

Re: O's Fan Fest

http://wjz.com/services/popoff.aspx?...tationName=WJZ&


video from news has helmet included looks good to me

[spartakid]

Re: O's Fan Fest

Is that the same Geoff Stuart as is on the forum? Although they spelled his name Jeff Stewart.

[mr.miracle]

Re: O's Fan Fest

This is true, but you just wonder how they would not catch something like that

I overheard a cashier at the register in the game used room saying that when they were putting out all the items on Friday, the employees were trying to get permission to purchase items like the Weiters, Matusz and who knows what other players. I guess they were told they could not do this. Somebody knew what they had there. I too would find it very difficult to believe that had they been cleaning out the closets and storage rooms and found a batting helmet with a # 8 on it that somebody would have have recognized what they had.

You would think that anything that was Ripken related would have been stored in a secure place tagged and cataloged and when the time was right, the team would have pulled it out and sold it accordingly. Then again, this kind of takes me back to Jeremy Fefel the guy that was a team employee that was stealing stuff out of the Warehouse storage rooms and selling it online. From everything I have heard, there was no specific area in which Ripkens remaining memorabilia was stored or in any way cataloged. The dumb thing was trying to put it up on ebay a couple of years back and thinking nobody would notice.

Somebody else posted about being concerned about the items all being gamed used. I feel the same way, there were in some cases multiple,multiple duplicates of players that might have only been at spring training or up at the end of the season that might have literally had 20 at bats. There is no way that this person used 10 bp jersey's. I have my own level of concerns in how the Orioles catalog this stuff as game used. Do they just grab everything off the rack left in the locker room at the end of the season and just throw it into a bin and label it game used?

Just not sure what in their mind qualifies as game used.

[mr.miracle]

Re: O's Fan Fest

http://wjz.com/services/popoff.aspx?...tationName=WJZ&


video from news has helmet included looks good to me

That is in fact Cal's correct helmet size 7 3/8. I too think it looked good from the brief images, good catch.