3 strikes to my two balls......

[gingi79]

I am going to try and relate this story without relaying my great disappointment and anger but if I slip, forgive me. Far and away, 2011 has been the worst collecting year in my decade in the hobby. Someone once posted "Will your collection ever be complete?" Outside forces have conspired to make my answer a resounding "yes" seeing as the old ways have crept into my favorite team's locker room and some suspect integrity and business ethics are clouding the judgment of another team. Then there was the jersey that magically sold out from under me. Here is the sweet and low down:

Have you ever been negotiating a jersey sale and things are going great. Then they sell it to someone else for the same price you agreed to? "Sorry" doesn't cover it, that's just lowdown. Had my guy not come back this year, believe me I would be ranting right now as it was the last jersey he wore last season and looked to have permanently injured himself before this season. It would have been his last ever jersey.
Steeeerike wooooon!

I am a player collector. This season, my favorite team celebrated their 40th Anniversary Season. MeiGray has handled the team for many years, so I emailed Barry on July 7th to Pre-Order my guys jersey. For reasons I was not made aware of, the team decided not to re-up with MeiGray and instead started selling their game worns themselves. Last season, they got a set of one game wonders to sell on their website and the prices were..... offensive to be honest. I say this because I have accumulated 11 different jerseys, a game used stick, a goal scored puck and a pair of game used gloves over the last 7 years from MeiGray, numerous Auctions, private collections and fellow collectors. When I say I know how much his stuff goes for on the primary and secondary market, I'm not just guessing. However, I figure I'll give the team a shot and be optimistic. I emailed the new rep on November 24th and didn't get a response. Emailed again on Dec 23rd and finally caught up with them on January 4th. Now I should tell you my guy was injured so they never made a jersey for him for set#1. I was flatly told that the team "sold the entire Set #2 Vintage throwbacks to one collector." Teams used to do that back in the 80's and then dealers would assign prices and "values". Milt Byron comes to mind but he was very fair in his price structure. The deal for the whole set was made long before my guy was even thinking of coming back so in my mind, that shirt should be fair game as it was not part of the initial sale, right? Just wishful thinking.....

So either this buyer will keep the entire set or sell them at a profit like any dealer would. Can't imagine he got them for market value since normal shirts are 50% or more to begin with and these were worn for 5 games, ever. Therefore IF they become available, I doubt it will be at a rational price. So much for optimism..... Steeeerike twoooo

I'm no idiot. I knew if my player was coming back, he'd have to make a stop with the minor league affiliate. Ever since he came to North America, he has played his entire career in the NHL save for a 5 game stint in the old IHL. (Wanna guess who owns his only white sweater from then?) Therefore, it would be a true "one of one" jersey. His only jersey from the AHL and the minor league team. I email the Head of Retail Sales and ask about purchasing it. We came to an agreement on price and I am told it is mine, he will put it away for me. My boy gets to the team and has an incredible first night with two goals. These are his first, second and ONLY goals scored in the AHL. Lucky me, I own that sweater. I went to bed stoked!
Well, turns out sometimes teams try to take advantage of things like having a long time NHLer on their minor league squad for a few games. The higher ups decide to have him wear 3 different jerseys, one for each game he plays in. Oh and the fact the Retail Manager already sold it? So what! They don't want to sell any of them, they want to use them at their charitable fundraisers and Retail Sales Manager has no say. Makes sense, the guy who runs your game worn jersey sales shouldn't have any say in the sale of a game worn jersey. The fact I have a written agreement to purchase long before he was even announced as playing there? They don't seem to care. Retail Manager was very upfront and apologized, he even claimed he would ask the higher ups if he could sell it to me the day of the event. Of course this team is notorious for giving jerseys like this to their season ticket holders. Some might say they deserve it more than me. I say I asked in December, agreed to a purchase price in December and therefore no one has the right to own that jersey if it is sold, but me.

Strike Three. Looking. Put up the backwards "K" and watch the long time collector get screwed out of not 1, not 2, but 3 different jerseys in the span of a month. This isn't a "woe is me" post. It's a written accord of some pretty garbage decisions made against a fellow collector. It's not like these are bats or regular season jerseys and I'll get another chance next season. 3 games in the minors for his career and he is only playing 1 game, ever, in the throwback for the big club as part of the Anniversary season. Had I not been so pro-active about purchasing them, then it would be on me. However when I make a deal with your company, have the business ethics to stand by it. Or am I just asking too much?

[April 10, 1962]

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." - Durham Bulls pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh.

[legaleagle92481]

This is the future of this hobby. More and more teams are cutting out the middlemen and selling their stuff themselves on their websites or league auction sites and merchandise stores. JO and Meigray and the like are great but in the end they are still just middlemen and the teams leave alot of money on the table by selling stuff through them rather than using their own existing employees, websites and stores to do so. There is only so much a fan will pay for a jersey especially of average players and middleman will only pay so much for the items from teams because they have to turn a profit on this stuff. The items are items that the teams do not pay much for compared with what they can sell them for so not selling them in bulk to a middleman and holding on to them for a bit until they sell is not really costing them much. Look at the success the packers had this year selling even common player jerseys for big money. Additionally, alot of players are starting to sell their own stuff ala Hines Ward and Wes Welker directly to the public. If you noticed this year Meigray had very few teams in their NHL Program.

[gingi79]

This is not a hobby, it's a business. I fail to understand how teams can hold their fans hostage with pricing. Sure, the Packers wore those throwbacks and they sold for stupid money. Just add it to the multitude of reasons why teams exploit their fan base for every last dollar.

Everyone seems to run around complaining that the old timers got out of this hobby but many of them left because of exploitation like this. Pricing on these jerseys is coming to a point where even long time fans are priced out.

A quick update, one of the Canucks partners is keeping the entire set of Throwbacks. I wasn't pre-empted by a fellow collector, they just weren't made available to the public. The fact the advertise them for sale on the website was somewhat misleading, as if I needed more reason to love and miss MeiGray. That being said, I have had some honest and quick responses from their game worn jersey department now. It's too bad pricing is more than 50% higher than comparable jerseys from last season. As Eagle said, teams seem to think they are losing money so they are attempting to exploit their fans.

For those of you who get access to your favorite players and teams, enjoy it while you can. 2 different teams have decided to keep jerseys now that were once available to me and so my attempts to own every style my favorite player has been thwarted by greed. I don't think I pay player salaries or that a team owes me anything but when this kind of thing happens, only real fans miss out. Why do I root for these teams again?

[MLB_Authentic]

Sour grapes. Get up off the ground and move on man.

[gingi79]

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." - Durham Bulls pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh.

Sour grapes. Get up off the ground and move on man.

Very helpful, thank you

[Jags Fan Dan]

It sucks when the thrill of the chase turns into the pain of the missed item, we've all been there, but if we all got every piece we wanted all the time we would be done collecting by now. Sock that money away for now and wait, something cool will turn up to spend it on.

It is crappy that you agreed on the jersey price and they said yes, only to welch on it. If you had a written agreement, take them to court and make them honor it. Not that that's what anybody wants it to come down to, but a deal is a deal when it is in writing.

[Lokee]

HONESTLY just another reason to hate the Vancouver Canucks organization. Maybe they need to make extra money to pay the Sedin sisters salaries.

[xpress34]

Gingi -

Not that this necessarily helps, but remember that some organizations rarely if ever let their GU items out into the public unless the players or staff that acquire them sell them.

The Colorado Rockies - although they do sell GU Jerseys, Bats, Hats and Batting Helmets through their Dug Out Stores - still sell large lots to long time bulk buyers well before they announce what is available at the stores so most of the big names are in the secondary market at increased prices before the collector's get a chance at them.

Rumor I have heard too is that starting this year, during ST, the Rockies are going to charge Minor Leaguers $100 for every bat they give to fans - regardless of whether the bats are broken or not and regardless of the age of the fan. If that's true, it means more bats for sale in the 'Team Store' that they and the D'Backs will have at Talking Stick.

Best of luck in your future endeavors -

Smitty

[April 10, 1962]

Very helpful, thank you

Yeah okay, whatever. We've all lost out on items we've wanted due to certain scum bags in the hobby. It's just like any other hobby...art collecting, toy collecting, whatever....there's always somebody who won't mind screwing someone else over.