Slowdown on receiving Post Season items

[Swoboda4]

It's quickly approaching a month that I'm waiting for a post season item, already paid for, to be shipped out. Does anybody else have this experience? I bought a WS game three ball from Steve McRae at The Highland Mint. You think for what I paid for it (or can be argued, stupid enough to have paid that amount) that it would have been delivered by now. MLB says 4-6 weeks, but this is in contrast to items being delivered in 4-5 days during the post-season. I emailed Steve who initially wanted to know if I wanted any more items. I indicated I didn't get the first one yet. He wrote that I'm definitely set for the ball but that MLB is currently at the MLB summit. So EVERYBODY is going to the summit? Everything stops because of the summit (what the heck is a summit anyway?) So things grinds to a halt? Let me guess, the summit is how to increase and make business better and in the process they stop doing business. This was purchased directly from the Highland Mint and not through MLB auctions; so the option for complaint may not exist. So, has anyone else who won, or purchased post season items not received theirs yet?

[metsbats]

Robert

The only item I purchased which shipped from mlb arrived in 1 day but that was weeks ago. I will be at Citi Field tomorrow to pick up the other items I purchased directly from the Mets. They offered to ship but I wanted to make sure the stuff didn't get lost or stolen in transit. If you want I can ask the Mets about your situation while I am there.

I returned a retail item couple of weeks ago to mlb and it took them till yesterday to credit my account. So they have been slow. Btw the summit was two weeks ago the week of the 16th.

David

[Swoboda4]

David thanks. The only thing I could think of is that the ball although MLB property, is physically at Citi Field with similar post season items from that location ( I doubt they got collected, and shipped elsewhere for holding ). So by not going through the Mets (they probably wanted to sell it themselves) when they get around to it, they will send it out (I hope. Would it surprise anyone if I find out it was already sold and The Highland Mint sends its deepest apologies?). Thanks, If you can see if its there the hologram number is JB 044011. What started this is seeing a game three ball just listed on ebay on a pitch by Syndergaard and fouled off by Hozmer (same as mine)-but the 3rd inning instead of 6th.

[carbonrosa]

There's something fishy going on there at highland mint for you not to receive your item from them by now. All items I won from this post season at MLB auctions arrived 3 to 4 days after auction closing. The only thing screwy was ups sending multiple emails stating delivery times but I still got my items pretty quickly.

What I don't get is why use Steve at highland mint as a middle guy to pay higher prices when you can just call MLB and make your own deal? He contacted me last week to sell me a Bryce Harper 2015 All-Star locker name tag 1 of 1 for $2500 and said if interested he'd check to see if it was still available from MLB? If that's the case, why wouldn't I just checked to see if it's still available myself? When Harper won MVP he immediately contacted me saying MLB now wants $3000 and I was like I'll just wait to see what his name tag from this year goes for on MLB auctions when that ends in a couple of days, which I won for a quarter of the price. I received that name tag within three days.

What's going on is that he's trying to make deals with MLB then seeing who out there is willing to pay the price he wants which in turn he waits for MLB to ship the items to him and when he's happy with the profit he can make, then he'll say the items are ready to shipped from him out to you.
Bottom line, tomorrow call MLB's shop directly from there website and ask to speak to who is in charge of selling game used items and find out what the deal is. I've called them before and asked about game used items and their availability and gotten answers in the past.

[Oriolesfan29]

Steve McRae is probably the shadiest person I have ever dealt with in this industry. Very unprofessional in emails if you ever disagree with him. I would follow the lead of the recommendations of the other forum members and follow up with MLB directly. I will say the one and only item I have ever bought through him was a Manny Machado nameplate, which after needing to get framed, only took a few weeks to receive.

[Swoboda4]

The only reason I dealt with Steve is that his price was 700 dollars cheaper than the Mets, for the same ball ( mindful that all Teams and outlets have access to sell the same items from the same inventory sheet).

[metsbats]

Robert, The advice I got from the Mets today was to contact MLB directly regarding the WS ball. Everything goes out from MLB directly. -David

[Swoboda4]

David, thank you very much. How was Citi Field? I see they removed the turf from Citi field. Too bad we couldn't grab some!

[Swoboda4]

David, that photo of the bats. It's like a great year staring right at you. What's the story; they're open during the winter? The kiosk? from 126th Street? Anyway, I contacted MLB auctions customer services and once they realized the game 3 ball was purchased from a licensee (Highland Mint) and not the auction they threw me back to Highland and to Kathy Riley. She wrote back ( and both MLB and Highland answered emails quickly, but the ball remains in a Raiders of the lost Arc shelved archive somewhere) and said they are waiting for the ball to be delivered from MLB to them, they check the hologram and then send it to me. So I don't know what's next. But here's a question, if The Highland Mint is making money, and MLB is too, what did that say about the Mets quoting me a price approximately $700 more for the same ball? And MLB didn't seem to object to The Highland Mint's price to me. So when the Mets say MLB sets the prices are they "not correct" ?

[esigs]

As a player collector, I've purchased GU items from at least 8 different MLB teams & talked to a few more. There doesn't seem to be a consistent approach for selling GU items, and the involvement and role MLB plays in the sale. I've heard about them setting prices, but it doesn't seem to be across all items or there must be flexibility as some prices quoted directly by the teams were somewhat negotiable. Some teams appear to have far more items for sale than others, and it's not clear to me the rationale for that disparity. For instance, the Marlins GU coordinator told me that he doesn't get regular season jerseys/hats for non-star players, but they get from special events such as Memorial Day or Opening Day. I don't no if this is a team issue or MLB issue, but I'm guessing it's a team issue since other teams sell items for all their players. One improvement to the MLB GU program I'd like to see is more clarity on buying opportunities we have.

On the World Series items, it appears to me that the Mets have/are selling more items more quickly than the Royals. I have inquired with the Royals GU coordinator and he said he didn't know what items and when he would have them. He also wasn't clear on whether the HM would get items they may be marketing. I had an email exchange with HM's Steve, after receiving an email offering World Series nameplates, framed with a picture and 2 coins. I asked for the price if I wanted just the nameplate & his reply was that it was the same price. When I asked why HM would frame the nameplates for free, he replied that they are a "loyal company" & they "like to show our incredible skills with these." I can't imagine any company would spend time & money just for loyalty, unless their margins more than cover the cost of framing the nameplates.