Orioles Authentics Experience

[geoff]

Andrew you and Brett were fair when you ran the store. I was sorry to see you guys go when you both ran the store. We had many good conversations as well during each season when I went to the games.

[allstarsplus]

Andrew you and Brett were fair when you ran the store. I was sorry to see you guys go when you both ran the store. We had many good conversations as well during each season when I went to the games.

Geoff, thanks. It was always great hanging with fans like you. Kind of like the old-fashioned barber shops where we would talk about baseball, game used, and life.

[Oriolesfan29]

Well I can post a happy story about this. So the manager and I had about a 10 minute conversation today about what happened and in the end he agreed to sell the bat to me for $375. Essentially he said it is hard to try and price something on the spot right when they get the bat after the game before they can do research on what the market has been lately on an item. All of this I understand and I am glad that the manager took the time to call me and talk about all of this out, because I was fully prepared to start really limiting my purchases. Rule of thumb is don't buy something like a game used bat right after a game or else you could very well pay more for it.

[truvalue123]

Gotta say that $375 for that level of player seems mighty high..and, it is cracked..

[Oriolesfan29]

Unfortunately that's the market for the O's. He may be a lower player but he is still seen as an up and coming prospect and is a popular player on the team.

[truvalue123]

Wow, I have seen some really high opening bids on MLB.com for O's items, but, most of them don't open...at some point they must get a back up of inventory...do thjey always liquidate at the winter fan fest?
thanks for the insight.

[lakeerie92]

I can agree for sure when you get an item and people want to buy it right away it can be tough to price and this happened a lot when I was working the Padres program. I'll say this though, I would always rather miss the mark by $25-50 and take the guaranteed sale and make someone happy rather than miss a sale and potentially sit on an item. Sometimes it was out of my hands, but most of the time I was the one doing the pricing and getting good money for items while building a good fan base and growing collectors. The thing I miss most about it is the regulars. In a smaller market it feels like family.

[allstarsplus]

Wow, I have seen some really high opening bids on MLB.com for O's items, but, most of them don't open...at some point they must get a back up of inventory...do thjey always liquidate at the winter fan fest?
thanks for the insight.

They put 1/2 dozen true premium items in the piles to get the people coming but plenty of JJ Hardy, bench players, 4th and 5th starters, callups, bench players, etc.

[allstarsplus]

Sometimes it was out of my hands, but most of the time I was the one doing the pricing and getting good money for items while building a good fan base and growing collectors. The thing I miss most about it is the regulars. In a smaller market it feels like family.

Well said. I have people who are now buddies and we keep in touch.

There were some times that the team would dig there feet in the sand and wouldn't budge and only once an item sold at the ridiculous asking price and it was a Chris Davis pre-All Star record setting HR jersey. It was over $5,000 and I felt bad but the guy took it. Out of my own pocket I got it signed later for him at a Chris Davis private signing.

The team had a callup Henry Urrutia and they priced baseballs at $350 at his debut. Not one sold. They eventually went into grab bags for a few bucks as Urrutia fizzled out.

On the other side were people who came into the store or called us with some sense of entitlement and we had one guy who threatened us because we wouldn't drop the price for him. He lied and tried to say we were changing prices on him and he made it personal. The game used market unfortunately is very expensive. We got the team to sell him a jersey just to get rid of him and hoped he would go away. Even after Brett drove him the jersey he still wasn't happy. Some people you just can't make happy.

Fortunately most are appreciative of what we did for them.

[johnsontravis@ymail.com]

Unfortunately way too many of the people running authentic's programs suck at their job. The worst is trying to get replies from some of these people. The Brewers guy may be the worst I have ever tried to work with and sadly that is what I mostly collect. Emails take forever to be replied to and usually takes multiple tries. I have emailed him and he stopped replying once I was asking for pictures, price, or even to say I am ready to purchase. It is sad because it got to the point where I now refuse to even buy from them and really turned me off on the hobby.

Just a broken system around the league. No one seems to know what the heck they are doing.