As some of you know, White Sox Charities held their annual Garage Sale over a 2-day period last weekend. It was a great sale, especially if you collect bobbleheads and needed the special giveaway ones from years past. If you are into game used stuff, they had tons of jerseys and bats. They also had an entire section dedicated to autographed balls. Prices weren’t outrageous and people seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Got me thinking, why don’t the White Sox have an Authentic Team Shop?
I know what you are thinking, “You big dummy MSS, they have a shop down by the grab and go marketplace, 3rd baseline!” And that’s why I get paid the big bucks, IT’S NOT THE SAME AS OTHER PLACES! What we have now is basically a place to display the in-game auction items. Oh and game used baseballs. Lots of game used baseballs. Tons of baseballs. Oh you might be saying “But MSS, that place is too damn small to have a good shop set up for the collector!” and to that I would be saying “Balderdash!” When we went to the Reds stadium last year to get drun…eh…watch baseball, we went into the Reds shop which was smaller than my dorm room. It was jammed packed too, jerseys, hats, balls, bats and the MSS fave, helmets. So while it doesn’t apply to every situation, in this case, size DOESN’T matter.
Even with a shop, you could still use the premium items as your auctions. You wouldn’t have to stop the garage sale either! All the duds or non-purchased items during the season, can be sold at one of two different garage sales. Mid-Season garage sale AND the end of the year blow out garage sale! Get that stuff out the door with great discounted prices. PLUS, you won’t have all the stuff in the store that you sell at the sale. You don’t need to stock the old giveaways, or special items, just stock game used gear! It will still draw the crowd.
On Friday, the first day of the sale, there were HUNDREDS of jerseys. HUNDREDS. Imagine selling 30 a homestand? And getting a premium price from a fan that might not make it to a one-day garage sale.
You’d be doing one other thing too. Something that I think should be celebrated…
REWARDING PEOPLE FOR GOING TO GAMES!
This is something that as a season ticket holder and frequent game go-er I think is very lacking. The people who are at the stadium rarely get a benefit like this. It should be celebrated and rewarded. A collector might just head to a game to check out the shop. I like being able to buy stuff on the internet, especially from places that I can’t get to. You still have MLB auctions. You still have online sales. But they can add this store and still have enough stuff left. I know you got this White Sox Charities!
In summary, it’s time we had a real authentics store at the stadium. Let’s reward the collectors that go to games too! White Sox Charities deserves a store to sell more than just game used balls. Peace.