Run on Pats-Giants program: travesty or free enterprise?

[Tunescribe]

It might seem like a minor problem to those who weren't there, but I WAS there and am still feeling cheated. The official GameDay program for Saturday night's game was sold out approximately two hours before kickoff when the gates opened. I was there 75 minutes before the game started and there were only about 10,000 people in the stadium, if that. I checked at several vending stations and they all had the same story: People lined up and bought the programs ($5 each) 10, 20 at a time. They already were on eBay that night, and are continuing to sell at $40-$50 apiece.

It never occurred to me there would be a run on these things and perhaps I should have been more aware of this possibility. On the other hand, the Giants should've instructed vendors to sell no more than two per person, and could have had more printed to fill anticipated demand. Suffice to say that most people who wanted a program as a keepsake from this game went without because of a greedy few. And of course, there were those -- like my buddy -- who just wanted one simply so he could identify who was on the field! The league needs to look into preventing crap like this.

As a side note: The same thing happened with Sunday's edition of the Boston Herald, which had the poster of Moss's second scoring catch as the front page. I was lucky enough to grab a copy when I hit town. Later in the day I went back to get one for a friend and it was soldout everywhere, going for $10 on eBay.

 

[unoriginal]

If you want a program or a newspaper, there's nothing stopping you from buying one off eBay, short of lack of funds.

It sounds to me like you want your enjoyment to get in the way of decent hardworking people making a living, sir! My father was a poor Appalchian program miner but he made something of himself!

 

[Tunescribe]

If you want a program or a newspaper, there's nothing stopping you from buying one off eBay, short of lack of funds.

It sounds to me like you want your enjoyment to get in the way of decent hardworking people making a living, sir! My father was a poor Appalchian program miner but he made something of himself!

OK. Next time I want to make sure I get a game program or newspaper, I'll place an early bid on eBay the night before. That's about what it has come down to. Better yet, teams should just take them directly to eBay a week before the game.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

it's all useless junk that will collect dust. the memory is what counts

 

[Tyler.Durden]

Harden up, you got to see the game, memories are worth more than any program.

It's 40 or 50 dollars, if you want one buy one or get there earlier.

 

[Tunescribe]

Harden up, you got to see the game, memories are worth more than any program.

It's 40 or 50 dollars, if you want one buy one or get there earlier.

You're a cold, cruel man ... :bricks:

 

[PatsFan#37]

That's the world we live in now. Its the same as the gaming consoles that were hard to get because people bought them up and put them on ebay for alot more than they retailed for. There isn't a law against it. But if people didn't buy them off ebay, there wouldn't be a market for them.

 

[Tunescribe]

That's the world we live in now. Its the same as the gaming consoles that were hard to get because people bought them up and put them on ebay for alot more than they retailed for. There isn't a law against it. But if people didn't buy them off ebay, there wouldn't be a market for them.

I totally understand that, it's not my point. I'm saying the Giants could and should have anticipated this and prevent it from happening. Many thousands of people went without the "service" of a program, whose function is to help with identifying players, etc. It had a functional purpose beyond being a piece of memorabilia.

 

[MVPKiller]

It might seem like a minor problem to those who weren't there, but I WAS there and am still feeling cheated. The official GameDay program for Saturday night's game was sold out approximately two hours before kickoff when the gates opened. I was there 75 minutes before the game started and there were only about 10,000 people in the stadium, if that. I checked at several vending stations and they all had the same story: People lined up and bought the programs ($5 each) 10, 20 at a time. They already were on eBay that night, and are continuing to sell at $40-$50 apiece.

It never occurred to me there would be a run on these things and perhaps I should have been more aware of this possibility. On the other hand, the Giants should've instructed vendors to sell no more than two per person, and could have had more printed to fill anticipated demand. Suffice to say that most people who wanted a program as a keepsake from this game went without because of a greedy few. And of course, there were those -- like my buddy -- who just wanted one simply so he could identify who was on the field! The league needs to look into preventing crap like this.

As a side note: The same thing happened with Sunday's edition of the Boston Herald, which had the poster of Moss's second scoring catch as the front page. I was lucky enough to grab a copy when I hit town. Later in the day I went back to get one for a friend and it was soldout everywhere, going for $10 on eBay.

I feel your pain, I was there as well, and I posted about this in another thread. My girlfriends father saw one guy walking away with 2 full boxes of programs from one vendor. I wasn't able to get one for myself, but once the prices drop to the $10 range, I'll get one. There were people wandering around the parking lot while we tailgated selling 16-0 hats (I couldn't bring myself to buy one, the phrase "Don't touch the money" kept going over and over in my head lol), I see now they are going for almost $30 on ebay, and they were not even official merchandise!

 

[jczxohn1]

Sign of the times. Making a living off of reselling E-Bay junk, re, collectibles, is a real choice. Probably going to have to itemize my collection of PFW mags in my will.

 

[Tunescribe]

Ditto! In the process of reading this thread, I'm minded of how thankful I am that what little materialistic tendency I have dies more and more as the years pass. The bulk of my Pats "memorabilia" are books and DVDs, things that stand as a record of the events themselves. Speaking strictly for myself, most everything else I might acquire is just a vain attempt to be "part of the team" when I know I can never truly be. Count me in with the at-least-you-were-at-the-game crowd.

I fail to understand how a $5 game program might even remotely approach your concept of "materialistic tendency" in this odd notion of becoming a "part of the team." Yeah, I'm very happy I was at the game and would've been happier to have a game program ("a record of the event itself"), both as a functional means of identifying the Giants' roster and for future reference. Sorry it doesn't compute for you.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

I hate to say it but this is a very minor issue.

Look at what is happening with oil prices. The market for oil is now completely controlled by oil speculators who are bidding up the price of oil to $100 a barrel simply so they can turn around and dump their oil contracts for a profit.

Ever wondered why your gas costs $3 a gallon? Because there are a lot of greedy middle men that have gotten into the oil market to bid up all the oil contracts. Hedge funds, commodity investment groups, private individuals, you name it. They are now self-inserted middle men in the oil market. You can be too if you open up a futures trading account and buy up some oil contracts.

Welcome to free enterprise. Welcome to the open market.

We all benefit and/or suffer from it equally.

Perhaps people around the country that didn't go to the game consider it a huge service that they can get a momento on EBAY.

It all depends on how you look at it. Personally, I think that the stadium in the future should just set limits on the amount of programs you can buy but that is up to them.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

It was a speculative move considering that if the Pats lost the programs would not be saleable. Risk-reward

 

[amazinPats]

it's all useless junk that will collect dust. the memory is what counts

Best comment of all!

 

[PatriotsReign]

If you want a program or a newspaper, there's nothing stopping you from buying one off eBay, short of lack of funds.

It sounds to me like you want your enjoyment to get in the way of decent hardworking people making a living, sir! My father was a poor Appalchian program miner but he made something of himself!

horders who sell their wares on Ebay aren't necessarily "decent, hard working people". Definately NOT hard working! In a perfect world, everyone who purchased a ticket to that game "should" have been able to buy a program. But it's a free market culture we live in and unfortunately, the only goal is to sell ALL the programs.

 

[Fondantf]

I feel your pain, I was there as well, and I posted about this in another thread. There were people wandering around the parking lot while we tailgated selling 16-0 hats (I couldn't bring myself to buy one, the phrase "Don't touch the money" kept going over and over in my head lol), I see now they are going for almost $30 on ebay, and they were not even official merchandise!

EBay is full of unofficial merchandise.
Do you think all the perfect season stuff on eBay is official? Some of it is downright ugly too!

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

As I was leaving the stadium there were people offering to buy ticket stubs for $10......

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

There is a segment of the population that always has that mindset. How can I make a fast buck? How can I pull a fast one?

I went to a concert one time when I was a kid and on the way out, a guy sold me a band T-shirt. He put it loosely on my shoulder as I paid him, and his buddy took it off my shoulder from behind and ran.

They were doing this systematically, and they threatened to beat me up but I got the cops and the cops showed up and said it was his word against mine and then the cop left. So I never got my money or my shirt back.