Asking A Little Much

Occasionally, I find myself clicking through eBay or other reseller sites as I look for jersey ideas. There are a lot of jerseys that on those markets that I'd consider overpriced by a large margin, but that's the catch: you have to know your limit on what to spend when it comes to something you want. Overpaying for anything takes the lustre off the item you're buying because you know you spent more than you originally had wanted.

If you recall, the Buffalo Sabres wore this style of jersey following the attacks on September 11 in the first game of the 2001-02 season as they visited the New York Rangers on October 7, 2011. Along with the Rangers and the rest of the hockey world, everyone stood in solidarity with the city, the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in a horrific act of terrorism, and the survivors of the senseless act that cost New York and the world some peace of of mind. As Sabres equipment manager Rip Simonick stated, "It wasn't a game for the league or the players. It was for the people."

Eric Boulton was in the lineup for the Sabres on October 7, and he played in the game as was noted on the boxscore when he and Sandy McCarthy of the Rangers fought at the 17:56 mark of the second period. Outside of that, Boulton didn't have much of an effect on the outcome of the game which saw Brian Leetch score at 2:45 of overtime to give the New York Rangers the 5-4 victory. When all was said and done, Boulton had played just 4:23 of the game through eight shifts, recording one shot while sitting in the penalty box for another seven minutes of time.

The jersey above is a Buffalo Sabres jersey apparently from that night that Eric Boulton wore in the game. The reason I am posting this jersey is that there is someone asking $10,000 for it!

That sale can be found on Sideline Swap, a reseller market for all kinds of sporting equipment. In this case, the seller is looking to sell his autographed Eric Boulton 9/11 Sabres jersey, but I think he may be holding onto this one for a while based on the sale price he's seeking.

In my disbelief that anyone would demand five figures for a jersey that wasn't game-matched in any way, shape, or form, I went seeking other 9/11 Sabres jerseys for comparison to see if this seller had done his homework. Normally, I check a handful of places to get a rough idea what the going rate for a specific jersey might be, so I put my Google-Fu to work.

• A Vyacheslav Kozlov 9/11 Sabres jersey with a team letter sold on Game Worn Auctions for $1681.89.
• Denis Hamel, Boulton's linemate in the October 7 game, had his jersey sold with a team letter on Game Worn Auctions sold for $1111.96.
• An Andreas Johansson jersey from the Rangers was sold for $4500 by Shafran Collectibles.
• All of the jerseys were auctioned off after the October 7 game with proceeds being raised for The Twin Towers Fund to aid victims of the terrorist attacks. As per the Third String Goalie blog, "[t]he highest bids were $20,010 for Mark Messier's Rangers jersey, $15,010 each for Richter and Leetch of the Rangers, $9030 for Theo Fleury's Rangers jersey and $8030 for Lindros of the Rangers with the highest Sabres jersey being Barnes at $5885. In total, 44 jerseys were auctioned off and over $215,000 was raised."

Based on these sale prices, the $10K ask might be a little high. If Stu Barnes' jersey went for $5885 as "the highest Sabres jersey", I'm not certain that $10,000 for Eric Boulton's jersey is remotely worth the money. Further to that, any game-worn jersey collector would see the jersey's value lowered thanks to the autograph on it, so this Boulton jersey, while significant for its historical value, isn't close to the asking price that the seller set.

While I wish the seller well in finding a buyer, I'm thinking this might be priced so it doesn't sell as the seller admits in the listing that of all his "gameworn tough guy collection", this jersey "is my #1!"

The moral of this story: don't overpay for polyester.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!