The Great Fenway Ripoff
So I come home after a long day at work and sit down to one of my many benign guilty pleasures: flipping through the day’s catalogs. Tonight, we’ve got a good haul: LL Bean, J Crew, and Red Envelope. Browsing through this last, which specializes in expensive shit you don’t need (a.k.a., “gifts”), I noticed some expensive shit I actually might have wanted, if it weren’t so expensive:
This pen, which is “crafted from authentic stadium-seat wood from America’s most famous and beloved stadiums,” available in Yankee Stadium (royal blue), Wrigley Field (dark green), Fenway Park (dark blue), Dodger Stadium (Dodger blue) and Busch Stadium (gray).
And these cuff links, “crafted of salvaged seats from America’s most famous and beloved stadiums,” available in Yankee Stadium (royal blue), Wrigley Field (dark green), Fenway Park (dark blue), Dodger Stadium (Dodger blue), RFK Stadium (orange), Busch Stadium (gray), Tiger Stadium (dark green), Comiskey Park (light green), or Shea Stadium (orange).
It’s not that I’m shocked at three-digit price tags for office supplies or glorified buttons. No, what has my knickers in a twist is that while all of the pens are in the $170 to $190 (for Yankee Stadium) range, the Fenway Park pen is a whopping $250. Likewise, all of the cuff links are priced at $150—except, again, for the Fenway Park links, which are $230. Clearly, they think the most rabid fans in the game can be counted on to pony up more dough. Well, Mr. Director of Sales, the Fenway Faithful may pay more for tickets than other fans do, but we’re not stupid, and we’re not made of money. I might have bought my boyfriend $150 cuff links made of Fenway Park, but I ain’t shelling out 230 clams for those puppies. You just priced yourself out of a sale.
This member of Red Sox Nation will be saving her pennies for StubHub.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I think that’s just smart pricing. It’s a proven fact that Red Sox fans will pay much more for Red Sox related items than any other team’s fans will pay for that team’s items. Maybe you won’t pay more, but I’m sure some Rex Sox fan will. I bet some Red Sox fans will have a different logic, in which they say, yeah, Fenway is just better than those other parks, so it is worth paying more for a piece of a Fenway seat.
So yeah if a certain group is willing or able to pay more, why not charge them more? It’s the same reasoning behind charging regular adults more money to see a movie than seniors or students.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Nick, dynamic pricing and price discrimination are hardly new concepts, so if the Fenway pen/cuff links were twenty bucks more than the others, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But a whopping $80? That’s extreme.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Sarah, I was recently asked to go to a jello wrestling competition (in case you were wondering, the jello do not wrestle). But any thoughts I may have had of actually going were gone when I learned about the pricing structure:
Girls get in for free if they wrestle.
Girls who dont pay seven bucks.
A guy who brings a girl pays ten bucks for the couple.
Any guy who dares show up sans a member of the female gender pays $25.
How is that fair? I am not sure why I am choosing this forum to complain. Initially, it seemed like a good idea to mention this. Now I regret it and doubt its relevance. But I will hit the submit comment button anyway.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Sarah, I have to agree. I thought this would be an excellent gift for my Red Sox fanatic husband. But when I saw the Fenway pen was $80 more - forget. Perhaps if the Fenway pen wasn’t the only pen with a higher price I would consider. Or if it was more reasonable - $20 extra, probably. $30 extra, maybe. $80 extra - no way. It is just a pen for Pete’s sake!
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February 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Oh, my mistake… I guess the cheapest pens are $170, some are $180, some are $190. Only the Fenway pen is $250.
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February 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Dear Readers,
We are the manufacturer of these products. Sorry that our retailer Red Envelope didn’t explain that Fenway is priced higher because it is of limited availibity. Yankee Stadium and other’s had their wood seats removed in the 70’s and replaced by plastic. Fenway is a small park and only 50% of the wood has been removed and swapped for plastic at this point. Therefore, there are less Fenway wood seats in the collector market, forcing the price higher. Availibility and popularity drive prices higher. Fenway seats are very rare and we could have removed them from our program, but our experience to date has shown us that Fenway has outsold all other parks but one. We hope this helps clear up the price discrepency. We appreciate your vigilance and the opportunity to clear the air.
-Tokens and Coins
1-877-558-7404
http://www.ballparkpens.com
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