The Winter Classic has come and gone. The loss cooled the hype and euphoria and all that remains is the memorabilia and the memories we made.
Since we can’t display our memories on the wall, we’re left with game worn jerseys. After tracking down almost every price out there for the Nashville Predators game worn jerseys, I’ve compiled a list of those prices for your viewing and informational pleasure.
First things first — the relevant info.
Winter Classic jerseys are broken down into four sets. There is a set worn in warmups which goes…somewhere. The first period set of jerseys goes to NHL Auctions/Fanatics. The second period set was sold by Meigray. And the third period set goes to the players themselves.
Without further ado, here are the prices thus far.
In general, the NHL Auctions prices on the first period sweaters ended up being considerably cheaper than the prices that Meigray put on pre-orders for the second period jerseys. Of the twenty two players’ jerseys that I have compiled both prices on, nineteen of them were more expensive on Meigray.
Doing the math on those nineteen jerseys, NHL Auctions was on average $852 cheaper than Meigray on jerseys where auction buyers came out ahead. That’s a big difference. To make matters worse, one of the three “green” jerseys, Ryan Ellis’ second period set, is only cheaper because he was unable to play in the second period.
Why were the NHL Auctions jerseys so much less expensive? There’s a few obvious reasons.
The easiest explanation is the Preds lost and in spectacular fashion. After going up 2-0, they gave up four unanswered goals and were nearly blown off the ice for a good chunk of the second and third periods. The Dallas Stars won 4-2. In a one-off kind of scenario, the losing team is almost always going to take the hit when it comes to value of memorabilia afterward.
Another possible reason might be the manner in which the jerseys were moved.
Meigray kept a list of claims on each player from the time the Nashville Predators were announced as Winter Classic participants. In December, they sent out e-mails to the collectors who had their names at the top of the list offering the opportunity to pre-order that player’s Winter Classic jersey. You could lock it in at that point, or pass on it and they would move to the next person on the list. This was pretty savvy because collectors had to pay for the jersey before the game was even played.
This allowed Meigray to sell the jerseys at their maximum perceived value.
Had the Preds won, there is no doubt the NHL Auctions prices would’ve went higher. How much higher? We don’t know, but one need only look at the Dallas Stars prices from NHL Auctions to see the impact a win could have had.
Unfortunately, this is part of the risk game worn jersey collectors undertake.
If you buy in early, you might get burnt. If you wait too long, you may not even have an option to buy in at all.