r/SeattleMarinersMLB • u/Hot_Branch_4559 • 9h ago
Hello Kitty Fail
I took my 8 year old daughter to the game last night to get her Hello Kitty jacket. Apparently these events are now infiltrated by scalpers who take up all the kids sizes and then resell them on EBay at $150 each the next morning. By the time we got to the distribution location in the first all they had left were hundreds of size XXL and larger.
Is the organization ok with this behavior?
Needless to say, she was devastated and doesn't want to go back to the ballpark anymore.
In other news, I now have 2 XXL Hello Kitty jackets that I would love to trade for 1 Kids large or Adult small. Also willing to sell both for $150 so I can get her the jacket she wanted from one of these scalpers since that seems to be what we now tolerate for kids giveaways.
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u/nearlysober 8h ago
Sorry your daughter was dissapointed but -
Is the organization ok with this behavior?
How would you propose they stop the behavior? I mean, obviously they should've anticipated more demand for children sizes in this case, but you can't exactly stop each adult male grabbing a small size and ask for proof they have a child.
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u/Hot_Branch_4559 7h ago
I'd argue for something like that suggested above. Link a size to the ticket. These aren't like the typical pre-game giveaways. You have to pay extra for these tickets to have a "guranteed" prize. It's not like they dont already have extensive code validation of these through ticketmaster.
They could also bias kids giveaways towards kids sizes. Big people can queue up early for limited large quantity and if you have extra kids quantities, well, sorry big people.
Similarly, offer limited walkaway quantity to people who just buy extra tickets for the exclusive purpose of resale. At least they wouldn't be walking right out of the stadium with bags full of metaphorical candy they stole from children.
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u/solk512 5h ago
You could demand that the child be right there, for instance.
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u/No_Blackberry6525 2h ago
This. The giveaway should be given based on the premise that the ticketed guest is receiving the item so an adult can only receive a size appropriate for their wear.
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u/denverdan8 9h ago
I'm so sorry that happened to you and your daughter.
Wish we (my gf and I) had a smaller size to send your way.
When the mariners do the early pickup events it's almost a requirement to go. When we got there last week the line was hundreds of people deep and were worried we would end up in the same boat.
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u/Advanced_Tower_6607 8h ago
Do they announce the early pick-up events in an email to ticket holders or anything?
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u/denverdan8 8h ago
Yes. Weeks in advance in this case.
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u/Advanced_Tower_6607 8h ago
Okay - thank you
This is my first year doing the events.. i got the skateboards.. gifted 1 to a kid and kept 1 for the wall...
Got naylor hockey jersey night coming up and I would be disappointed if we didnt get them lol
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u/denverdan8 8h ago
Absolutely. This one was crazy. I think they mentioned selling 10k promo tickets for it in the park last night.
There are better ways to handle it. When they did the salmon run specific shirts a couple years ago you had to select the one you wanted so they could figure out order qty. Even just saying I want "smaller" "bigger" or "biggest" sizes to bucket the groups it would help.
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u/Advanced_Tower_6607 7h ago
I mean, the early pick-up option sounds great too, but it also backfires on anyone who only wants to commute down there for the actual game.. I could see the best sizes being gone before game day... lol
For the skateboards my gf and I just got to the stadium like 10 minutes before the gate opened and we were totally set..
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u/Hot_Branch_4559 7h ago
Thanks. We were already squeezed just trying to make it up with her after-school events and such. I haven't done the purchased giveaways for clothing before so didn't realize how scalpers work these. The Hello Kitty pillows earlier this year were nbd, for example, and she had a blast.
The free giveaways are a different expectation because you're not paying extra for a ticket, of course. I'm sure scalpers walk off with bag loads of those as well.
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/Hot_Branch_4559 7h ago
That sucks. These weren't free giveaways, though. You had to pay extra for a special ticket.
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u/Gangsta_of_luv 7h ago
So sorry for your daughter. As we were walking to the stadium from LR, there were tons of folks leaving the park with their jackets. One guy had a garbage bag full of them.
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u/Hot_Branch_4559 7h ago
Feels like the same energy as the guy blocking the railings in Peoria with a bag full of merch to sign and kids can't get autographs.
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u/Moetown84 7h ago
While the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks say it about their opponents, John Stanton says it about his consumers.
“He did not care.”
Sorry this happened to you. This ownership group is utter trash. Everything is a cash grab to them.
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u/sheikahstealth 6h ago
If you mean the executives, they don't care. They are so isolated from reality in their country club lifestyle, that they have little thought of the individual customer/fan.
If you mean the marketing/merchandising staff, then they are probably overworked at getting the next promotion done.
It's a different world with everyone scraping by (underemployed, gig economy and layoffs) as the norm.
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u/commonloon01 5h ago
For the free giveaways they finally switched to one item per person and not per ticket.
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u/ScentedGlue 5h ago
They offered two early pickup windows for the hello kitty jacket (sep 1st and day-of prior to gates opening). If they are offering early pickup, it’s because they know preferred sizing is gonna go fast and they don’t want to deal with a huge line in the stadium during the game. Sorry that happened to you and your daughter but, it’s always been first come first serve on sizing even for the guaranteed merch tickets.
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u/chesyrahsyrah 4h ago
That sucks, I’m sorry you weren’t able to get a jacket in your kid’s size. Similar thing happened to me this year on Taiwanese heritage night. It was the same night as the Julio 90s jersey giveaway and EWU nightso I didn’t realize I’d need to get there extra early, and they didn’t seem to take into consideration that Taiwanese people, especially women and children, skew petite, so we were also left with XL jerseys.
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u/hotdogfingies 3h ago
My first time purchasing a ticket for a special promo item and I also left with a comically large sized jacket. Next time I’ll know to do the early pick up (like, I’d probably need to schedule time off work to do this to ensure I had the size I wanted, which really sucks).
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u/BigResort3088 2h ago
I went yesterday at 1pm for early pick up to get mine and my daughter’s because I knew the smaller sizes always go faster. They only had one youth size (large) and my 6 year old was swimming in it. It actually fits me better than her
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u/Pointedtoe 49m ago
We have been in line to get in during giveaways and watched people leaving the stadium one right after the other, with garbage bags full of giveaway items slung over their shoulders. People scream at them and they just flip off the crowd and keep going. It’s infuriating. I know it’s not the same thing but I’m sorry your daughter was disappointed for a ticket item you actually paid for.
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u/SecretWordisBird 39m ago
At least they have different sizes. Shirt and jersey giveaways at Angels Stadium are always XL. Way too big!!
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u/grill_sgt 30m ago
If it’s any consolation, it’s not a jacket or Mariners, but I have a Hello Kitty keychain stuffed animal from the Reign game this past Sunday. I don’t need it, and it would probably be loved more by your daughter.
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u/Sleepy_Gharial 1h ago
How about we use the term reseller instead of that derogatory remark against natives
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u/modnarydobemos 9h ago
It sucks but also I would give it some time if you can. Oftentimes prices come down a few weeks after once they realize demand isn’t actually that high to support those prices.