Recent comments on a few different Forums regarding the number of jerseys being worn nowadays by NHL teams, the racks of jerseys in stock in our Branchburg, NJ warehouse, and the health of the game-worn jersey market got me thinking today.
How well are game-worn jerseys selling? How robust is the market?
So I crunched some numbers.
Since MeiGray was formed in 1997, since we began working with the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils in 1997, and since we began partnering with the NHL in 2002, we have kept a database that records every jersey we have ever sold and logs every jersey we have in stock that is unsold,
Want some numbers?
MeiGray, since 1997, has acquired 61,071 NHL jerseys ... roughly 4,000 per season for 15 seasons. That number includes practice jerseys and game-issued jerseys.
Of those 61,071 NHL jerseys, MeiGray has sold 53,033, or 86.8 percent of the jerseys acquired.
Of the 8,038 unsold NHL jerseys currently in our warehouse:
1,828 are game-issued. Teams for years have made up extra jerseys (mostly high numbers) prior to training camp for players that never make it to the NHL With the turnover from Airknit to Edge 1.0 to Edge 2.0, and with so many teams tweaking their jersey styles, these are no longer able to be reused. So they make it to our warehouse.
584 are practice-worn. We get approximately 50 per program team per season.
422 are consignments, which means they are unsold now, but have sold previously.
What do the numbers tell us?
The NHL game-worn hockey market is robust, and jerseys are selling. And re-selling. Any business in a market with a sell-through rate of 86.8% is thriving.
More people are collecting than ever before, authentication procedures are better now than they were years ago, and the internet has made buying/sell/trading open to the world.
So for you collectors worrying about the game-worn hockey jersey market, relax. Our hobby is stronger than ever.
Barry, good numbers. If I read your math, 8038-584(practice)-422(consign), leaves 7032 jerseys,m of which 1828 are GI jerseys, over 25% of your stock.
ReplyDeleteTime for a GI jersey sale.
Joe
Hi Joe,
DeleteWe did offer 10% or 15% off game-issued jerseys during our last holiday sale ... and we usually run two big sales a year.
One important thing to remember is that the retail price of our game-issueds jerseys is less than the price of an authentic jersey. So we sell a lot of these to collectors who are not game-worn hobbyists, just people looking for a top quality jersey.
All the best, Barry