By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Joey Totaro tracks eBay for prices on Vegas Golden Knights player posters like a stockbroker monitoring Apple, Google and Microsoft stock prices.
With the expansion franchise securing the top position in the NHL standings with a 5-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes Sunday night, the Golden Knights are now the toast of the town in Las Vegas.
And now. the free player posters that are available at Golden Knights home games at T-Mobile Arena are valuable commodities on eBay.
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A Gerard Gallant inaugural preseason poster sold on eBay Sunday for $158.48 after 40 bids.
LVSportsBiz.com asked the VGK coach after Monday’s practice about his poster selling for nearly $160 on eBay and joked with the coach about whether he was the one who bought the preseason memorabilia.
Gallant laughed and told LVSportsBiz.com, “No, I didn’t buy the poster.”
The team provides stacks of player posters on tables in the main lobby, with the player on the poster typically a former member of the team the Golden Knights are playing that day at T-Mobile Arena.
A poster with the player’s autograph marks up the poster value. For example, an unsigned Nate Schmidt poster was selling for $17.95, while a signed poster was going to $60.
Remarkably, someone on eBay is asking for an opening bid of $400 — and hoping to land $1,000 — for a Golden Knights poster set of 1-22.
LVSportsBiz.com first reported last month on the intense interest among fans to not only collect the VGK player posters but also trade them.
Another fan and poster collector, Joey Aragon, said the people taking posters and trying to make money off them are “taking the fun out of it. But I understand there are people willing to buy our memorabilia and that’s amazing.”
Aragon noted, “You have people who want to make money off the posters and you can’t control that.”
After practice Monday, Knights forward Reilly Smith said the re-selling of posters and pro sports item is the economic underside of professional sports and said, “It’s not the greatest thing for the sport and puts on a damper for the kids.”
Fans are not just selling the posters that are picked up for free at the arena. Poster collector Luc Roy said a puck purchased at a Golden Knights-Blackhawks game for $15 at the arena’s Golden Knights Armory team store is being auctioned for as high as $600 on eBay.
A puck purchased at the store at the Golden Knights’ Oct. 10 home-opener is going for $485 on eBay — and Roy predicts it will eventually sell for $600.
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A Findlay Chevrolet car was on display in front of the Knights’ practice center today. Findlay is a major sports advertiser and sponsor, and typically has cars on display in front of the Las Vegas 51s ballpark, Cashman Field in downtown.
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Your NHL standings.
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