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Golden Knights Free Game Posters Becoming Hot Commodities; Gallant Poster Sells For $158 On eBay

The Coach Gerard Gallant poster, given free during a preseason game, fetched nearly $160 on eBay Sunday.

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.”

It wasn’t him: Coach Gerard Gallant says he didn’t buy his own poster off eBay. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

 

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.

 

A signed Nate Schmidt poster is selling for $60 for eBay.

 

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.

 

Poster collectors at City National Arena, the team’s practice center in Summerlin.

 

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.

 

VGK fan Luc Roy shows that a puck bought at the Oct. 10 home opener is up to $485 on eBay.

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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.

Vehicular advertising.

 

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Your NHL standings.

New first place team.

 

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Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel can be reached at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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