By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Those free Vegas Golden Knights player posters in the T-Mobile Arena lobby have become so popular that the team has installed a sign advising fans to take only one poster and a worker to monitor the table.
Some fans are simply collecting the 11-by-17-inch color game posters, which feature a player on one side and statistics on the back.
But LVSportsBiz.com has witnessed some fans taking 10 or 15 posters off the pile and selling them on eBay where unsigned posters can fetch $18 a pop and signed ones can go for $60 a piece. A VGK coach Gerard Gallant poster from a preseason game even sold for $158 Sunday, while a seller is pitching posters 1-22 for $1,000, and asking for an opening bid of $400. LVSportsBiz.com reported on this topic Monday.
Even Golden Knights fan Scott Gulbransen, who runs the LV Raiders Report website, said he saw other fans take dozens while he was lectured for taking three for his sons at home. He posted this on Twitter: “@GoldenKnights Disappointed and insulted by your staff at the main entrance near free game posters. Always take three for my sons who all can’t be here and was lectured and insulted while others snagged dozens. Not happy you should correct. #CustomerService”
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A young woman monitoring the poster table in the lobby before Tuesday night’s Golden Knights-Columbus Blue Jackets said she was told to be there because fans are snagging too many posters.
Tonight’s poster features William Karlsson, a former Blue Jacket player who scored his 26th and 27th goals off the season against his former mates. The Knights defeated the Blue Jackets, 6-3, in front of 18,231 fans — the second biggest crowd of the season.
The Golden Knights had an action photo of Karlsson in action — and did not show “Wild Bill” in this jersey.
LVSportsBiz.com reached out to Golden Knights Chief Marketing Officer Brian Killingsworth about the closer monitoring of the game day posters.
Killingsworth said, “We were noticing a tremendous amount of interest and excitement in the game day posters and we wanted to try to do our best to make sure all fans that wanted one would be able to get one.”
VGK poster collector Joey Totaro did notice people taking many posters. But now he eyed the Chance the mascot sign saying it’s one poster per person and thought that sign would be a nice addition to his collection.
“My reaction is I want that Chance sign that says one poster per person please,” Totaro told LVSportsBiz.com.
The team typically has at least 15,000 posters ready for each home game, and usually includes a photo of a VGK player who used to play for the NHL team that is visiting T-Mobile Arena. For example, defenseman Nate Schmidt was pictured on the poster when the Knights played the Washington Capitals, Schmidt’s former team.
In late December, LVSportsBiz.com first reported on the game day posters being collected by fans.
We leave you with the words of Brad Hunt, who scored his first goal of the year and is one of the super good guys who goes out of his way to connect with fans at City National Arena.
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