That's the Ticket!

Evidently, I'm not as crazy as I thought I was for hanging on to my ticket stubs. While it's not yet a huge industry, ticket stub collecting is growing in popularity and has already earned its own little nitch.

There are several products available to collectors and some of them are quite innovative.

That's My Ticket.com offers Ticket Frames for example. Their spiel: "You got the tickets. You went to the game. You took the pictures. Perhaps there were even hotel, airline, and rental car expenses? It may have been the single greatest sporting event you ever attended. May have been? Okay, it was the single greatest sports event you've ever seen. Your friends and family are jealous. Now you're back at work and just dying for someone to ask you about your seats, the halftime show, the bone-crushing tackle, the 500-foot home run, that birdie on 17, the diving catch, or how great a time you had. But nobody has.

"Enter the Ticket Frame from That's My Ticket the perfect item for capturing the experience and memory of being there. With your game ticket as its centerpiece, the Ticket Frame combines every aspect of attending a sports event. The headline and sub-headline trumpets the game's significance. The officially licensed 8-by-10 game photo spotlights the key on-the-field moment. The 600-word game summary illustrates the day's newsworthy events and includes post game quotes from the individuals who made history. The TMT composite stat box highlights all the game's scoring and action. And, your Ticket Frame gets personalized by your 4-by-6 photo; thus you not only get to relive the memory of the game, your Ticket Frame allows you to relive your experience at the stadium."

Nice, except, I'm not the kind of person to have my photo taken every place I go. Plus, their package, while nice, is sort of limiting. For example, I'm not going to be finding frames for the Everblades games or even the ECHL All-Star game. While fun for me, I doubt my "buddies" are going to be all that impressed that I attended. And they certainly don't have the 1997 World Series available. Besides, what would I put into that photo space?



That's My Stub.com offers an alternate idea. For just a low price, they digitally reproduce your ticket(s), typically to a scale of approximately 3:1 or 4:1 onto high quality 3mm thick reinforced PVC backed card and covered with a high UV protected matt seal. Once again, you have a piece, suitable for hanging on you wall at home or in the office. They can repair damage, or add a few fake tear marks if you think what will make it look mor authentic.

Ticket collectors enjoy tickets because they are a real piece of memorabilia from a sporting event, concert, broadway show, etc. Tickets are less collected, researched and sold than trading cards, However, tickets are scarce and limited to seating capacity. The scarceness of ticket stubs translates to money value. Scarcity adds value to the price of a ticket stub. When you add the historical significance of event the value can really jump.

Ticket prices are varied and full of gaps. It takes the new collector time and effort to find their bearings. New tickets from this year All-Star, World Series or Super Bowl are expensive as people pay $100-$3,000 to attend the event and often keep the ticket. Tickets stubs from these recent events sell for about $150 a ticket stub. Even these stubs are worth the price considering the scarcity, beauty and significance.

And yes, autograph tickets have a place too. Obviously I'm not the only one getting autographs on ticket stubs.

Ticketstubcollector.com lists the factors for determining value as follows: Full ticket vs. ticket stubs. (Many venues now check your ticket with a optical scanner and do not tear it. For older games however, finding a whole ticket is very tough.) Condition: Mint, Near Mint, Fine. It should be noticed that some collectors do like the nicks and tears in the stubs. Game Results or historical value, such as Cal Ripkin's 3,000-hit game. And rare games: world series, super bowl, etc.

PSA is getting ready to offer Ticket Grading for sporting event tickets. They also plan to open the PsA Set Registry and offer a few suggestions - like all seven of Nolan Ryan's No Hitters. They have already posted ticket grading standards on their website.



For myself, I'm just kind of amused to have the tickets, and look back on them and say "Oh, man, I remember that game/show/event." To that end, I stopped by the scrap book store, got a journal sized book for $5.00 and have started adding my ticket stubs to the album using photo mounts. Not perhaps the most creative of ideas, but it's simple and it keeps them from getting crunched up or damaged any more than they are now.

And who knows, maybe one of these days, one of those tickets might actually be worth something.