Thursday, June 11, 2009

The World's Coolest Yard Sale

Borrowing an idea I had back in January, ESPN sent Page 2 Uni Watch reporter Paul Lukas over to the MeiGray Shea Stadium Warehouse recently to file both a written report and video (embedded below). I invite you to both read and watch.



In the video, it looked like some of the banners and hangings were actually hanging on display (showing off for the cameras, I didn't see that when I was there). It looked like there were a lot of pieces of the blue outfield wall. I remember them being very dirty, otherwise I would have bought a small piece (I still might do that later on). Still lots of photos. I looked through some of them too - some were more like silkscreen on wood rather than a poster, giant photo paper, or a framed photo. There were still quite a few signs from around the ballpark sitting along the side wall behind the shelf. Not as many as they had 5 months ago, but still plenty to auction off or sell. I just laugh at the idea that someone would want a Nathan's hot dog cart. In this economy especially, how do those NOT move over to Citi Field (remember that the City took some of the fixtures and placed them in City parks)?

One note in the video from Barry Meisel was that the Mets did want Citi Field to be all new. The article itself links to a few photos from the demolition of Shea and from the warehouse. (I don't know exactly who to credit on the photo of Gil Hodges, so I'll just say that it was one of the photos linked from the article and hosted on flickr)


From the article, talking about the economy's effect:
The timing couldn't have been worse for Meigray, since the economy tanked almost exactly when it started marketing this material. But Meigray president Barry Meisel, who gave [Paul Lukas] a tour of the warehouse last week (see video at the top of this page), says sales have been good enough to cover the company's investment and then some, if not quite as brisk as he would have been before the stock market crashed. He estimates that he has sold about 75 percent of what was originally in the warehouse.
It continues to talk about the harder to sell items. That's worth reading, and photos linked from within the text.

I also wrote about my visit to MeiGray in early February. My opinion of the entire matter hasn't changed (much) since pieces of the ballpark went up for sale, and now on the auction block.

  • The items are over priced - this stuff would move a lot faster (I may even buy more) if prices were half of what they are, and you know it has to be hurting their profit margin to have these items sitting on shelves all summer instead of being sold

  • About half of the items should have a home in Citi Field, not in my apartment - that's been topics of other posts

  • Seeing this stuff out of context (not in Shea) looks very creepy, so does the life-sized cardboard cutout of Willie Randolph in front of the "manager's" locker that they show



Looking at the auction, how can this classy picture of Casey Stengel NOT be in the Mets home?


I would like to know why they even have this item, a Fenway Franks Hot Dog Vending Box.

Thanks to Mets Police for the tip, and challenging me to "nitpick" what was in the article and video.