So Santana's is the most expensive, except for the really highly desired ones? Isn't that a little bit like saying someone signed the biggest contract ever given to a non All-Star?

So Santana's is the most expensive, except for the really highly desired ones? Isn't that a little bit like saying someone signed the biggest contract ever given to a non All-Star?

No, it's like saying someone signed the biggest contract ever (except for ones that were over $200 million).

Crazy stuff. That 1869 ticket is super-cool though - the idea of having something from a baseball game that is 100 years before I was born (almost dead on in my case) would be irresistible if I was rich - sadly I am not :(

Maybe the Mets will print and sell unused, unsold tickets like the Marlins did.

I put the ticket stub for the final Orioles-Brewers game of 1982 into my wallet, and transferred it to every wallet I've had since then. I have no idea what it's worth, but it's a nice token of one of the most amazing final weekends I can remember.

They scan the ticket, so there isn't any external evidence that it was actually used. But if you buy a ticket online then of course you don't get a unique physical item. So maybe people think it is a more rare item. I'll probably give mine to my friend the Mets fan, mostly because I can't really see myself putting it somewhere on display & it seems silly to just put in in a box.

I have Dice-K's debut!! I'll pay $100 for someone to take it off my hands.

it seems silly to just put in in a box.

It seems silly that someone would want a ticket to a game he didn't attend. The whole point, to me, of saving the ticket is it says, "I was there."

Then again, much of the appeal of memorabilia/collectibles eludes me, so I may not be the best judge.

This thread reminded me that I have some ticket stubs in a mug. Let's see what they are. Chronologically:

[Giants at?] Cubs, 4/14/79
Astros at Phillies, 4/10/84
Yankees at Rangers, 9/6/93
Bulls at Mavericks, 3/12/98
Angels at Rangers, 9/24/00
Mariners at Rangers, 9/27/10

And then two indie-minors tickets with nice stories behind them: Edinburgh at Ft Worth 5/23/02 (the first league game at the new LaGrave Field), and Kane County at Waterloo, 5/10/92, a ticket that Waterloo part-owner Jerry Klinkowitz sent me "in case May 10th, 1992 ever rolls around again."

That's a highly random collection. The game I remember best is 4/10/84, a home opener at the Vet that Mike Schmidt won with a 3-run homer off Nolan Ryan.

Meanwhile, my World Series tickets from the past two years are home-printed 8½" by 11" sheets, if I even kept them. That's a shame in some ways, and it's going to make 21st-century items on ticket stock all the rarer as years go by.

Somewhere in a box I have the tickets my dad and I used to David Cone's perfect game. I doubt I'd sell those though.

In the age of camera phones, I would think a cool pic of yourself at the event would be more meaningful than a ticket stub that anyone could apparently buy off ebay.

The only ticket stub I ever kept was the 2003 Final Four Semis when KU destroyed Marquette. I kept it for like a year, then when I moved I figured, "eh, I have a lot of pics of the game and myself sitting there, what's the point of keeping the stub?"

I also don't get he point of autographs - I'd rather have a picture of myself with the celeb.

I have the commemorative ticket and related paraphernalia (don't you just love that word?) from the very first official game at Oriole Park in 1992. That was a big deal at the time, although looking back in some ways some of it was manufactured big-dealness. Even so, how many people get to say they were at the first game of a new ballpark?

I think this was the first time that I entered a ballpark without them tearing off their stub, because they scanned the barcode on it and all tickets from then on at the new yard. It was heavy card stock, rectangular overall with a baseball diamond protruding from one end of the rectangle. When I moved a few years back I looked at the stuff, looked at the Orioles' recent performance and almost put it up on eBay, but relented.

Also that day the U.S. Post Office had a table where they would cancel stamps that you bought from them with a commemorative cancellation stamp bearing the date of that special Opening Day. I took a couple of the posters they were handing out at the gate, affixed a stamp to each, and they cancelled them for me sort of as an "I was there" authentication that is rather uncommon.

#SoSH: Well maybe I'll just put it in a box. I have a copy of last Saturday's New York Post too. In mint condition (sort of).

I do have a cool picture of myself, and you can see the 2 big screens in the background with No-Han. In a shocking display of originality, I put it up on Facebook.

#SoSH: Well maybe I'll just put it in a box.

I wasn't trying to discourage you from giving it to a friend. If he'd like it, and you don't really want it, that makes perfect sense. I simply find it curious that folks would want a ticket stub of a game they didn't attend (particularly to the point of paying money for such an item).

I've got the stub of almost every game I've been to in the past 10 years, although a few of them are just computer printouts.

I simply find it curious that folks would want a ticket stub of a game they didn't attend

Awhile back, I looked on eBay for tickets of games that nobody attended (1993 White Sox World Series tickets, that sort of thing). That struck me as a cool and affordable collecting opportunity. I never got into it – partly, things have become too easy to collect online nowadays. It's much more fun to tramp through card shows for it.

Awhile back, I looked on eBay for tickets of games that nobody attended (1993 White Sox World Series tickets, that sort of thing).

I think I used to have a 2003 World Series ticket for Fenway. ugg

(I wouldn't have gotten the ticket if they had won the ALCS).

I keep tickets on my work desk, if I remember to hang on to them.

My two favourites:

Old Yankee Stadium - May 16, 2004 (vs Seattle) - my only visit to NY, and I was going to a game no matter what.

Labatt Park (London Ontario) - June 14, 2003 - the (disputed) oldest ballpark in the world, it was the home of the (defunct) London Monarchs of the (defunct) Canadian Baseball League. A game against the Trois-Rivieres Saints, it was also "Joe Thornton Day". He threw out the first pitch, and signed my ticket. Side note: I had better seats than Joe Thornton. He sat a row behind me.

Unfortunately, I don't have my tickets from Tiger Stadium (the year before it closed) or Fenway Park (lost during the trip home).

Awhile back, I looked on eBay for tickets of games that nobody attended (1993 White Sox World Series tickets, that sort of thing).

I had for many years a ticket for the never-played Game Five of the 1983 ALCS. If I ever find it, you can have it.

I think I used to have a 2003 World Series ticket for Fenway. ugg

(I wouldn't have gotten the ticket if they had won the ALCS).

Somewhere I have tickets for the 2004 World Series in Yankee Stadium. I've still never been to a postseason game.

In the age of camera phones, I would think a cool pic of yourself at the event would be more meaningful than a ticket stub that anyone could apparently buy off ebay.
...
I also don't get he point of autographs - I'd rather have a picture of myself with the celeb.

The problem with a pic of yourself at the game is that there's nothing to distinguish which game you're at, unless you get the scoreboard with the final score in the background or something. The ticket stub is unique to that game.

Totally agree with you on the autograph vs. pic though. If you have a relevant object handy (like a ball or bat), then get them to sign that, but an autograph on a blank piece of paper is pretty meaningless.

Then again, when I meet celebrities I usually just say hi, shake their hand, and don't ask for anything.

I've got some 2001 Philadelphia Phillies playoff tickets laying around here somewhere if someone wants to buy them off me.

I've got the stub of almost every game I've been to in the past 10 years, although a few of them are just computer printouts.

Same here. My file cabinet has space devoted to the ticket stubs and scoresheets from every game I've gone to in the past decade or so.

Totally agree with you on the autograph vs. pic though. If you have a relevant object handy (like a ball or bat), then get them to sign that, but an autograph on a blank piece of paper is pretty meaningless.

Then again, when I meet celebrities I usually just say hi, shake their hand, and don't ask for anything.

I wound up sitting next to Nick Esasky's family at the 100th Anniversary game at Fenway earlier this year. After the game as we were leaving they were taking some photos in the concourse with Nick so I volunteered to take a group picture of them. After I did that he wound up spending several minutes chatting with my friend and I, signed my scoresheet and let us take our picture with him. He was incredibly nice.

I have nearly every ticket stub I've used since 1994, when a friend gave me a big mug for being in his wedding. Since then, they've all gone directly into the mug. Sports, concerts, and even some movies. I also have a bunch from pre-1994.

I agree that its a shame that we're losing ticket stubs thanks to "print at home".

Is the article comparing the current sales price of Santana stubs to the current sales price of Halladay stubs? Then of course the one that just happened is selling better, has this guy met any humans? If the week-old Santana stub is outselling a week-old Halladay stub, THEN I'd be surprised.

I had for many years a ticket for the never-played Game Five of the 1983 ALCS. If I ever find it, you can have it.

Awesome. Hopefully if I clutch it, it will transport me into an alternate universe where the Phillies beat the White Sox in the Series :)

I have Dice-K's debut!! I'll pay $100 for someone to take it off my hands.

Dollar bucks AND ironic memorabilia? Sign me up.

I still have my ticket stubs from the first Wrigley Field night game on 8/8/88. As it was rained out before it was official I could have turned them in for tickets to another game but obviously I did not. I'm not a collector but I intend to keep those.

It seems silly that someone would want a ticket to a game he didn't attend. The whole point, to me, of saving the ticket is it says, "I was there."

That's part of the reason they want it, so they can lie.

That's part of the reason they want it, so they can lie

OK, you got me. I wasn't really at the Angels game on September 24th, 2000.

Like pre-1974 World Series programs, older World Series tickets often featured colorful artwork, like the 1973 A's, the 1968 Cardinals, or the 1929 Cubs. Everything's purely functional now.

$4.00 for a World Series ticket in 1968 -- even standing room only? Wow. That's about $25 in today's money.

I visited my brother and some friends in Seattle in the summer of 2006. At an M's game my brother hit it off with a friend of a friend, and they've been married for a few years now. I kept my stub (he didn't) and gave it to them in a frame with a picture of Safeco for their engagement. My wife gets on me for being a packrat, but every so often it pays off.

9- Bob -- "The" Jerry Klinkowitz,PhD, was part-owner of a ballclub? Cool.

Since everyone is talking about saved stubs (I have every one of the 142 games I've been to), this seems like the place to ask: when you buy a ticket from stubhub and print it yourself, is there any way you can turn that into an actual ticket? Like at the ballpark? I really don't want to save pieces of paper alongside my tickets.