In the digital depths of Facebook Marketplace and eBay, anonymous posters sell merchandise the Orioles gave away — from bobbleheads for $10 apiece to a Baltimore-themed yacht hat for $68.
Obtaining tickets for Orioles giveaway games has become a competition between eager fans hoping to snag a Hawaiian shirt or a straw hat and sellers trying to maximize profit. The latter group attends a giveaway game, buys or collects as many items as possible and then flips them online for financial gain, according to Jack Rous, a longtime fan and moderator of an online trading community.
Rous has attended more than 50 giveaway games since the 2010s. He estimates that at least 15% of attendees are there to gather and resell free merchandise.
The Orioles hosted 24 giveaway games this season. An average of 27,550 fans attended Oriole Park at Camden Yards during those contests, compared with a season average of 21,889.
Several fans described a chaotic atmosphere on those days, as the items are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Adult giveaways are handed out to fans 21 and older, while kids are classified as 14 or younger. Scalpers roam the stadium, offering fans cash in exchange for giveaway items. Heather Manog, a 37-year-old Bel Air school assistant, said that she has frequently been offered more than $20 for items.
“I don’t love it. I can appreciate the hustle, though,” Manog said.
A niche online community of resellers has turned reselling into a side gig. Facebook Marketplace features several Orioles merchandise pieces that were handed out to fans at games, including bobbleheads, Hawaiian shirts and even jerseys. Most of the items end up consolidated among a small group of frequent sellers.
At Wednesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays, 58-year-old Mike Fold collected four Adley Rutschman golf bobbleheads. The Owings Mills native said that he’d keep one of them, gift two to family friends and sell one on eBay. Ford has frequently visited games with promotional items and occasionally sells the free items online.
“It depends on the popularity of the item. The first Hawaiian shirt giveaway, people were spending $140 … The Cal Ripken Ironman bobbleheads, I’ve seen them for $60, $70 on [eBay],” Ford said.
Buyers line up outside the ballpark to try and intercept fans as they exit the stadium, according to several fans. Some even buy multiple tickets for the giveaway games to try to collect as many items as possible, according to Rous and public forums. On Wednesday, they came for the Rutschman golf bobbleheads.
Hundreds of fans lined up outside the Eutaw Street entrance 20 minutes before the game, waiting for the bobblehead giveaway. After the gates opened, some fans reentered the line with extra tickets to collect as many figurines as possible. Damon Matthews-Bay, 67, who said that he owns between 75 and 100 bobbleheads, also trades and sells giveaway items. On Wednesday, he and his young son grabbed their two bobbleheads and left the stadium.
“Sometimes I’ll watch the game. [The main point] is to get the bobblehead,” Matthews-Bay said.
The Orioles’ policy on giveaway games is that fans receive one promotional item per ticket and that “once in the stadium, fans are not permitted to go to another gate to receive a giveaway.” But the team declined to comment on people stockpiling the giveaways. The Orioles are planning changes to their giveaway format for next year.
The Baltimore Sun reported that fans with at least a 20-game season-ticket plan will be guaranteed promotional giveaway items, which often run out. The guarantee applies to anyone with a 20-game plan or more, according to the team.
MLB declined to comment on whether the league was aware of fans collecting multiple giveaway items. Orioles fan Bill Rulo, who has been to several MLB stadiums, said that it’s much easier to collect extras at ballparks other than Camden Yards.
Rous, a 46-year-old Severna Park native, decides on which games to visit based on the promotion.
He doesn’t often sell the collectibles, but Rous did post his former Orioles third baseman Manny Machado and former outfielder Adam Jones garden gnomes online. He made $100 for each of them, which he used to buy his new cat.
While he doesn’t barter the items anymore, Rous moderates a Facebook group called “Baltimore sports collectibles yard sale.” He’s also part of several other online groups that sell collectibles.
“People sell stuff all the time, and it seems like it’s for reasonable prices,” Rous said. “But it’s weird how you tend to see them early, before the games even sometimes. And it is weird, you’ll see somebody who’s like, ‘I’ve got six Hawaiian shirts for sale.’ It’s like man, did you need to get six tickets so you can walk in six times and get the Hawaiian shirt?”
Rous echoed a sentiment shared by several fans: While they understand the side hustle, they’re frustrated that some attendees use multiple tickets despite rarely staying for the full game.
“It sucks to have scalpers or people who you know are just there for the giveaway to turn around and sell it and kind of take some of the joy away,” Rous said.
There were eight bobbleheads, seven shirts, five hats and four jerseys handed out as Orioles giveaways this season. Shirts and jerseys are only handed out in adult medium and adult extra-large. Some of the most popular items were the Hawaiian shirts given to the first 15,000 fans on July 8 before a game against the New York Mets, the Jim Palmer replica jersey to the first 20,000 fans on Aug. 23 against the Houston Astros and the straw hat to the first 15,000 on June 15 against the Los Angeles Angels.
But many fans say the quality of giveaways has declined in recent years.
Others are pleased with the club’s efforts. Tim O’Brien, a Washington native and a season-ticket holder since 1982, said that he thinks the team has a good variety of freebies. In 2018, the Orioles gave out 26 giveaway items and only two bobbleheads, according to Forbes. O’Brien noticed attendance increases when the game is attached to a promotion, which enhances his ballpark experience, he said.
“I think they’re doing it just right,” O’Brien, 50, said.
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