It doesn’t matter whether you want to attend a Major League Baseball game, buy gear to support your favorite club, grab some nostalgic memorabilia or pick up some equipment to play some recreational or youth baseball; the sport has become too expensive for many families.
Business Insider’s Daniel McMahon was shocked at how pricey it was for him to take his family to a Cubs game last year and he’s not alone. Even 2013 National League MVP and current Pirates All-Star outfielder Andrew McCutchen wrote an article last year about how low-income families can’t afford to play baseball due to the rising equipment costs.
Given this backdrop, it has become imperative for baseball fans to find ways to save money. Dealspotr has identified a variety of coupon and shopping strategies that can be utilized to get the best prices possible for a range of baseball expenses. Let’s play ball!
Most major league baseball teams have special promotions they run at periodic times throughout the season. These typically involve discounted tickets for families, free gifts (such as a bobblehead) with the purchase of a ticket or in-stadium sales on concessions and merchandise. The team web site usually has these promotions listed on their schedule, so by planning ahead you can save some money (or at least get a free gift) by attending these games as opposed to ones with no special promotions.
Sites like Groupon and Living Social are known for partnering with teams to offer amazing deals on tickets. It’s commonplace to find ticket discounts of 50% or more on these sites. As with many bargains, however, there are some things to consider. The tickets made available are often against teams that aren’t as popular and for games on weekdays rather than weekends. The seats are also not typically in prime locations. If you don’t care about those issues, though, and just want to catch a game for cheap, this is an excellent option.
This strategy is not advised for highly anticipated games between rivals or for late-season games between teams in the mix for a playoff spot, but it can be highly effective at times. The less desirable the tickets, the more likely you are to get them at way below face value on the resale market at sites like StubHub. Desirability is determined by the time of the game (weekday afternoon games are usually the least desirable), the part of the season (mid-season is usually the least desirable because the Opening Day glow has warn off and the pennant races have yet to heat up), and the quality of the opponent.
Online promo codes and coupons are very effective methods for saving money on gear and memorabilia. The easiest way to take advantage of these online promo codes and coupons is to pick a department store like Sears that runs site-wide offers regularly and has a broad selection of fan gear and memorabilia in stock.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday both occur well after baseball season has ended, but they provide some amazing opportunities to get fan gear and memorabilia at a massive discount. Other big sale seasons include Memorial Day, Independence Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. You generally want to avoid shopping during dead retail periods such as August.
If you don’t often head to the clearance section for your baseball gear, you might be surprised at what you find. It’s quite common for stores to throw excess baseball fan merchandise into the clearance bin, especially if the team is struggling or is expected to have a new look or logo soon.
Youth and recreational baseball leagues typically have their seasons in the spring, with some also occurring in the summer. Stores recognize that’s the peak season and generally hesitate to offer as good a deal during those time periods because they know demand is higher. Waiting to buy your equipment until the late fall or early winter will likely net you a better price.
While playing with used stuff might not be the most ideal situation for highly competitive leagues, most players will do just fine with second-hand equipment. If you are on an especially tight budget you can try and trade something you own, maybe a glove you outgrew or even an unrelated item like a stereo you no longer use, for baseball equipment. New sites like Swapdom.com have been created for this exact purpose, or you can always post a free ad on the old standby Craiglist.
This is a sneaky and overlooked strategy for getting perfectly good baseball equipment at a huge discount. Baseball stars are notorious for getting involved in scandals and whenever that happens, stores are quick to drop the prices for any products they’ve endorsed. In reality, though, the product is still exactly the same. Just because Alex Rodriquez got caught using steroids on a Tuesday, doesn’t mean his endorsed baseball gloves suddenly dropped in quality, even though they suddenly cost a whole lot less.
