Ticket collectors, show us your tickets !

[Gary Dunaier]

Here are some interesting tickets of recent vintage... I've got a whole collection of images (mostly Mets tickets) on Flickr...

September 24, 1975: full unused ticket to see the Red Sox v. Yankees at Shea Stadium during the period of Yankee Stadium renovation... this is the only ticket of the ones I'm sharing in this post that I bought on the collectors' market...




October 2, 2004: the penultimate Montreal Expos game, and their very last victory...



I got these tickets on Ebay for a terribly low price - I think it was $25 for the pair ($64 face value per ticket), just shows you how bad the Mets were back in '04 that the guy who had these 8th row field box tickets near third base was willing to let them go for just $12.50 apiece...


July 15, 2008: the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium... both sides of the ticket are shown...



Interesting story regarding how I got this All-Star ticket... I didn't actually attend the game, but I was outside the ballpark taking pictures of Yankee Stadium and environs... I found this ticket, believe it or not, on the counter at the McDonald's on River Avenue and 161st Street during the game. I waited a few minutes until it was apparent nobody claimed it, so I took it... didn't bother trying to go to the game, I was just happy to get it as a collector's item... incidentaly, that brown stripe on the bottom of the front is supposed to include authentic Yankee Stadium dirt, that's what it says on the back.


September 12, 2008: a ticket from the very last game to be rained out at the original Yankee Stadium... the game was re-scheduled for the next day as part of a day-night doubleheader...




September 20, 2008: the final DAY game at the original Yankee Stadium... this ticket is for a seat in the first row of the Tier Reserved, and the "obstructed view" refers to the continuous flow of fans in the aisle directly in front of the row...




September 28, 2008: season ticket/planholders' ticket to the final game at Shea Stadium...




April 13, 2009: the very first regular season game at Citi Field...




April 20, 2009: the very first game to be rained out at the new Yankee Stadium...



Interesting story: when I was buying my tickets for 2009 Yankee games, I wanted to go as early as possible... I was already going to see the Mets on Saturday 4/18, so I decided my first game at the new Yankee stadium would be the Tuesday night game, 4/21... after I bought the ticket, I realized Monday 4/20 would be the first NIGHT game, so I subsequently bought 4/20 and said that either I'd go the next night as well or "eat" the ticket... as it happened, 4/20 got rained out so my original choice, 4/21, became the first night game at the new ballpark... giving me two "firsts" instead of one.


July 18, 2009: "print-at-home" ticket to the second of Paul McCartney's three concerts at Citi Field... I went to all three shows, and I've got hard tickets for them all... I found this "print-at-home" ticket discarded on the ground after the show, and since it was printed in color, on good paper, and except for being folded was still in good condition, I decided to keep it... this digital image deletes the personal information of the original buyer, as well as the barcode...




April 19, 2010: New York Mets' rookie sensation Ike Davis' Major League Debut... from a collecting standpoint this season ticket/planholders' ticket is more "complete" than most of the others you'll see, because it includes the little area to the left of the perforations from where the ticket was supposed to be torn out of the book...