Finding the Best Deals on Sports Jerseys and Athlete T Shirts
Finding the best deals on sports jerseys and athlete T-shirts can be difficult, as these linchpins of a fan’s wardrobe are often overpriced. Purchasing jerseys to illustrate support for favorite players and teams has become a rite of passage for today’s dedicated fans (as well as for fans’ family and friends, as jerseys make great gifts). Finding them at a reasonable price, however, is a challenge. This helpful list of ‘dos and don’ts’ highlights the surest ways to find the best deals on jerseys.
Do
Shop online. The plethora of websites selling jerseys on the Internet allows for quick and easy comparison shopping, ensuring that you can find the best deal without having to leave your home. Additionally, local stores are less likely to have discounted goods than online shops are.
Use numerous comparison shopping sites when searching online. Google’s ‘Shopping’ filter creates searches that include both local stores and online ones. Similar sites such as pricegrabber.com and bizrate.com are highly rated resources that help find the best deals on the web.
Understand the different features of authentic and replica jerseys and athlete T-shirts. Authentic jerseys are the most expensive variety ($150-$400 price range) as they are exactly the same jersey your favorite star would wear on game day, featuring quick-dry polyester StretchAir fabric and player information that is tackle-twilled onto the jersey. Replica jerseys look similar to authentic jerseys, but are made of cheaper nylon mesh and the player information is screen-printed ($55-$100). Athlete T-shirts are relatively simple and cheap ($10-$25) as they are T-shirts rather than jerseys and thus, do not look like what they players actually wear during a game. The team, player name and number are all still screen-printed onto the shirt though, so athlete T-shirts represent the player and team in the same manner.
Buy during the offseason when demand is lowest.
Don’t
Buy at the ballpark. Like everything else sold there, prices will be heavily inflated.
Automatically trust the seller of authentic jerseys, especially if it is an individual. Ask for a guarantee of authenticity.
Be afraid to buy used jerseys. As long as you can verify condition and authenticity (if necessary), used jerseys are significantly cheaper options that do not require you to sacrifice quality.
