Striving to be First Place Sales Winners Sports

Fan Stores’ Best-Selling Toys

Sports fans are always eager for team-centric toys to enhance a collection or just for fun. For this article retailers from team stores and fan shops described their top sellers in this category and what’s new in toys this year.

At Baltimore Sports & Novelty in Owings Mills, Md., Owner Jeffrey Katzen and longtime Store Manager Geri Durham, offered their takes. “We don’t do much plush,” Katzen said, “but we have plenty of bobblehead players that do quite well, especially the Lamar Jackson.” Jackson is of course the star quarterback for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

According to Durham, the store just received two new bobblehead figures that are both doing very well. “One is the Orioles mascot which is an oriole, and it plays ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’ The other is for the Ravens. Their mascot resembles Edgar Allen Poe, and that has a lock combination-type mechanism which you can use to change the numbers that countdown to the next kick-off. For example, right now its 47 days to the next kick-off. Because you can change it every day, it’s a lot of fun.” She said she thinks both toys will continue to do well.

“Our mascot is the Philly Phanatic. We have a wide variety of that plush figure, small beanies, large figures. People also like to buy baseballs, and many collect those from each stadium they visit.”

- Karen Gjellestad, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pa.

Katzen displays toys in the approximately 1,200-square-foot store by placing new items on the counter directly so that customers can easily view them at check out; one of each individual bobblehead is placed on a shelf behind the cash register, out of their boxes so that customers can see them. Display of toy items is dictated both on where they will catch the eye, and limited storage space on the sales floor.

The store only carries licensed toys, and all of their merchandise is licensed.

At Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa., Karen Gjellestad, sales associate at the Philadelphia Phillies

NFL team store, speaking for Manager Megan Kelly, said that the store’s top selling toys are its plush mascot. The signature, costumed, lime-green plush depictions come in a variety of outfits and sizes. “Our mascot is the Philly Phanatic. We have a wide variety of that plush figure, small beanies, large figures. People also like to buy baseballs, and many collect those from each stadium they visit.” This year, there are no new toys as yet. “We had an abundance of the Phanatic plush left over from last year, so we haven’t gotten the new colors as yet. People are very much buying them now.” Other toy items that the store sells include batting gloves and small wooden bats, and Oyo mini-player figures that can be assembled and positioned into different shapes, similar to LEGO figures.

Along with the vividly green Phanatic, plush team logo teddy bears, some with ball, cap and baseball jersey, others with little “P” logo sweatshirts, are popular, too. Some teddy bears are sold in sets with baseballs. There are team player plush figures, rainbowcolored llamas, and unicorns with team logos, too.

According to Gjellestad, “We display in categories and we have various sections for items, such as plush in one area, batting gloves in another, novelty items