McGuire Wire – July 25th – Inside the Largest Jersey Sale in Worcester Pro Hockey History

McGuire Wire – July 25th – Inside the Largest Jersey Sale in Worcester Pro Hockey History

They say you learn something new every day, and that was certainly the case this past week as we rolled out the largest jersey sale in Worcester Pro Hockey history.

So what exactly goes into putting a virtual, 80+ jersey sale together? Let’s find out.

SHOP JERSEYS

Step 1: A Surplus of Leftover Jerseys

When the season ended, Railers Community Relations Manager, Paul Harris, and Equipment Manager, Jeremy ‘Turtle’ Holloway, collaborated to take inventory of what jerseys were leftover. However, things looked a little different from previous years with the season being cut short due to COVID-19.

Last year, after the last Railers home game of the season, the Railers hosted a “Jerseys Off Our Back” ceremony. Fans had the chance to bid on game-worn player jerseys and winners were able to receive the signed jersey down on the ice, directly from the player himself, right off his back. During this game, the Railers wore and gave away their orange jerseys. Naturally, when the summer jersey sale went live, there were no orange jerseys up for bid.

This year, with no ‘official’ last home game of the season, we have a surplus of jerseys available for the summer sale.

Step 2: Setting Up an Online Jersey Sale

We decided to conduct the jersey sale through Handbid, the same program we use for our in-season jersey auctions. This decision was an easy one to make; Handbid is the selling platform our fans are accustomed to, and there was no safe way to host the sale in person because of COVID-19. Likewise, we have been unable to host our annual end-of-the-season equipment sale over at the Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center where fans have the chance to purchase anything from jerseys, sticks, pants, helmets etc, that the Railers players wore during the season.

So, with a surplus of jerseys this summer, we were forced to take it virtual.

Step 3: Working With Handbid

Setting up an online sale consisting of 80+ jerseys is a process.

After collecting and finalizing our jersey inventory, we had to upload all of the item information to Handbid. This entailed setting individual item titles, each of which included the player number, player name, jersey color, and whether or not the jersey was game worn/issued or signed/not signed. We then had to set the item description to indicate the jersey size, as well as the item price.

It was then time to gather in-game action shots of the players in their jerseys to serve as visuals of the jerseys we had for sale. All pictures needed to be resized so they fit the Handbid upload specs. For some jerseys, this was a challenge because some players only played a few games in a Railers sweater so there weren’t necessarily any pictures of him wearing the particular jersey color we needed. In such event, we had to take a staged picture of the particular jersey to use instead.

Step 4: Let the Sale Begin!

Before going live, we had a few conversations with Handbid to make sure everything was set up correctly on the back end and we were ready to go. The jersey sale went live on Wednesday July 22nd, but we only shared it with our Worcester Railers HC members so they could get first pick. (Pretty cool perk of being a member!)  The jersey sale was publicized to the general public on Friday July 24th on railershc.com and all three of our major social media platforms: Twitter (@RailersHC), Instagram (@Railers_HC) and Facebook (@RailersHC).

We have yet to set an official end date for the sale, but don’t wait to make your purchase! Jerseys are going quickly!

If you want to score a Railers jersey from the 2019-20 season, click HERE.

SHOP JERSEYS

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