Shopping is the universal cure-all!

Yesterday (and again this afternoon) the Wings hosted a sale at the Joe. I got there, if a little late (and sunburned - who knew sunroofs could do so much) thanks to astronomical failure at parking. Unfortunately Christy couldn't make it down, but she asked me to note the prices of some of the game-used sticks and other available items, and the experience was interesting enough that I thought I might as well share it.

It was incredibly odd to see the Joe so empty - though there were quite a few people there for the sale. We had to stand in line for about forty minutes, as they were letting only a certain amount of people in at once. In the meantime, about a million hockey-playing kids walked by with brand new sticks that were the players' extra at the end of the year, which were being sold for less than the cost at an equipment store. An interesting aspect of the sale, as I would never have even thought about it.

Once inside, the first wall was entirely made up of game-used sticks:

• The rookies, Jiri Hudler (who must secretely hoard all of his, there was only one in the entire display), Tomas Kopecky and Valtteri Filppula were going in general for around $100 apiece. There were some from the end of the season when Filppula started using those RBK sticks of Pavel's as well - $225.

• Kyle Quincey's sticks were going for around $50 (I nearly picked one up), along with most of the other Griffins kids' (Meech, Himelfarb, Ericsson). Inexplicably, Danny Markov's were also, for the most part, $50.

• Robert Lang had by far the widest variety of sticks. I couldn't at least four, ranging from insanely long gold-painted ones for around $80 though most were around $150. Unbeknownst to me, he actually also used the RBK sticks at some point in the season, and they were $225 as well. Mikeal Samuelsson had a similar range, mostly between $125-$200.
  

• Henrik Zetterberg's ranged between $250-$300 and some, as did Pavel Datsyuk's. Unless you wanted an RBK of Pavel's - then you'd best be prepared to shell out $350.

• I didn't get a good look at the goalie sticks, but Liv and Howard's looked to be going for around $100. Hasek's, on the other hand, got as high as $300. Unfortunately I didn't notice Osgood's at all.

Of course, sticks weren't the only thing for sale:

• Game-worn gloves covered the table next to the sticks. For the most part, a pair was around $245, and the single ones were somewhere around $125. I didn't notice much difference with regard to player, though I would assume the players I looked at (Schneider, Cleary, Samuelsson) would have been around the same price range if they did.

• The difference in prices because of the player was really apparent especially in the game-worn jerseys (unsurprisingly). A game worn Hudler jersey from the second half of the season was going for $650. Datsyuk? $1800.

• Goal-scored pucks went for around $245 each, though I believe they were different based on who had scored as well. While I was looking at these, a guy behind me asked the woman working if they had any "milestone" pucks. She gave him a very perplexed look and said, "Sir, the players tend to keep those."

• Also for sale were game-used skates ($245 for a Quincey pair, I didn't note anyone else's), shorts and helmets (neither of which I could get close enough to to price - sorry Christy!).

The pro-shop was open as well, with the regular wares (including those great red Detroit D hats), and two discount tables - for $5 you could get such things as nice Cup run 2007 t-shirts (including ones with rosters, Ride the Red Wave shirts, and the Duck Season shirts), and for $2 there were various pucks and pins. And of course the bobbleheads - $5 for Zetterberg, Lidstrom, or Lidstrom in a suit with the Norris (tempting); $2 for Shanahan, Hull, Hatcher, Whitney, or Fischer (I caved on that one - I miss Fischy. I wanted to post a picture, but my computer's rebelling.).

Overall, even though I didn't buy much, it was definitely worth going - I had no idea how much most of these things would be priced at, and it was really interesting to see just how all the prices varied, too. Seeing people blowing entire paychecks was fun too - maybe next year! Just being in the arena was a nice way to combat this hockey-drought - and I treated myself to a coney dog at Cheli's afterward.