Inflated ticket prices, flood of merchandise make this one expensive World Series for fans

Fans of the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals are excited for the World Series to start Tuesday night -- and some people were lucky enough to score tickets for the upcoming games.

That said, their wallets are a lot lighter.

The Mets last won the pennant in 2000, meaning the Fall Classic was played in a pre-Stub Hub era of scalped paper tickets. Back then, $8 bleacher seats were selling for up to $1,000 on the street.

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Prices have naturally inflated with time. With Games 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for Citi Field, ticket resale services say the average asking price for seats was sitting on $1,667.82 as of late last week. That already makes them the most expensive tickets in baseball history.

In case you missed it, there are seats actually going for $1,000,000. Have you ever heard of tickets to a sporting event consisting of TWO commas in the price? Think about that for a second ...

Anyway, the previous record price, according to TiqIQ.com, was held by the 2010 San Francisco Giants at $1,661. The Boston Red Sox were close behind with a $1,660.96 average during the 2013 World Series.

Even for fans that don't plan on being in attendance, whether it be for location or financial reasons, many supporters still took a financial hit once the Mets clinched a spot in the Fall Classic after an NLCS sweep of the Chicago Cubs.

Within an hour of the team clinching, fans flocked to local Modell's sporting good stores in the New York City suburbs and sales skyrocketed online.

Sales of Mets apparel accounted for nearly 32 percent of all Major League Baseball apparel sales for the week ending Oct. 17, by far the most of any team, according to Louisville, Ky.-based SportScanInfo.com, which tracks sales of sports apparel.

"I don't compete with stores like Modell's, Sports Authority, Dick's," said Buddy Kurzweil, owner of Buddy's Sports Corner in Paramus Park (N.J.) mall, told the Bergen Record. "We go much deeper and sell items like autographs, plaques."

Kurzweil, who has been running his sports memorabilia business since 1973 according to the report, said he remembers when the Mets won their last World Series in 1986. "I had lines around the block," he said, adding that if you didn't go to his store, chances are you weren't going to have an official World Series T-shirt.

Things certainly have changed.

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