I watch quite a few MLB games. And there seems to be a lot of bobblehead promotions. Bobbleheads are given away to the first 40,000 people entering the ball park. I believe other sports also have bobblehead promotions.
What do people do with these bobbleheads? What is the life span of a bobblehead before they end up in the landfill? Are they made of recyclable materials?
Thanks for your replies. I am trying understand this phenomena. It bobbles my head.
People seem to like them.
Not my thing, but I’ve seen people line up early to make sure they get one.
Even if they were all dumped, I would guess the normal trash of a baseball game would far exceed the amount generated by bobbleheads.
I’ve got two (Luis Tiant and Mike Napoli) staring down on my from my shelf at work. I brought some extras in for friends since not everyone at the games where they were given away wanted them. At Fenway (seating capacity about 35,000) they only had 15,000 on hand for the giveaways so I’m not sure anyone makes up 40,000 of any giveaway.
The rare or valuable ones show up on eBay pretty quickly. Minor league teams really have the best bobbleheads. http://ballparkdigest.com/2016/03/28/promotions-watch-milb-bobbleheads/
They’re fun, cheap souvenirs.
I have two from a few Brewers game we went to.
They’re on a shelf in my living room. An easy way to remember the games and a fun conversation piece for people who want to know why one dude is a stormtrooper
I thought this thread would be about the load of David Ortiz bobbleheads that had to be disposed of in its entirety, due to … unfortunate design details. How many trucks full, all dumped in the landfill?
This reminds me of an old humor article that calculated how many years it would be before the Earth was crushed down into a black hole by the weight of National Geographic magazines. Because nobody ever through a National Geographic away. If I could find that article, I’d have to explain it to the young 'uns, and it wouldn’t be funny.
As for the bobble-head question, I could not find the size of an average landfill. I did find a set of typical calculations that assumed 4 million cubic yards per landfill, though, so I’m guessing that’s a decent ballpark. Waste in a landfill is compacted before burial, and I’m guessing that bobble-heads would compact to 1/3 their original volume, roughly.
Has anyone found out whether they’re recyclable? All I found was that some are made with recycled plastic and some folks use the heads in art projects.
I go to about 25 Nationals game a year and get lots of bobble heads. Mostly, I give them to my friend’s kid who is a Nats fan. At my last job, I ran a contest where the person who most accurately predicted the baseball season got to hold on to the William Howard Taft bobble head for the year (best judge of baseball) and then pass it on to the next winner. I also kept the Calvin Coolidge bobble head, because I’m only human.
Bobble head story: Me and my then girlfriend were in a novelty store and saw a Bettie Page bobble head. We both agreed that the head was probably not the body part that should be bobbling.
Baseball give away story: A friend of mine was on business in the Tampa area a couple of years after the Devil Rays (now just Rays) started up. She and some coworkers went to a game where they were giving out free baseball caps to the first 30 or 40 thousand fans. Problem was that attendance was abysmal during those years, so only 15 to 20 thousand fans actually showed up. The workers were offering three, four, or five hats to anybody that wanted them.
I’ve got a quite a few baseball game giveaways dating as far back as 1978. Some are on display on my desk at work, some at home, the two beach towels I use. I found it pretty odd when grown women were collecting Beanie babies, but to each his own.
People collect them. We have more than a few on the various knick-knack shelves: Jason Veritek, Justin Turner, Buddy Christ…
