Is It OK For Adults to Collect Bobbleheads?

It was Aug. 20, 2011. My wife – a diehard Chicago White Sox fan – and I arrived at U.S. Cellular Field way before the 6:10 p.m. first pitch against the Texas Rangers. We didn’t get there early to tailgate, buy clothes at the team shop, grab a bite at the brewery or watch batting practice. Our mission was clear – be one of 20,000 “lucky fans” to secure a Mark Buehrle bobblehead. It was going to be our first bobblehead.

As we stood in line and eavesdropped on other White Sox-clad fans’ conversations about their bobblehead collections, we quietly joked about how ridiculous it was that we went out of our way for this Pepsi-sponsored figurine that probably would end up on the bottom of a closet or in the garbage can. So why were we standing in line with hundreds, and possibly thousands, of other adults to be handed a small, white box that many would argue contained a doll?

“Collecting bobbleheads is consistent with other things that adults do,” said Dr. Deborah Small, Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology at The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. “They read tabloid magazines and try to fantasize about the lives of famous people. Fantasy shows up in all kinds of adult behavior like going to Vegas. It’s an escapism from your own life. It’s not that you’re unhappy – we just all long for a vacation and an escape from reality.”

It’s a great point. There aren’t many better ways to escape the stress and rigors of daily life than to go to a ballgame and just let your favorite team entertain you for a few hours. If a free bobblehead comes with the price of admission, well, I guess that’s even better.

“The great thing for sports teams is that they can throw on a corporate sponsor logo on the bobblehead, and the company is picking up the tab,” said Jeff Baer of the Morton Grove, IL-based Bobblefactory.com. “Think about that logo on that bobblehead on your shelf. It’s much more effective than a promotional object that people don’t care about like a mouse pad or something that holds pens. Adults like bobbleheads, but sports teams love them because they bring in fans. If you ask any major league ball club which days draw the best for them based on fans that attend games, I guarantee they’ll say bobblehead days.”

I did ask Arizona Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall, and he reiterated Baer’s comments.

“Our bobblehead days usually add, with walkups, an average of an extra 5,000 tickets sold,” Hall said Friday morning by phone as he walked through Wrigleyville prior to the start of their series with the Chicago Cubs.

The Diamondbacks have been in the bobblehead business since 2001, with five being the most they’ve given away in a season so not to oversaturate the market or run out of players to feature. Arizona fans have three bobblehead days circled on their schedules this summer – Aaron Hill on June 8, Paul Goldschmidt on Aug. 10 and Miguel Montero on Sept. 14. For some fans in the desert, those will be the only Diamondbacks’ games they’ll see in person all season.

“Bobbleheads are great for adults because they can take them back to when they were younger,” said Hall, who shares the team’s bobbleheads with his children while keeping an extra one for himself. “They’re also acceptable because they’re not quite a doll, but rather a collector’s item.”

They also tell a story. Every time we look at that Buehrle bobblehead that’s claimed its spot on our T.V. stand, we think back to the fun we had that night on the South Side. I guess standing in line for a “doll” wasn’t such a waste of time after all.