Hundreds of Dodgers fans lined the streets leading to Chavez Ravine on Wednesday, just hours before game time, hoping to get their hands on an exclusive Shohei Ohtani bobblehead.
Although their game against the Baltimore Orioles doesn’t actually start until 7:10 p.m., dozens of fans were already lined up outside the gates of Dodger Stadium at 11 a.m.
Last time, the team presented an Ohtani-related giveaway More than 53,000 people attended the game, setting a season record for the 2024 MLB season and marking the highest number of fans at a Dodgers game since 2019. Back then, Dodger Stadium’s parking lots were packed a few hours before the game started, causing traffic congestion in the area.
However, only some of those fans were able to take home a bobblehead, as the team only gave them away to the first 40,000 people through the stadium gates. Most of the collectibles featured Ohtani in his white home jerseys, but 1,700 people received a more exclusive version of him in his gray away jerseys.
A look at eBay shows that some of them are still listed for well over $1,000 months later.
They’ll be releasing multiple versions of Wednesday night’s collectible again this time around, and there are expected to be some all-gold bobbleheads among the tens of thousands that will be handed out before the first pitch.
There is no exact number of gold figures to be distributed yet.
At last check, tickets for tonight’s Dodgers game were still available, with prices for individual tickets ranging from $128 to $472.
In recent years, the resale market for bobbleheads has reached an all-time high, with some of the rarer collectibles fetching thousands of dollars. Depending on the amount of gold Ohtanis gave away on Wednesday, this could be the latest item to fetch a sizable sum.