Sports Fanatics Can Buy Team Merchandise Without Leaving the House … or the TV
Sports Section
Every male in my family is an SU (Syracuse University) Orangemen fan as well as New York Yankee fans. SU, however, is their true love so buying my husband, brother in laws, nephews, and other males in the family gifts is easy. Just get them something with the SU logo on it. If I can’t find anything unique, I’ll go to the back up Yankees merchandise. Simple!
Since Syracuse University is only a few miles from my home (and my alma mater), I could just go to the campus and buy merchandise or pick it up in most stores in the area but the prices are inflated and the selection is often poor. Just the thought going to the SU campus and trying to find parking led me to go looking for a website that carried merchandise at reasonable prices with some variety.
Enter Sports Section. I found the site through a search for Syracuse University merchandise and discovered that they carry sports merchandise for just about every team and sport in the country.
Navigation
Navigation is very simple. Pick a team or type of sport. You can pick the type of merchandise you are looking for as well. Then hit go. Up comes all the items available for that team. The home page is clean and easy to read and the search engine is fast.
Once you see something you like, click on the image for more info. The prices are prominently displayed so there is no guesswork. Getting around the site is extremely simple.
A neat feature is that there is a box that tells you everything you looked at so that you can quickly access that item again if you choose to. I found that to be helpful and I compared items and tried to make a decision about what to buy.
My Experience
I chose to buy a few SU items including a toss pillow, T-Shirt, and a fleece throw. They have some innovative watches but I am not so sure any of the guys would be THAT into the Orangemen to wear a watch with the logo screaming on it. Still, the innovation impressed me.
I did also go to the Yankees section. As you would expect, there were zillions of items for the team and I had a great time picking one for my nephew who seemingly has everything Yankees there is. I managed to find a really nice beach towel that I have not seen anywhere else.
The prices were reasonable for everything I chose. These are all licensed products and not cheapie knock offs.
As I added items to my cart, the shipping cost was displayed immediately and I like that feature. I hate to pay shipping but, if I must, I like to know immediately how much it is and not be surprised at the end of my shopping spree.
Once I completed my shopping, I was taken to the check out where I had to fill in my email address and choose a password or input an existing user name and password. The next page took me to the info page where I input my mailing address and the usual info.
There are three shipping tiers. Standard is ground UPS. For my three items, it was $10.99. You can opt to add onto that Express Air for an additional $9.99 or Express Air Plus for and additional $15.00. I chose the standard shipping. Nothing is worth those types of shipping charges even if I am in a rush to get an item.
Once I input my Visa (The also accept Mastercard and American Express) info, my order was processed and I received an email verifying my purchase.
I hit a snag with a backordered item but it was only on backorder for a week and I was told before I ordered it so I didn’t have to get it if I didn’t have the time to wait.
Once my items were sent out, I got a tracking code and could track my package on the site.
My in stock merchandise arrived in about nine days. My out of stock item came in about two weeks. Everything was fine as far as quality goes but I do wish they carried sizes larger than 2X. These days, guys wear clothes huge and even my spindly 145-pound son likes to wear 3X shirts. From what I can tell, they carry sizes only up to 2X, a drawback in my eyes.
Luckily the 2X shirt I ordered was roomy and well made and didn’t need to be returned for size.
Shipping Charges
I think the charges are reasonable. I am not thrilled with paying shipping as I said but the charges were in my acceptable range.
Merchandise Total – up to $20.00 Shipping Charges – $6.99
$20.01 – $50.00 – $9.99
$50.01 – $75.00 – $10.99
$75.01 – $ 150.00 – $11.99
$150.01 and up – $14.99
Express Delivery Available at the Following Rates
Express Air add $9.99 to S&H charges
Allow 4 business days for delivery
Express Air Plus add $15.00 to S&H charges
Allow 2-3 business days for delivery
Return Policy
Everything is returnable for a refund/exchange within 60 days of receipt except customized or used items. You will not be refunded your shipping charges.
Contact Info
Postal address:
9300 Corbin Avenue
Northridge, CA 91324
Customer Service (7:00am – 4:00pm PST):
1-888-776-7767
General Questions:
support@sportssection.com
Conclusion
This is a good site for sports lovers or people who buy them gifts. There are items for every team whether it is baseball, football, basketball, hockey, college, and even NASCAR.
I like this site and feel the prices and variety make it worth returning to. I am not thrilled about paying $7.00 shipping for a hat or T-Shirt so I generally do Christmas shopping on the site and buy several items and save on shipping.
One major problem with the site is that they often are out of certain sizes. For instance, a sweatshirt I looked at was only available in medium. Some teams that are listed have no items at all to purchase.
The items I did get, I liked, but the lack of sizes and, sometimes, the total lack of items for a team, lowers this site’s ratings.
If you find what you are looking for and can get he right size, great. You’ll love it. If not, it can be a frustrating experience seeing something you want but not being able to get it due to the lack of the right size. Obviously the throws, pillows, watches, plaques, banners, photos, etc are all one size and are generally well stocked. It seems to just be the clothing area that is a problem.
I had a couple good experiences here. However, because of the things I listed above, I am giving this site three stars. It has a lot of fun and unique items but the out of stock sizes, lack of items for certain teams, and the fact that tops only go to 2X lowers the ratings. Still, the novelty items are unique and hard to find in a department store and those are the items I will go back to the site to buy.
Recommended:
Yes
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