Diehard Blues fan sues the team for selling him phony game worn memorabilia

Diehard St. Louis Blues fan Aaron Stock has filed a lawsuit against the team because he claims they sold him phony, mislabeled merchandise. Stock claims to have spent over $30,000 on Blues memorabilia, most of it game worn gear from the team's 2019 Stanley Cup run. Now he alleges that the team mislabeled merchandise and deceived not only himself, but dozens of other online purchasers, as well. He's suing the team now and accuses its ownership group of committing fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation.

Stock first noticed something was up when he bid on and won a set of game-worn Jordan Binnington pads for $1,695. The pads were marketed as being worn by Binnington in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but Stock's own researched revealed that the pads had actually been used the following season in 2019-20, despite being labeled as from the 2019 Stanley Cup run. This, according to Stock, started a chain of discoveries including a set of Jake Allen goalie gloves and gloves and sticks from Binnington and Vladimir Tarasenko that were all mislabelled. 

Stock even sent a letter to Blues ownership asking not only for an explanation, but to offer up advice on how the Blues could fix this problem. Stock suggested that the Blues adopt Major League Baseball authentication process, described by most memorabilia collectors as the gold standard. The MLB underwent a giant memorabilia fraud scandal in the 1990s and has since created a new system to properly grade and authenticate items.

Still, Stock was offered no refund and no real explanation. Then, early in 2021 the Blues banned him from participating in future acutions and refused to refund or accept returns on any items he had previously purchased. That was the final straw for Stock. In his mind the Blues knew what they were getting away with, but refused to do anything about it.

The Blues “knew, or should have known, that their merchandise was not what they were proclaiming it to be,” Stock's lawsuit claims. “... As a result of Defendants’ conduct, plaintiff and countless other Blues fans have been harmed.”