MLB Insiders Club

Got a promo package for this today.

$12 a year for a magazine subscription

Subscription gifts:

-MLB Blanket
-2012 All Star Game Program
-MLB Insiders Guide
-MLB Records Book

They're also contests/drawings and such. There is also 15% off cards but with a box of draft going for $120 that benefit doesn't amount for much. I'm gonna give it a shot.

I did it for a year or two. Honestly, it kind of sucked. But it is cheap and maybe it better now.

They also have very aggressive telemarketing campaigns. It always seemed like they were always selling something. You'd get phone calls and you'd also get enrolled in their book club... it was a little frustrating some times.

I just cancelled mine. I was a member for about 2 and half years.

More of a hassle than it's worth.

The "blanket" is one of those small, cheap fleece ones.
The program I got wasn't guaranteed to be a new one. Make sure it guarantees 2012. When I got mine, it was just a random one. I got 1990 ::facepalm::
The guide book and records book are like small pamphlet things.

I was a "life member" which you can upgrade to. You paid $20 every 3 months for 2 years, and once it was paid off, you got a jacket of your preferred team. That was the only thing even close to making it worth the money. It is an actual team jacket, but includes an MLB Insiders Club patch on one arm.

All of the other stuff they send for free is pretty much stuff you can get for cheap anywhere. I got an aluminum water bottle, a few magnets, a MLB Insiders parking sign, a key chain, all with MLB Insiders Logo on them, NOT your team's logo.

And the "magazine" subscription is worthless. You get 4 total magazines for the year, one every 3 months, and all the info is months out of date! I honestly only continued paying to get the jacket, after I had about 3 payments made and realized the mistake I had made.

And you'll continuously get books/calendars/dvds/etc sent to you that are WAY overpriced. If you don't want to be locked into getting them sent to you repeatedly (like those old Time-Life books) you have to send them back. Then you'll keep getting "payment reminders" for what you sent back for months! Make sure if you send those things back, you put tracking on it. Even though they provide you a return label, there is no tracking on them. And when you call to tell them you returned something, they want a tracking number! They sales people and the offer shipping people are in totally different states and they don't communicate with each other!

Sorry for the long rant, but I literally just cancelled my "lifetime" membership last week and this was a horrible experience all for a jacket that I could have gotten for about 75 on ebay.

They seemed confused that I wanted to cancel my membership after all my dues were paid, since I didn't owe them anything more. Well, the only thing "lifetime" would have been to continue receiving more books/dvds/calendars that I'd have to send back, track, and call about numerous times! I'm hoping they update their records fast enough, so that I don't get another book or something in a month.

Good luck to you if you go for it, my advice would be stay away!

Same experience here. I regretted joining the Insiders Club too. It's also a product that MLB licensed out to this outfit - MLB does not produce the magazine (so it isn't that inside).

If its like ESPN the magazine, I did it for 2 years and never got a polar fleece. Still haven't watched ESPN for almost 10 years because of that

I didn't know they sent you crap and then billed you for it, I don't have the patience for that.

wolfmanalfredo said:

If its like ESPN the magazine, I did it for 2 years and never got a polar fleece. Still haven't watched ESPN for almost 10 years because of that

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That's some impressive resolve. Remind me to never cross you

I got a subscription last year. It was a one-and-done with me. Sending me crap and expecting me to pay for it when I never asked them to send it to me in the first place. Then constantly spamming me with letters to renew my membership a month after I had just purchased the membership. I tried it out for a year and i'll never renew it.

TwinGnats said:

I didn't know they sent you crap and then billed you for it, I don't have the patience for that.

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Yeah, that is the basis of the program. All the trinkets and things they "give" you for free is just to grab people. Its stuff you couldn't get a dollar for at the flea market.

The main point is to get you to accept one of the random things that they send you, the books/dvds/etc. Every couple months you'll get something, with a bill/return label. If you want to keep it (trust me, you won't), you pay the $20 or so and you'll be locked in to getting more of that series of book/dvd every few months at the same price each. The books are the kind of 25 page general baseball books that you can find at Goodwill for a buck or two. I'm sure that's where they get them from actually. The first one I got was called "The Sluggers." It had a few general stories about Harmon Killebrew and Roger Maris. Nothing worth buying at all. I'd post a pic of the one that I accidentally kept (only because I forgot about it) but I threw it away.

If you don't want what they send, it's even more hassle. Like I said, you return it with their label, which goes somewhere else. There is no tracking with that label. In about a month, you'll get a "reminder" notice to either return what you have already returned, or pay for it. Then you call and tell them you returned it and they want a tracking number to find it. Of course you don't have a tracking number for it, but they'll "see what they can find" and mark it on your account that you sent it back.

Then in another couple months, you'll get another unsolicited thing that you won't want...lather, rinse, repeat.