About our Football Display Cases

We decided to write this post after an interesting conversation with one of our Customers who had come to buy one of our AFL Football display Cases.  The lady, before buying our football case, insisted on inspecting it thoroughly, to make sure that it was constructed according to our advertised description. We were happy to oblige,  opened a case and showed her one which was indeed manufactured as detailed, and that is, as two-tiered, high-gloss, with removable, black, acrylic base with rubber feet to protect resting surfaces.  The Customer was satisfied by her inspection, then asked us, would we accept 'trade-ins'. Piqued by this unusual query, we asked to her to elaborate.  Well then, it seems that not all ball display cases are created equal ...  .

At that time, we ( somewhat naively ) thought that all ball cases came constructed, fully assembled in 2 pieces, a base and a lid, and that' s it, with no further assembly required. It turns out that we were wrong. The Customer in question  appraised us to the interesting fact that online,  quite different products,such as flat-pack ball display cases, are readily and easily available.  She went out to her car and brought one to us, purchased from  a so called online 'competitor', to show us.

The case the Customer brought to us to 'trade in' was a rather rickety, wobbly and cheap-looking caricature of our ball display case. The most unattractive features were the plastic panels' joining lugs at the eight sides of the case.  What upset the Customer most though, was that the flat-pack's components and features were not shown, or could barely be discerned, in the product's online images.  She even sent us an email later of the product's image below:

In the above picture one could be forgiven for not grasping that the case, is a do-your-own-assembly flat-pack product because the joining lugs are barely visible.  When we visited the link to the product page, we saw the word " self-assembly" at the bottom of the page in very small type font.  The same supplier also sells online the below product.  Again the joining lugs are barely visible and the photograph could well mislead online shoppers into thinking that it may-be an already assembled case rather than one that Customers have to assemble and glue themselves.

 

Yet another online supplier displays and sells  do-your-own ball display cases with photographs, such as the one below, in which the flat-pack construction is barely, it all all discernible, and which can easily lead online buyers that the cases are already assembled.

All of the above should not be construed that D.Y.O. flat backs are an unsuitable product.  In fact as these can often be  cheaper than fully assembled cases and may indeed be good value for money, it is up to Customers to evaluate the product, or compare it to others,  and to order the product, or not, as they see fit.

However the issue presented here, is what our Customer came in and complained about, not only did she think that she was ordering and buying a full assembled case,  but, an in addition, found the whole process of assembling and gluing some of the components, slow, messy, fiddly, time-consuming and resulting in an unattractive and unappealing product because of  the unsightly joining lugs, as in the case  shown below:

In the above image, the joining lugs of each plastic panel and the flat-pack construction  of product are all visible and evident,  thus avoiding any intended or unintended misrepresentation of the display case being advertised for sale.  Thus, with accurate images, a flat-pack product can be fairly compared to our own fully-assembled, 2-pieces construction, football display case shown below:

Another problem complained about by flat-pack display case buyers is that the base's resting piece often needs manual gluing.  The testing piece often is an oval, or round insert, as shown in one of the above photographs,  upon which a football or basketball rests so that it will not roll around when inside the display case.

The dissatisfied Customer, which this post mentions,  particularly described the unsatisfactory requirement of having to glue down by hand  the insert with the supplied tube of glue. The base of the case and the insert were difficult to glue together and the ensuing glue spatter dirtied the front panel of the case.

And we also had to advise the Customer that no, other stores' used goods or merchandise cannot be trade in with us, for obvious reasons, the main one being that we are not second-hand dealers.

One other issue with some display cases being sold online and one which definitely annoys and inconveniences Customers is the publishing of inaccurate product products photographs. Take the image below, for instance:

In the above photo there are two disparate ball sizes, one is a small, or mini football, which is for children,  and the other is larger, regulation size football which is for adults.  It follows that the images ought to show a small children's ball and a larger, adults' ball.

But the photos actually tend to mislead because the smaller ball is shown as the biggest one and, vice versa.  Granted, that the legend or description of the smaller football says 'mini football' but online users tend to  follow and focus on the images first and read any text later.  We know for a fact, from Customers complaining to us, that some users have mistakenly ordered the mini footballs instead of the normal, adult size ones.

And seeing as we're on the subject of sports ball display cases,  we may as well shed some light on ball sizes.  We need to re-state this because we frequently receive phone calls asking us " Do your clear acrylic display cases fit our adult size balls" ?  The information table below reproduced form Picture Framing for Sports Balls shows both the dimensions of the cases and of the balls.

* This ball is listed as having an official short circumference of 54 cms and a long circumference of 72 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official circumference of 75 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official circumference of 70 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official girth of 58.5 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official circumference of 70 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official circumference of 67 cms.

* This ball is listed as having an official circumference of 68.58 cms.

The above information shows that all our cases do suit adult size playing sports balls.  As for juniors', or children's, or novelty balls,  we do not know what these sizes are, or might be, so we cannot advise. It is therefore up to Customers to check all measurements so as to ensure that their sports balls are not too small or too big to fit into our cases.