MIAMI (AP) – A berth in the World Series means fans and their money are soon parted.

Florida Marlins fans, their thirst for a winner exacerbated by five consecutive losing seasons, continued reveling in their team’s stirring run to the National League championship on Thursday, buying World Series tickets and commemorative T-shirts as quickly as they could be printed.

For many, the day was a long party. For Ignacio Mendez, it was a long day of work.

Mendez owns Dynasty Apparel, a Miami company which printed, boxed and shipped 100,000 Marlins T-shirts in the first 18 hours following the Marlins’ 9-6 title-clinching win over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night. Machines were running around the clock and would for several days at his factory, manned by 150 workers – many of them giddy Marlins fans.

“It’s a dream come true,” Mendez said. “This is great because it’s the home team. It’s a lot of work, but because it’s the Marlins, it’s that much more enjoyable.”

Workers arriving at many sports merchandise stores across South Florida Thursday morning had buyers waiting on line, hoping that the T-shirts the Marlins wore during Wednesday’s clubhouse celebration had arrived. Most stores had initial shipments of NL championship gear in hand by early afternoon.

“We got 72 shirts this morning and we’re picking up 100 more this afternoon,” said Amy Grabon, a co-manager of Champs Sports in Aventura Mall. “By tonight, it’s going to be crazy.”

Shirts could be found. By 1 p.m., tickets couldn’t be.

Within three hours of the sale beginning, everything was sold – much to the chagrin of at least 1,500 people still standing in line at Pro Player Stadium and at the Marlins’ downtown souvenir store.

Fans, some of whom shelled out more than $1,000 apiece, could purchase up to six tickets for each of Florida’s three scheduled World Series home games.

Most tickets, though, went to Internet and charge-by-phone buyers, ones who were fortunate enough to get through phone lines and Web connections slowed to a crawl by thousands of would-be customers.

“People here that have been going to games deserve some sort of treatment, some sort of priority,” said Lou Diaz, a Kendall woman and longtime Marlins fan who tried to buy tickets Thursday with her husband, Martin. “People are buying the tickets from all over the country and selling them for $3,000.”

Tickets were listed on eBay Thursday night for as much as $1,300 apiece, for the fans to whom money is no object. Most said that wasn’t the case, and many were furious that demand dwarfed supply.

“I’ve got no chance,” said fan Joe Miles, who said he had every computer in his North Miami Beach office logged into the Ticketmaster site at 9:50 a.m. Every order, he said, timed out before it was processed.

“So I drove down here, saw the line, and I’m going home,” Miles said, waving his arm at the block-long line of people lined up at the downtown store.

The Marlins’ downtown souvenir store closed its doors early Thursday, saying it needed time to restock for anticipated heavy crowds on Friday. It also needed some clean-up time; the hundreds of fans who turned the store’s parking lot into a ticket line left piles of debris behind, including broken lawn chairs, shattered beer bottles and even a pair of sneakers which appeared to have been burned.

“It must have been a hell of a party,” said Alfred Muniz, who lives three houses behind the store. “It’s sure one hell of a mess.”

AP-ES-10-16-03 2006EDT