Tuff Guy with Scott Kelnhofer

Set Collectors A Vital Part Of Hobby

Tom — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:07:26 GMT

When the discussion turns to what card collecting was like in the “good old days,” we usually paint pictures involving images of 5-cent packs, kids putting cards in their bicycle spokes and collectors opening packs and trading with friends in the hope of obtaining those last elusive cards needed to complete a set.

We know that the 5-cent packs have long disappeared, and I’m not sure kids have considered putting cards in their bike spokes for quite some time, but set builders do, indeed, still exist in today’s hobby. Granted, most of today’s products are constructed in ways that make it virtually impossible to build complete sets, but that’s not the case with all products.

It’s far easier to create some headlines with news of a 1-of-1 insert card of a new product selling for thousands of dollars than the story of a 45-year-old man who just completed an online trade for the last four cards he needed to complete a 2004 Fleer Baseball set. But while the first story will turn some heads, the last story is what will keep the hobby alive and well for decades to come.

Set builders are to collecting what that group of five or six people who stop by every morning for a coffee break are to a local restaurant. They might not be the biggest customers in terms of volume or revenue, but they are loyal and long-term customers.

Today's card makers have anywhere from 12-20 card releases per sport, so they have to cater to everyone from the novice card buyer to the big-game hunter who buys packs solely with the hopes of hitting an easy-to-sell insert. Not every product needs to be focused on set builders, but a handful should be for one primary reason – building sets are part of the very fabric of card collecting.

Actually, that shouldn’t be the only reason. The fact is that encouraging set building is a way for the industry to get past the “instant gratification” mentality that is now firmly entrenched among so many collectors who view products as nothing more than a place where hidden cardboard jackpots reside. Those buyers will leave the hobby at some point when something more financially gratifying comes along. From the standpoint of establishing a collector mentality among buyers, set building is the best way to turn occasional customers into long-term buyers.

To encourage set collecting, the industry needs to overcome some of its own well-placed roadblocks. Not only do card manufacturers need to create products that are set-builder friendly, but card stores must encourage set building by offering a reasonable amount of singles for recent releases and offering opportunities for customers to trade, either with the store or with other customers.

And while short-printed base cards and higher pack prices have made traditional set building more of a challenge than in the past, it has created other set-building opportunities. Some collectors have opted to purse team sets, or some of the specially themed (and not too scarce) insert sets. Single-player collecting is an obvious choice, as well, along with other themed-set options.

No matter if it’s set building as most of us know it, or building a set based on a more refined concept, encouraging card buyers to try and obtain every card within a defined group is the best way to groom long-term collectors as opposed to temporary visitors to the hobby.

April Fools from Topps

Tom — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:45:39 GMT

Topps released the first series of its 2008 Baseball product in February, but it wasn't until today the the company revealed one of the cards in the product is an "April Fools" joke.

The set features a card of Kazuo “The Uzi” Uzuki, supposedly a Japanese high-school pitching phenom. What most people probably don't know is that, in Japanese, the name Kazuo Uzuki means “the first son of April," a tipoff to April Fool's Day.

Listed at only 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds, “The Uzi” was said to be known for his devastating 104 mile-per-hour fastball and was "on his way to becoming the first Japan-based high-schooler to jump straight to professional baseball in America."

With no way to verify the information from any reputable online source, many collectors had been questioning the authenticity of the card since it was released.

“The Uzi” rookie card is found approximately 1:72 packs of cards.

Bonds 762nd HR A Speculators Dream

Tom — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:08:09 GMT

SCP Auctions' online sale of Barry Bonds' 762nd HR baseball begins March 31. As of now, this ball represents the final home run hit by Bonds and, as a result, it also represents the all-time home run record that the game's best players will be chasing for the an undetermined number of years to come.

SCP Auctions also sold the ball hit by Bonds for his 756th career home run for more than $752,000, which was the home run that broke Hank Aaron's all-time record. As valuable as that was, most memorabilia experts believe that the baseball that would eventually represent Bonds' final home run would be the most valuable – perhaps worth as much as $1 million.

So that makes this upcoming auction so interesting. The baseball has the potential to be a $1 million item, but is it worth that much right now? Bonds has yet to sign with a team for 2008, and doesn't appear to have a lot of offers pending. There's a very good chance he has played his last game.

But it's not a guarantee. Bonds hasn't officially retired, and if his legal issues are resolved and a team is looking to add some power to its lineup as the playoff push begins, is it out of the realm of possibility that Bonds wouldn't be offered the chance to play again? Certainly not. If he returns and hits even one more home run, the significance and value of No. 762 is drastically diminished.

It's very likely that the 762nd home run ball will sell for a handsome sum. But the "what-if" factor could prevent it from reaching its full value potential.

A Blog For Little-Known Cards

Tom — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:44:51 GMT

If you're a die-hard baseball card collector, The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards is a reference tool you must have. Granted, our company publishes this massive reference guide (the 2008 edition weighs in at 1,850 pages), but corporate plugs aside, it's the most complete guide to baseball cards on the market and offers complete checklists of some very obscure sets.

The current editor of the Standard Catalog is Don Fluckinger, who is also a regular contributor to Tuff Stuff. Don has a fascinating blog where he posts information about the newest sets that have been uncovered. It's hard to believe that there are still sets and cards that are just now being discovered decades after their release, but that's what makes this blog so cool. Plus, collectors like you often provide some valuable information.

To check it out, click here.

My favorite Brett Favre card

Tom — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:44:35 GMT

Not seeing Brett Favre under center for the Packers next season is going to be a tough adjustment for many Packer fans. A 16-year career is remarkable for any NFL player, let alone a quarterback.

Favre took over the starting job in 1992, a few days shy of my daughter’s fourth birthday. She’s now a freshman in college. My son was in second grade at the time. He’s now a senior in college. Like them, there is a generation of Packer fans who have never known anyone else to be the team’s quarterback other than Favre.

By comparison, in the period between the time I was in grade school and finished college, the guys who were leading my favorite NFL team included the likes of Jim Del Gazio, Scott Hunter, David Whitehurst, Jerry Tagge, John Hadl, Lynn Dickey and Randy Wright. These kids don't know how rough us older folks used to have it.

For what it’s worth, my favorite Favre card in my collection has a price guide value of about $2. What makes it so special? In 1996, Pinnacle Trading Cards was the sponsor of an event called the NFL Quarterback Challenge. It was a made-for-TV skills competition that was held at Walt Disney World in Orlando. In the days leading up to the event, Pinnacle held a photo shoot, where they would get exclusive access to the top QBs in the game, which in 1996 included Favre, Troy Aikman, Boomer Esiason, Warren Moon, Drew Bledsoe and others. Pinnacle would get the players to pose for a variety of pictures that were then used on its cards the following season.

Pinnacle invited our company to have a representative on hand during the photo shoot and publicize the cards prior to their production, and I was lucky enough to land the assignment. Pinnacle’s PR staff asked me for some assistance with a particular photo – they wanted to photograph Favre wearing a foam cheesehead and holding a “cheese” football. So they asked me to buy one of each from a store here in Wisconsin and bring it down to the photo shoot.

A week later, I arrived in Orlando with the requested props. Pinnacle asked if they needed to reimburse me, and I said no reimbursement was necessary if I could keep the cheesehead (to be honest, I don’t know whatever happened to the football). Pinnacle agreed and even allowed me to ask Favre to autograph it.

The card featuring Favre wearing the cheesehead and holding the facsimile cheese football appeared as card No. 200 in the 1996 Pinnacle set. Many people probably own the card, but it's kind of neat to know that only I own the cheesehead wedge he wore in the photo.

Movie will bring attention back to the ABA

Tom — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:11:55 GMT

Will Ferrell's new movie, "Semi-Pro," is almost certain to generate plenty of media attention and stories that look back on the history of the American Basketball Association. For anyone who doesn't remember the ABA, it was the birthplace of the three-point field goal and slam dunk contest, the first to introduce the concept of the multi-colored basketball, and the original home of four current NBA franchises: the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and New Jersey (then the New York) Nets. Among the NBA greats who once called the ABA home were Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Dan Issel and Larry Brown (who was a player and then won an ABA title as a coach).

Collectibles associated with the ABA are hard to find these days and, as a result, command some fairly high prices. Programs can go for as much as $40. Game-used basketballs from the league sell for $1,600-$1,800. Game-used jerseys are truly coveted because of their scarcity. A game-used Julius Erving New York Nets jersey sold for $141,927 in 2006.

Occasionally, ESPN Classic or NBA TV will air some ABA broadcasts. The two I've seen most often are the 1976 Slam Dunk contest and the final game in league history, the sixth game of the 1976 ABA championship series between the Nuggets and Nets. These are fun to watch, not only because of the wide-open style of the games, but also to look back on the wild fashions of the era (seeing Brown coaching while wearing bell bottoms and a leisure suit with the mega-sized lapels is a hoot).

I have some memories of the ABA when I was a kid. The league's games were rarely televised, but when one did show up we watched it because it was so different from an NBA game. Watching the multi-colored ball on TV was mesmerizing. When the ABA merged with the NBA, I tried to make sure to see all of the "new" teams the first time they made a road trip to Milwaukee to play the Bucks.

To help promote "Semi-Pro" film, New Line Cinema asked Upper Deck to create three-card packs that the card maker handed out at the recent NBA Jam Session in New Orleans (see adjacent images).

"A face made for radio"

Tom — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:29:19 GMT

That's what people used to tell me when I worked in television. Now I get to see if they were correct.

Sports Collecting Radio is now up and running. You can click on the Sports Collecting Radio logo on the TuffStuff.com home page, or you can click here to go to the audio player, then click on the "play" button in the left hand corner or click the "iTunes" logo on the bottom of the screen to listen to the show.

Our first show went live Feb. 15 and is being re-aired every hour on the hour. Our next show goes live Feb. 20 at 1 p.m. (Eastern) and it, too, will be re-aired every hour on the hour. Once a new show debuts, the previous week's show goes into the Archive folder where you can download it and listen whenever you would like.

The goal of the show is simply to bring you more insight into the sports collectibles hobby. We’ll provide the latest industry news, previews of upcoming products, interviews with card manufacturers, league licensors, dealers, current and former athletes, the various experts we have here on our staff and others. We'll also answer questions about items in your collection, so feel free to send us comments or questions via e-mail to sportscollectingradio@fwpubs.com.

Will high-end products perform in a soft economy?

Tom — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:55:28 GMT

Ever since Upper Deck became the first card maker to have a pack of cards selling for more than $1, card makers have been criticized for pricing collectors out of the market. The critics remained when the first $3-a-pack products hit the market in 1993, when the first $5 packs came out shortly after that, and every time the hobby pushed past another price point previously thought to be untouchable.

Today’s new card offerings include more than a dozen brands across all sports that will cost you $100 or more per pack. Mind you, the fact these products exist is for the simple reason that there has been a certain segment of the collecting population that has demonstrated over the years that they are more than willing to fork over that kind of cash in return for a product that is perceived to be of equal value.

The card companies will still be offering a variety of super-premium card products in 2008, but what kind of reception those products will receive is still unclear. With inflation at its highest rate in 17 years, increased concerns about the stability of the nation’s economy and consumer spending on the decline, a growing number of people within the industry, particularly owners of hobby shops, said they’d like to see card companies put more resources into creating and promoting lower-priced card sets during the coming year.

The nature of the card market suggests that even if sales of high-end products were to slow down, there wouldn’t be any noticeable changes in what’s being offered until next year. The card companies plan their product schedules up to a year in advance, and they have to do so with an idea of how each product’s sales will impact their projected annual revenues.

The card makers, especially in baseball, have put a larger focus the past three years on offering a reasonable number of low-priced offerings as a way to attract more kids to the market. There are low-priced products in other sports as well, but the pro-kids marketing message that baseball has invested in requires there to be a variety of low-priced products on hand. Companies in all sports have also spent more resources beefing up their highest-priced offerings as well, because that’s where the best profit margins reside.

While there are a handful of low-priced offerings and a growing number of very high-priced offerings, the so-called “mid-priced” brands seem to have been overlooked. Those products have long been favorites of the collector who wants a little more quality than what’s found in the low-priced offerings but can’t fork over $50 or $100 on a single pack. As the median pack price increases, these collectors are finding less that fits their budgets, and consequently getting frustrated with the hobby.

The hobby can't afford to lose anymore collectors, particularly those who have enjoyed the activity into their adult years. It also doesn't make sense to roll out additional product lines that the bulk of your customer base can't afford.

Card company pranksters still at work

Tom — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:55:32 GMT

Topps and Upper Deck both have included cards of this year's presidential candidates in their flagship baseball products for 2008. Both did so primarily to attract some additional attention to their products, and both are doing just that, thanks once again to a little help from their in-house pranksters.

Topps' presidential candidate cards feature traditional photos of the candidates and some text on the backs. The card that's generating the most attention, however, is not from this insert. It's a card from the base set depicting the Red Sox on-field celebration after last year's World Series title. An image of former New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani has been added to the card, seemingly joining the Red Sox for the celebration (pictured below). It's similar in nature to last year's card of Derek Jeter that featured computer-generated images of Mickey Mantle and President Bush in the background. Topps said its creative team "thought it would make for a funny card" to have Guililani pictured with the Red Sox.

Meanwhile, Upper Deck's Presidential Predictor cards are generating attention for two reasons. The artwork used on the parody cards is somewhat humorous, tying the candidates into a memorable baseball-related scene or character. What's generating the most news, however, is the card of Hillary Clinton (pictured below), which depicts her as "Morganna The Kissing Bandit," the well-endowed woman who made a name for herself in the late 1970s and '80s by running onto the field at games and planting a kiss on the cheek of famous players.

Upper Deck says that after showing the cards to some focus groups, it realized the card might be considered inappropriate by some and the decision was made to remove the card from Series One. However, an unknown quantity of the cards made it into packs and are now selling for several hundred dollars on eBay. That fact alone will certainly spark some additional sales of UD Baseball packs.

Last year, the Topps Jeter/Mantle/Bush card (Topps first said the cards were created by "mistake," then said they let the card go to create some attention) and Upper Deck's Michael Eisner parody card made news and sent pack buyers into a frenzy, hoping to find these novelty items. This year, it appears the baseball card companies are hoping the "giggle factor" helps them sell a few more packs and create some national attention.

I'm all for publicity and adding a few more stories to the hobby's lore, but I hope the card companies are sensitive to the idea that this kind of humor can wear off in a hurry, especially if the media and/or general public begins to look at these as nothing more than contrived collectibles.

Scribble your name here, please

Tom — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:54:44 GMT

I spent a couple of days at the NFL Experience last week, the annual fan event that takes place in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. The Topps Super Bowl Card Show is part of the NFL Experience each year, and one of the most popular elements of the show are the free autographs signed by current and former players over the course of the weekend.

Prior to going on stage to sign for the fans, many of the players spend some time backstage signing various items for the NFL and NFL Players Association that end up in charity auctions. I looked at many of the signatures on those items, and for the life of me I could not decipher the majority of the signatures. Some of the players put their uniform number next to their autographs, which was the best way for distinguishing some of the names. Had it not been for the jersey numbers, the vast majority of the names would have been unreadable.

I can't imagine how many times an athlete is asked for their signature over the course of a given day or week, and I'm sure they want to sign their names as quickly as possible. But what good is an autograph if it isn't legible?