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?

Create your own Topps, Upper Deck cards

Tom — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:19:49 GMT

Ever dream of being on your own trading card? Here's your chance.

Fans can now send their own photos to Topps and have them turned into trading cards. Customers can choose from modern or vintage card designs and input their own biographical information.

The minimum order is eight cards for $12, but discounts apply for larger orders. More information is available at Topps.MyTradingCards.com.

Upper Deck offers a similar service on its website, with a variety of card templates available. The process for building the cards is slightly different, and the minimum order is nine cards for $9.99. Upper Deck's service is available at Store.UpperDeck.com.

A Wild Card flashback

Tom — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:04:33 GMT

Don Fluckinger, who monitors online auction results for a weekly column in SPORTS COLLECTORS DIGEST, notes that a Brett Favre rookie card carrying a PSA 10 grade sold for $6,600 in an eBay auction last week.

The price alone is not the only amazing tidbit about this story. The card that commanded this price was a 1991 Wild Card "1,000" card of Favre.

Anyone who was collecting football cards in 1991 might remember Wild Card's unique marketing concept for trading cards. Similar to many of today's products, Wild Card offered parallel cards in various degrees of scarcity. But Wild Card offered a twist to this concept. Each level of parallel cards carried a denomination. Base cards were considered a "1," the next scarcest level was labeled with a stripe that read "5," the next scarcest featured a "10," "25" and so on. A card with a "1,000" stripe was the scarcest you could find.

The reason for the numbering was that Wild Card offered collectors a chance to trade up their cards to get a more scarce version. For instance, if you collected 25 Favre base cards, you could send them to the company and trade them in for a single "25" card. Get four "25" cards and you could trade for a "100" card.

The concept didn't really catch on and Wild Card eventually went bankrupt after a controversy surrounding a football prospects set that ended up being printed in much higher numbers than the company advertised. Most of the company's products attract very little attention on the secondary market these days, which is why the $6,600 selling price was so stunning. Perhaps the excitement surrounding Favre's great 2007 season got the better of one collector.

Previous recession didn't slow hobby's growth

Tom — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:28:35 GMT

Economists will eventually declare whether the nation’s economic woes fit the official definition of a recession, but the mere fact the term is being batted around as often as it’s been is enough to suggest things aren’t all that great on Main Street, U.S.A.

Economic slowdowns worry people in a variety of industries, and the sports collectibles business is one such industry. When times are tough, people tend to prioritize their spending. Hobby pursuits such as trading cards tend to get pushed down on the list.

But it might surprise some to recall that the hobby’s so-called “boom years” of the late 1980s and early 1990s took place during a time when the U.S. economy was entering a recession. Card values for vintage material were increasing on a steady basis, new card products and companies were arriving at a rapid rate and investors and speculators couldn’t get into the card market quick enough.

Why did our hobby grow at unprecedented levels when the economy as a whole was performing so poorly? A confluence of several events helped ignite the demand on the consumer level. Throughout the decade of the 1980s, there had been a renewed interest in older baseball cards, particularly those from the 1950s and ’60s. Youngsters from that era had grown up and were looking for items that reminded them of those years. Because so many of their original cards had been lost or survived in poor condition, demand for the remaining cards from that era was rekindled.

Increased demand resulted in an increase in values. As word started to spread around the country that baseball cards were appreciating in value, other collectors came out of the woodwork.

As values for older cards increased, the natural assumption was that modern releases held similar investment potential. As rookie cards of stars like Mickey Mantle or Pete Rose had increased at robust rates, buyers started hoping to hit even bigger rewards by stocking up on hundreds, if not thousands, of rookie cards of other can’t-miss prospects such as Eric Davis, Gregg Jefferies and Jim Abbott.

The news media around the country fueled some of this frenzy with stories that bragged about the return on investment in baseball cards as being far superior to what stocks and bonds were offering. Some dealers even offered to create investment portfolios of cards. Give the dealer $5,000, and he would build a collection of cards that he believed had the best opportunity to appreciate in value over the next few years.

Is a similar boom period in the cards – so to speak – for our hobby if a recession takes hold in 2008? Probably not. After all, the price surges we saw for older material were influenced by a large group of new buyers in the market.

In addition, the cash needed for someone to enter the market at that time was relatively low. Today, most people are well aware of the potential value of cards, and the startup costs of entering as an investor are much higher. Remember, back then you were buying mostly raw cards. Today, most of those same investment quality cards have been slabbed and graded and sell for premium prices.

If you wanted to take your chances on speculating on new cards, the startup costs are also much higher than 15-20 years ago, as are the risks. Only a certain percentage of new releases enjoy noteworthy gains in market value, and it’s harder to buy in the quantities needed to make most speculators happy.

Tough economic times could mean a renewed interest in lower-priced cards and memorabilia, but the same kind of investor-fueled frenzy that sparked the hobby’s boom period isn’t likely to be repeated anytime soon.

Do you collect your rivals?

Tom — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:24:06 GMT

There are a lot of great rivalries in sports, and with every great rivalry comes strong emotions from fans about the "hated" rival.

Here in Wisconsin, the rivalry between the Packers and Bears is one of the longest in all of professional sports. The small-town Packers and the big-city Bears have teamed for some great games over the years. They are two of the building blocks of the NFL, with histories dating back to the origins of the league itself.

While most of the ribbing between Bears fans and Packers fans is reasonably good natured, there are some fans of both teams who despise anything and anyone associated with the other team.

Growing up in Wisconsin, I grew up rooting for the Packers, which meant rooting against the Bears. That said, as a fan of football and football history, I would still cherish an autograph from some of the great Bears stars of the past such as Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers or Walter Payton. I had a chance to interview Butkus a few years ago and he was great to listen to.

Likewise, I have to assume there are Bears fans who root against the Packers who wouldn't mind getting their hands on a Brett Favre autograph or something related to Vince Lombardi.

I know there are many other great rivalries around the country. If you're a Yankees fan, are there players from the Red Sox you have within your collection? Do Celtics fans collect Magic Johnson memorabilia?

Feel free to drop us a line with a story about the team you most love to hate, but someone on that team that you also love to collect.

Donruss Americana could break new ground

Tom — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:22:52 GMT

Donruss is launching its newest card product this week and many in the trading card industry will be watching its success to see how consumers respond to the product.

Donruss Americana is a product that consists largelly of trading cards of various TV and movie stars ranging from legends such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe to more current stars such as Cedric the Entertainer. There are some sports figures in the product, but by and large it's a non-sports issue.

The primary selling point of the product are autograph and memorabilia cards from the celebrities. The lineup in this product is quite impressive (for more on the product, click here) and is certain to generate a buzz among celebrity collectors.

This will be an interesting set to watch for a variety of reasons. First, non-sports sets generally target a specific theme, such as a TV show or movie release. The few attempts in the past at a general "bunch of celebrities in a box" type of set have not been very successful. This product, however, has the appeal of some very rare autograph and memorabilia cards that will definitely spark some interest.

This product is also testing new ground from a price perspective – packs will likely sell in the $40 range. That's about 10-15 times higher than most traditional non-sports sets generally run. Donruss has a good reputation when it comes to the value of the items in its packs, but that reputation isn't largely known outside of the sports collecting market.

If Americana is successful, you can expect Donruss and other card companies to offer more products of this kind. Celebrity autographs have become an increasingly popular part of more and more sports products in recent years, and Americana would provide the barometer of whether a product like this can stand on its own.

It would also suggest that collectors are willing to pay a premium price for a non-sports product and open the doors for companies who specialize in those types of properties to offer products that would appeal to collectors who want to focus their efforts on the autograph and memorabilia cards.

Upper Deck contest will award trip to Super Bowl

Tom — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:35:48 GMT

Upper Deck is offering a trip for two to this season's Super Bowl in Phoenix as the grand prize in its new “NFL TD Dance Challenge.”

Contestants must submit a videotaped representation of their best touchdown dance and subsequent celebration on or before Jan. 11 to http://upperdecksweepstakes.magnify.net/. Entries can be between 30 seconds and two minutes in length and good taste is encouraged. Complete rules are posted on the site, as well.

The company says "use of interesting scenery and unique dialog – 'touchdown rants' – will be additional parts" of the criteria it uses to judge winners. Upper Deck will prescreen each of the video entries as they are uploaded to the site and any that contain inappropriate gestures and/or language will not be posted for public viewing. A group comprised of Upper Deck employees will serve as the judging committee.

Another look at what could be Bonds' last HR

Tom — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:29:34 GMT

A while back I posted a story here about the whereabouts of Barry Bonds' 762nd home run baseball. It was the final home run he hit during the 2007 season, and now that he's been indicted, it's certainly possible that it could be the final HR of his career.

That distinction, of course, would make the 762 ball a very valuable keepsake. Bonds' 756th HR ball (the one that broke Hank Aaron's HR record) sold for more than $752,000 a few months ago, and most memorabilia experts agree that the final HR ball would be the most valuable since it represents the record that will be chased.

The problem is that Bonds hit his last HR of the year in early September, and few people expected it had the potential to be his last round tripper. When the ball was hit into the stands, there were no efforts made by stadium security to verify who caught the ball, and its unlikely Major League Baseball was marking the balls with any special notations to distinguish them from other balls used in the game. As a result, whoever caught the ball has a potentially valuable baseball -- and yet may not be able to cash in because they might not be able to prove they caught the ball.

Here's a video clip of Bonds' 762nd HR. What you'll want to watch closely is the side-angle, slow-motion replay of the fan who reaches over the wall to make the catch. Notice that as the HR ball goes into his glove, another ball pops out the front of his glove. At one point, you'll clearly be able to see a baseball on each side of his glove.

A fan who was sitting in the bleachers during the game, near the scrum for the HR ball, told me that the fan who first touched the ball had a batting practice ball in his glove. He claims the guy in the purple shirt who emerges from the scrum, holding up his glove, actually has the BP ball. The guy who first touches the ball actually held on to the HR ball, but if it didn't carry any special markings from MLB, it would be very difficult for anyone to authenticate it.

Licensors not laughing at Upper Deck cards

Tom — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:07:57 GMT

Either Upper Deck was trying to have some fun at the expense of Topps, or it was trying to prove a point. Either way, Major League Baseball wasn't happy about it.

Upper Deck's new Sweet Spot Baseball features at least two cards that are creating a buzz. One is a parody of Michael Eisner, who heads up the new ownership group at Topps. The caricature card depicts him as "Michael Buysner" and the back of the card says that Upper Deck "wishes him well -- in the candy business" (referring to the confection division at Topps).

The other Sweet Spot card is a Sweet Spot Signatures insert that features an asterisk instead of the traditional player autograph, and the notation "756" under the asterisk. The card is obviously a reference to Barry Bonds (coincidentally, a Topps spokesman) and his breaking of the career home-run record. So far, only one of these cards has surfaced on eBay.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association has final approval over everything that goes into card packs, so the licensors take it seriously when something slips into packs without their approval. The Eisner parody is probably harmless fun, but it's an unflattering portrait of one of MLB's other business partners and would not have otherwise been approved. MLB also doesn't want any more attention drawn to the allegations of Bonds and steroid use in connection with his record-setting home run.

So MLB has told Upper Deck to recall all unsold inventory of Sweet Spot Baseball. How much of the product will be returned is uncertain, since the controversy now increases demand. But it should send a signal to both companies to stop any future attempts at "surprise" publicity.

Earlier this year, you may recall Topps issued a card of Derek Jeter that featured digitally enhanced images of Mickey Mantle and President Bush. The card generated tremendous national media attention and resulted in a significant sales boost for Topps. It's assumed that card was created without the licensors approval (Topps initially claimed it was created by one of its artists as a joke and accidentally got into print, but later said they let the card through because they thought it added some fun to its product), in part because Jeter is an Upper Deck spokesman.

So either Upper Deck was trying to take a public jab at Eisner, who they locked horns with earlier this year in efforts to buy Topps, or they decided that if Topps can get away with publicity for its "error" cards, they can too. Either way, you can bet the baseball card licensors will do their best to discourage similar surprises in the future.

Cost-vs.-Value equation getting harder to balance

Tom — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:19:12 GMT

If you were to think of players who have a consistent record of driving sales in the baseball card market over the past 10 years, Derek Jeter would be one of the first names that would come to mind. A popular player on the most widely followed team in baseball, Jeter has a large collector following in the hobby.

A card featuring a game-used uniform swatch of Jeter sounds like a card that would make any collector happy. Just imagine what something like that might be worth.

Well, just to see what something like that might be worth, I logged onto eBay and looked up some recent results. Surely, I’d find some $500 and $600 sales.
Actually, I found one for six and a quarter.

That’s $6.25, not $625.

Wow, someone got quite the deal there. Guess I missed the boat. But upon closer look, there were several examples of Jeter game-used jersey and bat cards that sold for $10 or less. And he’s not alone. Albert Pujols jersey cards could also be found for $5 or less. Manny Ramirez game-used jersey cards for $2?

Granted, there are some examples of game-used cards from these players that sold for much more than pocket change, but the fact some could be found at bargain prices really screws up the average value for any cards of these players, let alone those players who aren't nearly as well known.

The point of all of this is that card companies are receiving some criticism for not putting enough perceived value in their new card products, particularly the high-end releases. The theory goes that if someone spends $100 on a pack of cards, they should be able to find at least $101 worth of stuff in that pack.

To meet that goal, card companies have to find new ways to create cards with the most potential value for those products. That usually means cut signature cards of deceased Hall of Famers, rare 1-of-1 cards and game-used items from today’s biggest starts.

But how does a card company have any chance of meeting a customer’s expectations when game-used cards from today’s hottest stars can be found for a fraction of what some of those packs cost to begin with?

The card companies are caught in the middle of a cost vs. value equation that is making it harder for them to make the majority of customers happy. It isn’t getting any cheaper to buy game-used items and autographs from the likes of Jeter, Pujols, Ramirez or any of the other top names in the sports world. But for every game-used or autographed card produced of those players, the supply in the marketplace increases. The more common it becomes, the less it’s worth.

As more cards from that given player reaches the secondary market, values diminish. Now when "Card Company A" tries to develop a content plan for its next card release, it becomes harder to find the recipe for content that will satisfy that “give us something worth more than we paid for it” command put forth by collectors.

Some will argue the card companies have painted themselves into this corner, but collectors are as much to blame. Collectors long ago put a higher emphasis on buying products that offered the better chance of a limited-edition insert card because those products offered the best bet to pull a card with resale value. Card companies have catered to those buyers because of simple math – namely, there’s a lot fewer expenses involved in producing a single pack that can be sold for $100 than producing 50 packs that can be sold for $2 each.

But if card companies are going to continue to cater to the higher-end collectors, they’re going to have to find new ways to motivate them to make a purchase. Memorabilia and autograph cards are still the most popular items found within packs, but it’s getting harder to create cards that are all that different from anything that's been on the market before.