Monday Jan 18, 2010
The Brill Report: The death of the successful card shop, it's over
First, let's define "successful card shop." No, it's not "two whales a week," not it's not "I did a thousand dollars today so I 'made' a thousand dollars" and no it's not "I put in 20 hours at the store this week and we're still open." A successful card shop is a retail store which is open at least 40 hours a week, sells various products and when you count your money at the end of the month and you've paid yourself, there is product on the shelf, there is money in the bank and you have paid the bills. That, and only that is a successful card shop. Except for a few random cases in the USA today, they no longer exist. No they don't to answer your rebuttal.
Let's take a look at the history of the hobby shop and look back at what constituted what shop owners called a successful card shop over the past several decades. It has changed. And we'll look at some of the reasons;
(1980-1988) - Store owner buys four cases of the new Topps product, averaging 7.50 a box, opens two cases, makes sets which he sells in store and mail order for a very nice profit but which fits the consumers hobby wallet. He then sells singles for 5-cents to 25-cents to people to fill their own sets. he sells boxes for $15, packs for 25-cents and hot rookie cards for $5 and $6. At the end of the day he goes home pays the bills and enjoys life with his family. He gleefully gives his wife the grocery money and a little more for her to go to lunch with the girls. Life is good.
(1989-1991) - Upper Deck comes on the scene with new pack prices of $1 per pack. Store owner buys three cases of new Topps product, a case of Score, a case of Fleer, a case of Donruss and tries to buy a case of Upper Deck. He finally gets the Upper Deck at 50% more than the factory direct price because the market has caused the product to skyrocket. He breaks a case of the Topps to make sets which he sells for a nice profit, breaks a few boxes of the others and opens a box or two of Upper Deck hoping to hit that Dale Murphy reverse negative which is selling for hundreds of dollars. He finally sells out of all the products and is able to replace the Score and the Topps with no problem, the Upper Deck price is higher so he picks up a few boxes and decides not to break them but to sell packs for $3 each. In the winter he is now stocking football and basketball products which he'll break some but really can't afford to break too much of it because "distributors" are now breaking the products and selling 100-count box lots of those "hot" single cards. He hears rumors about the "back door" at Upper Deck being open and sees lots of former card shop ownes at shows selling these hot inserts much cheaper than he can and they look awfully clean.
The card shop owner starts going to shows to pick up products instead of ordering direct because he can buy as much or as little as he wants and usually at the same price as direct from the manufacturer, unless the product is hot. Then he figures it's hot, he'll pay more but he'll charge his customers more. Except he keeps seeing his customers at these shows as well in Los Angeles, Orange County, New Jersey and Michigan especially.
At the end of the day he goes home and sees less product on his shelf, less money in the bank and now in addition to five days a week at the store he does two shows on the weekend to try to make ends meet. He also hires a teen age kid to work the store when he's gone and the kid is stealing him blind, opening packs and selling off singles at the night time shows when the dealer is at home. The wife asks for the grocery money and he tells her she'll get it tomorrow after the show because he'll have the cash then.
(1992-1994) - The insert market remains hot but the store owner keeps seeing more and more of his former fellow store owners setting up at shows. He sees stacks of insert cards which "book" at $100 selling at show tables for $10 each with no limit and once the show dealer sells out, he reaches into a box behind his table and pulls out more. He then reads the trade papers on how several Upper Deck board members were allowed to buy cases worth of these "hot" inserts for pennies on the dollar and then dumped them onto the Southern California market for well below "book" price to these "distributors."
The shop owner decides he's can't deal with this anymore and wonders how long he can keep his store open. He decides the only way to stay alive is to play the wholesale game as well as the retail. Now he buys 10 boxes at $25 per box, sells 5 in his store for $35 on Monday, wholesales four to another card shop for $25 on Tuesday and sells the last box at a show for $20 on Wednesday. For the week he spent $250 and brought in $45 in profit. He is happy because he "made $45" but failed to put in the $50 in gas used to run around, the table fee of $25, $25 he spent on food during this time including at the show and the fact he opened four boxes of another product at the show which he bought for $100. He also put in 40 hours at the store mostly sorting because he didn't have many customers. So for the week he took in at total of $300 but spent $450, but hey "I made $45!"
He goes home at the end of the day and he has lots of single cards on the shelf but very few wax boxes and no good ones, no money in the bank, the unpaid bills are starting to mount and his wife wants the grocery money today not tomorrow. He tells her to take the money out of the savings this week.
(1995-1999) - The card shop owner, who was once one of 5000 shops in the country is now just one of 1000, opens his doors and is now buying less direct and more at shows and from secondary wholesalers who purchase their product from first line wholesalers. These are guys who travel around selling out of the back of their car and some are doing mail order. The problem is his customer base is dwindling, the product which used to sell direct for $7.50 a box is now $45 a box and while there are lots of shiny cards they are only limited to 5,000 of each card. There are also eight different products a week which he can order and he's not sure which ones he will order and which ones will be hot. He keeps asking the salesman at his distributor "is it going to be good?" to which the salesman replies to each product "it's going to be hot, smokin' and really limited."
All of a sudden the word "insert" is becoming a bad thing. It turns out all those hot rookie cards of players in the 1992-93 basketball draft are worthless. The card which was selling for $75 is now selling for $3 and the card shop owner sees more collectors with dozens of them coming into his store asking him to buy them. He has three on his shelf already and has had for two years.
The collector keeps trying to sell his cards to the dealer and the dealer has stopped buying. This is a watershed moment. So many "collectors" were buying in the previous period hoping they were buying investment cards they overburdened the market. They waited too long and now they want to sell and can't understand why the dealer isn't buying their cards. The dealer starts using the words "junk" and "garbage" in referrinig to the collectors cards. The collector keeps showing up with 5000 count boxes of 1990 Upper Deck Football, 1991 Hoops Basketball and 1992 Donruss Baseball which he wants to sell and no one is buying.
For the dealer he starts to open some of the more expensive products. He paid $75 for the box and gets three hot cards. He sells the three for a total of $35 and the rest of the cards he puts in a box and before he closes his store somewhere down the road will have sold another .50 from the box. He kicks himself for opening the box but realizes he now has $35 in his drawer which he didn't have when he opened the doors that day.
He hears from other card shop owners they are making more money selling Beanie Babies than cards. He quickly starts buying Beanies and sells through. He puts more effort into selling the plush toys than cards and now he's picking them up at shows. Several dealers who are no longer selling Beanies convince him to sell bigger plush toys including Disney. He grabs on and goes for it.
Then Pokemon gets hot. Now he's chasing boxes and cases of Pokemon. He's paying $4 per pack for a $1.89 pack and he's happy to get it because his customers are paying him $8 per pack. This goes on until the holidays when both the Beanie market (which has been dead for six months) and the Pokemon market die.
He sees many of those "sportscard shops" now turning into "gaming stores" but he doesn't understand the games and doesn't play Magic, DragonBall Z and Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. He's sticking with sports cards. Afterall this game stuff is just for kids and kids don't have any money. And if they are in his store they will probably steal him blind, and when they are in the store, guess what? They do.
At the end of the day he has several expensive boxes on his shelf, a few cheaper boxes, his showcases are filled with expensive insert cards, his backroom is filled with scores of 5000 count boxes of singles, about 20 Beanie Babies for which he paid $7 each for and he'll sell for $6 if anyone will take them off his hands. Several kids keep coming in but they don't want Pokemon anymore, they want Dragon Ball Z and Star Trek and Yu-Gi-Oh and other gaming products. All of a sudden he looks at the end of the day and he has a couple hundred dollars in the drawer, he has a few dollars in the bank and he hands his wife the grocery money. His credit card bills are a little higher than he likes but hey he'll take care of that with the next crazy craze which comes along.
(2000-2008) - The powers that be at the leagues and licensors still haven't decided whether they want to sell trading cards to collectors or to fans. They keep talking about "little Johnny collector" who of course the card shop owner knows hasn't existed since 1991. His customers are now "whales" who come into the store and spend $500 on a box of cards and maybe will buy three of them. The card shop owner has paid $350 for those boxes of cards and makes a nice $150 per box profit. Of course he has problems trying to restock them because they are in "limited" supply and if he is able to get them his wholesalers are now charging $500 for the same box he previously bought for $350 yesterday. So now he must charge $650 for the same box he sold for $500 before. The collector says "no" and the dealer says "okay I have to just open it." He gets a total of four cards per box or 12 cards total. One he sells on eBay for $1000. The others he can't sell for squat. So he laid out $1500 and got back $1000 which means his $650 profit from the previous round is now down to $150.
Four more products are coming in this week which will cost him another $2500. He gets a second credit card to buy those products and uses the money he got from the previous sale to pay the electric bill on the shop. The credit cards? He'll make the minimum payment this month. Or better yet, he'll get a new credit card with no interest for six months and transfer the balance.
Someone tells him about "Pack Wars" and all of a sudden this becomes the rage to bring in new customers. Boy Scout troops are also being courted by the leagues and Players Associations. Wow a new way to bring in customers to your shop. Once in the store they'll buy and you'll have lots of new "young" customers. Remember the youth of today is the hobby of tomorrow. Get them while they are young. This despite the fact the store owner knows these kids will stop buying when they hit the 10th grade, girls and cars. Hormones? Who knew?
The store owner holds a Pack War Party. A total of 40 people come for the monthly event. The store owner spends $100 on advertising the event, $50 on pizza to give away at the event, $250 on prizes to give away at the event and he actually makes $200 on the packs he uses at the event as the gaming pieces. He uses very cheap packs which he sells for $1 each. Overall his profit on the packs is $200. He spent $400 putting the event on. His customers spend an extra $150 in the store that night brining his take to $350. So for the night he actually loses $50 but he got a crowd.
As they leave the store his regular customers say "wow this was a great event, I'll be back next month." He then realizes several of his regular customers who spent $75 a week are now only coming for the monthly Pack War where they spend $100 total. He lost those customers to the tune of $200 a month.
He goes home at the end of the day and while preparing to go to work at his new part-time job and between selling on eBay, he looks in the register and he has enough money to start the day, no savings account, his checking account is overdrawn, he owes the wholesalers $1000 and hands his wife his ATM card for the groceries hoping to put enough in the account before she tries to use it.
(2009-2010) - The store owner opens the doors waiting for the two whales he has left. The others have all left, quit the hobby and gone to the local Indian Casino to play. Monday his two whales come in to Pack War and drop $500. Tuesday they do the same and Wednesday it's the same. Thursday one is sick the other goes on vacation. The store owner panics. He now owes the wholesalers (three of them) $1500 each, he has closed his bank accounts and uses cash only, his credit cards are either maxed out or shut off, he has no product on the shelf and a back room full of old products no one will buy including some memorabilia, beanie babies and promotional items from the manufacturers.
There are no more regular customers although several people come in saying "back in the day I had that card" as they point to the cards in the showcases. The dealer realizes now eBay sucks and he is just giving his stuff away there so he stops that. He contemplates bankruptcy but isn't sure what to day. He can't afford a web site. One of the major card companies has taken his whales through some special club they set up to which the dealer foolishly agreed to provide information about his best customers.
At the end of the day, he has $20 cash to stop at the local fast food place because he doesn't have to buy groceries any more. His wife has left and filed for divorce, his house payments are in arears and his garage is full of 5000 count boxes of 1991 Donruss etc.
(2011) - Major league baseball and the other leagues are selling cards on their web sites, eBay still sucks, there are only three card manufacturers left and one is just about to fold and our card shop owner has decided to close his doors. He's now working at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
How do you spell success?
You can reach Bob at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com.
Tags: cards baseball shop hobby upperdeck card donrudolph donruss topps pattiwaggin trading
The Brill Report: The death of the successful card shop, it's over
First, let's define "successful card shop." No, it's not "two whales a week," not it's not "I did a thousand dollars today so I 'made' a thousand dollars" and no it's not "I put in 20 hours at the store this week and we're still open." A successful card shop is a retail store which is open at least 40 hours a week, sells various products and when you count your money at the end of the month and you've paid yourself, there is product on the shelf, there is money in the bank and you have paid the bills. That, and only that is a successful card shop. Except for a few random cases in the USA today, they no longer exist. No they don't to answer your rebuttal.
Let's take a look at the history of the hobby shop and look back at what constituted what shop owners called a successful card shop over the past several decades. It has changed. And we'll look at some of the reasons;
(1980-1988) - Store owner buys four cases of the new Topps product, averaging 7.50 a box, opens two cases, makes sets which he sells in store and mail order for a very nice profit but which fits the consumers hobby wallet. He then sells singles for 5-cents to 25-cents to people to fill their own sets. he sells boxes for $15, packs for 25-cents and hot rookie cards for $5 and $6. At the end of the day he goes home pays the bills and enjoys life with his family. He gleefully gives his wife the grocery money and a little more for her to go to lunch with the girls. Life is good.
(1989-1991) - Upper Deck comes on the scene with new pack prices of $1 per pack. Store owner buys three cases of new Topps product, a case of Score, a case of Fleer, a case of Donruss and tries to buy a case of Upper Deck. He finally gets the Upper Deck at 50% more than the factory direct price because the market has caused the product to skyrocket. He breaks a case of the Topps to make sets which he sells for a nice profit, breaks a few boxes of the others and opens a box or two of Upper Deck hoping to hit that Dale Murphy reverse negative which is selling for hundreds of dollars. He finally sells out of all the products and is able to replace the Score and the Topps with no problem, the Upper Deck price is higher so he picks up a few boxes and decides not to break them but to sell packs for $3 each. In the winter he is now stocking football and basketball products which he'll break some but really can't afford to break too much of it because "distributors" are now breaking the products and selling 100-count box lots of those "hot" single cards. He hears rumors about the "back door" at Upper Deck being open and sees lots of former card shop ownes at shows selling these hot inserts much cheaper than he can and they look awfully clean.
The card shop owner starts going to shows to pick up products instead of ordering direct because he can buy as much or as little as he wants and usually at the same price as direct from the manufacturer, unless the product is hot. Then he figures it's hot, he'll pay more but he'll charge his customers more. Except he keeps seeing his customers at these shows as well in Los Angeles, Orange County, New Jersey and Michigan especially.
At the end of the day he goes home and sees less product on his shelf, less money in the bank and now in addition to five days a week at the store he does two shows on the weekend to try to make ends meet. He also hires a teen age kid to work the store when he's gone and the kid is stealing him blind, opening packs and selling off singles at the night time shows when the dealer is at home. The wife asks for the grocery money and he tells her she'll get it tomorrow after the show because he'll have the cash then.
(1992-1994) - The insert market remains hot but the store owner keeps seeing more and more of his former fellow store owners setting up at shows. He sees stacks of insert cards which "book" at $100 selling at show tables for $10 each with no limit and once the show dealer sells out, he reaches into a box behind his table and pulls out more. He then reads the trade papers on how several Upper Deck board members were allowed to buy cases worth of these "hot" inserts for pennies on the dollar and then dumped them onto the Southern California market for well below "book" price to these "distributors."
The shop owner decides he's can't deal with this anymore and wonders how long he can keep his store open. He decides the only way to stay alive is to play the wholesale game as well as the retail. Now he buys 10 boxes at $25 per box, sells 5 in his store for $35 on Monday, wholesales four to another card shop for $25 on Tuesday and sells the last box at a show for $20 on Wednesday. For the week he spent $250 and brought in $45 in profit. He is happy because he "made $45" but failed to put in the $50 in gas used to run around, the table fee of $25, $25 he spent on food during this time including at the show and the fact he opened four boxes of another product at the show which he bought for $100. He also put in 40 hours at the store mostly sorting because he didn't have many customers. So for the week he took in at total of $300 but spent $450, but hey "I made $45!"
He goes home at the end of the day and he has lots of single cards on the shelf but very few wax boxes and no good ones, no money in the bank, the unpaid bills are starting to mount and his wife wants the grocery money today not tomorrow. He tells her to take the money out of the savings this week.
(1995-1999) - The card shop owner, who was once one of 5000 shops in the country is now just one of 1000, opens his doors and is now buying less direct and more at shows and from secondary wholesalers who purchase their product from first line wholesalers. These are guys who travel around selling out of the back of their car and some are doing mail order. The problem is his customer base is dwindling, the product which used to sell direct for $7.50 a box is now $45 a box and while there are lots of shiny cards they are only limited to 5,000 of each card. There are also eight different products a week which he can order and he's not sure which ones he will order and which ones will be hot. He keeps asking the salesman at his distributor "is it going to be good?" to which the salesman replies to each product "it's going to be hot, smokin' and really limited."
All of a sudden the word "insert" is becoming a bad thing. It turns out all those hot rookie cards of players in the 1992-93 basketball draft are worthless. The card which was selling for $75 is now selling for $3 and the card shop owner sees more collectors with dozens of them coming into his store asking him to buy them. He has three on his shelf already and has had for two years.
The collector keeps trying to sell his cards to the dealer and the dealer has stopped buying. This is a watershed moment. So many "collectors" were buying in the previous period hoping they were buying investment cards they overburdened the market. They waited too long and now they want to sell and can't understand why the dealer isn't buying their cards. The dealer starts using the words "junk" and "garbage" in referrinig to the collectors cards. The collector keeps showing up with 5000 count boxes of 1990 Upper Deck Football, 1991 Hoops Basketball and 1992 Donruss Baseball which he wants to sell and no one is buying.
For the dealer he starts to open some of the more expensive products. He paid $75 for the box and gets three hot cards. He sells the three for a total of $35 and the rest of the cards he puts in a box and before he closes his store somewhere down the road will have sold another .50 from the box. He kicks himself for opening the box but realizes he now has $35 in his drawer which he didn't have when he opened the doors that day.
He hears from other card shop owners they are making more money selling Beanie Babies than cards. He quickly starts buying Beanies and sells through. He puts more effort into selling the plush toys than cards and now he's picking them up at shows. Several dealers who are no longer selling Beanies convince him to sell bigger plush toys including Disney. He grabs on and goes for it.
Then Pokemon gets hot. Now he's chasing boxes and cases of Pokemon. He's paying $4 per pack for a $1.89 pack and he's happy to get it because his customers are paying him $8 per pack. This goes on until the holidays when both the Beanie market (which has been dead for six months) and the Pokemon market die.
He sees many of those "sportscard shops" now turning into "gaming stores" but he doesn't understand the games and doesn't play Magic, DragonBall Z and Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. He's sticking with sports cards. Afterall this game stuff is just for kids and kids don't have any money. And if they are in his store they will probably steal him blind, and when they are in the store, guess what? They do.
At the end of the day he has several expensive boxes on his shelf, a few cheaper boxes, his showcases are filled with expensive insert cards, his backroom is filled with scores of 5000 count boxes of singles, about 20 Beanie Babies for which he paid $7 each for and he'll sell for $6 if anyone will take them off his hands. Several kids keep coming in but they don't want Pokemon anymore, they want Dragon Ball Z and Star Trek and Yu-Gi-Oh and other gaming products. All of a sudden he looks at the end of the day and he has a couple hundred dollars in the drawer, he has a few dollars in the bank and he hands his wife the grocery money. His credit card bills are a little higher than he likes but hey he'll take care of that with the next crazy craze which comes along.
(2000-2008) - The powers that be at the leagues and licensors still haven't decided whether they want to sell trading cards to collectors or to fans. They keep talking about "little Johnny collector" who of course the card shop owner knows hasn't existed since 1991. His customers are now "whales" who come into the store and spend $500 on a box of cards and maybe will buy three of them. The card shop owner has paid $350 for those boxes of cards and makes a nice $150 per box profit. Of course he has problems trying to restock them because they are in "limited" supply and if he is able to get them his wholesalers are now charging $500 for the same box he previously bought for $350 yesterday. So now he must charge $650 for the same box he sold for $500 before. The collector says "no" and the dealer says "okay I have to just open it." He gets a total of four cards per box or 12 cards total. One he sells on eBay for $1000. The others he can't sell for squat. So he laid out $1500 and got back $1000 which means his $650 profit from the previous round is now down to $150.
Four more products are coming in this week which will cost him another $2500. He gets a second credit card to buy those products and uses the money he got from the previous sale to pay the electric bill on the shop. The credit cards? He'll make the minimum payment this month. Or better yet, he'll get a new credit card with no interest for six months and transfer the balance.
Someone tells him about "Pack Wars" and all of a sudden this becomes the rage to bring in new customers. Boy Scout troops are also being courted by the leagues and Players Associations. Wow a new way to bring in customers to your shop. Once in the store they'll buy and you'll have lots of new "young" customers. Remember the youth of today is the hobby of tomorrow. Get them while they are young. This despite the fact the store owner knows these kids will stop buying when they hit the 10th grade, girls and cars. Hormones? Who knew?
The store owner holds a Pack War Party. A total of 40 people come for the monthly event. The store owner spends $100 on advertising the event, $50 on pizza to give away at the event, $250 on prizes to give away at the event and he actually makes $200 on the packs he uses at the event as the gaming pieces. He uses very cheap packs which he sells for $1 each. Overall his profit on the packs is $200. He spent $400 putting the event on. His customers spend an extra $150 in the store that night brining his take to $350. So for the night he actually loses $50 but he got a crowd.
As they leave the store his regular customers say "wow this was a great event, I'll be back next month." He then realizes several of his regular customers who spent $75 a week are now only coming for the monthly Pack War where they spend $100 total. He lost those customers to the tune of $200 a month.
He goes home at the end of the day and while preparing to go to work at his new part-time job and between selling on eBay, he looks in the register and he has enough money to start the day, no savings account, his checking account is overdrawn, he owes the wholesalers $1000 and hands his wife his ATM card for the groceries hoping to put enough in the account before she tries to use it.
(2009-2010) - The store owner opens the doors waiting for the two whales he has left. The others have all left, quit the hobby and gone to the local Indian Casino to play. Monday his two whales come in to Pack War and drop $500. Tuesday they do the same and Wednesday it's the same. Thursday one is sick the other goes on vacation. The store owner panics. He now owes the wholesalers (three of them) $1500 each, he has closed his bank accounts and uses cash only, his credit cards are either maxed out or shut off, he has no product on the shelf and a back room full of old products no one will buy including some memorabilia, beanie babies and promotional items from the manufacturers.
There are no more regular customers although several people come in saying "back in the day I had that card" as they point to the cards in the showcases. The dealer realizes now eBay sucks and he is just giving his stuff away there so he stops that. He contemplates bankruptcy but isn't sure what to day. He can't afford a web site. One of the major card companies has taken his whales through some special club they set up to which the dealer foolishly agreed to provide information about his best customers.
At the end of the day, he has $20 cash to stop at the local fast food place because he doesn't have to buy groceries any more. His wife has left and filed for divorce, his house payments are in arears and his garage is full of 5000 count boxes of 1991 Donruss etc.
(2011) - Major league baseball and the other leagues are selling cards on their web sites, eBay still sucks, there are only three card manufacturers left and one is just about to fold and our card shop owner has decided to close his doors. He's now working at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
How do you spell success?
You can reach Bob at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com.
Tags: cards baseball shop hobby upperdeck card donrudolph donruss topps pattiwaggin trading
Saturday Nov 07, 2009
The Brill Report: The NFL; Less is Good?
First off, let me thank you the readers for the overwhelming response to last week's column! Wow. We've never had so much response to any column we've ever written and the amazing thing is it ran 9-1 in favor of the position we outlined.
While some of the faithful were a bit surprised the column took a political tone (Meg Whitman former eBay chief running for California governor) they none the less responded and with fervor. A couple of readers were not even hobby folks but rather people who ran across the column for one reason or another and threw in their opinion. The California primaries are next year so we'll have to see where it goes and what the voters do. Oh, by the way, those opinions expressed here were totally that of the author and not Sportsbuy.com. Thought we'd throw that in just for grins.
Now on to this week's topic; The NFL and when the next shoe drops. Any day now we expect to hear something from the football licensors regarding the number of licenses they will have regarding NFL football cards. Will it be down to one? Will there be three as there are now? Will it be only two? Let's delve into a little history.
It was 1989 when Pro Set (the official card of the NFL) came into being with Lud Denny leading the way. He got himself tied to a couple of John's working for the NFL (under the old NFL Properties division) which handled merchandising. Eventually those two John's were fired in disgrace as the NFL allegedly found them dipping into the perverbial cookie jar. Now to this date no one has been convicted and no charges have been filed but there is some good circumstantial evidence basically showing a couple of guys making lots of money on the back end supporting Pro Set, while their bosses were kicking in money to a company heading into bankruptcy. It's not that the owners were clean either but we will leave it at this for the moment.
In a previous column years ago I wrote and got comment from at least three card makers that they basically had their arms twisted to kick back some "extra" product to certain inviduals in return for these licenses. No names were given but the same people were targeted. Only the then-Fleer VP we spoke to called me a "muck raker" for reporting the story. Of course he was the guy who got the license for the then "Official NFL Trading Card; GameDay." Wow! No conflict there, huh?
Well the real life story is the NFL and the NFLPA (the Players Union) were battling each other in court over lots of things and while the owners had lots of money to burn, the players did not. They figured out if they licensed trading cards they could basically finance their lawsuit against the owners. So they did. They gave a license to every Tom, Dick and Wild Card who wanted to print trading cards and the money rolled in.
At one point there were no less than 16 companies making NFL trading cards. Some with only the permission of the NFLPA. Of course as time went on Wild Card, Pro Set, Pinnacle, Collector's Edge and even the Ted Williams Card Company fell by the wayside. Even unique Action Packed was swallowed up by Pinnacle which ended up owning many of those brands. Finally there were only three.
We have Upper Deck, Topps and Donruss/Panini/Leaf et al. Somewhere along the way someone at Upper Deck really ticked off the guys at the NFLPA. One insider told me "The PA loves Donruss and Topps and if the PA decides to go down to just two licenses Richard (McWilliam CEO of UD) will find a big surprise waiting for him."
Well it looks like decision time might be around the corner and Upper Deck keeps losing licenses. They no longer make MLB Trading Cards or NBA Trading Cards. They sort of have an exclusive on NHL trading cards and they make NFL cards, for now. If indeed, in a dwindling market for sportscards, there is a cut it is likely going to be the boys from Carlsbad.
Now don't go feeling sorry for McWilliam and his team. They have worked hard and secured lots of licenses for collegiate sports, NCAA, minor league guys and of course hockey. And they still have exclusive rights to Jordan, Lebron, Sid the Kid and Ovechkin. Not bad, oh and of course the only golfer anyone cares about; Tiger Woods. So it ain't so bad.
The NFL has never allowed players to be exclusive with any one company so while UD has the likes of Favre, Manning and more it's not like those guys can't sign for pay for someone else. Yes it could come down to the fact the company which started the "Hobby" trend by making cards "for collectors" might just be the first one out of the shrine when it comes right down to the big boys and trading cards for 2010 going forward.
(DENVER & THE STEELERS) -- For those of you who know me well you know I'm from Pittsburgh and an avid Steelers, Pirates and Penguins fan. Monday brings my annual trip to Denver where a friend of mine has season tickets for the Bronco's. Each year he invites me to see a game of my choice and the last couple years it has been the Steelers. The guys is a good friend and he puts me up, takes me to dinner and handles my transportation. Really though he loves me to come because I have never gone to a game in Denver the Bronco's lost. I can't stand any team which plays my Steelers and I hate to see them lose. I almost didn't go this year because my Steelers are holding tough in an effort to repeat for the Super Bowl. I can't not go though, so think good thoughts for the Doc (my friend) and my hook up with Stadium Cards owner Mike Fruitman who will be there too. May I go home with a Steeler win under my belt.
(PATTI WAGGIN BOOKS) -- Just an update on my new book "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale." I'll be doing signings in NorCal shortly. Oakland I'll be at the Uptown Theatre Nov. 16, Chico at the Barns & Knoble Nov. 17, Sacramento's Avid Reader Books on Nov. 18 and at Russo's Books in Bakersfield on Nov. 19. If you are close by please come on out, buy a book and have some fun. I'd love to meet you. Check the website for times and addresses. You can contact Bob at any time at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com
Tags: deck steelers mlb nflpa letters broncos upper baseball donruss denny stadium lud patti sports fruitman company nfl fan ebay topps waggin meg whitman
Thursday Oct 29, 2009
The Brill Report: eBay Still Sux and So Does the Potential Governor
Not only does eBay continue to suck but are you just tired of hearing how former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is going to fix California when she's elected governor and Arnie retires? Since I sit behind a microphone at the only all news radio station in Los Angeles at least 14 hours a week I have to listen to her commercials and hear her stretch the truth through her teeth while I watch the trading card industry suffer more losses due to the likes of eBay.
First of all let's look at "eBay!" When it first started it was a pretty good thing and became an industry standard. Then came their lack of policing autographs -- try looking for bad stuff and you'll see the same old guys selling the same old fakes. Over the years eBay did bring more collectors back into the market by putting a death knell on retail hobby stores. The stores were forced to play the eBay game right out of business.
Even today it's terrible although the overall economy hasn't helped, but eBay's policies are getting worse and worse. Why on earth can a buyer leave negative feedback for a seller, but a seller cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer? The only solution is to "not leave feedback at all" because it doesn't mean anything anymore! If all the buyer can get is a positive no matter what kind of malicious, perverted, demeaning, thieving, scumbag he/she is then what is the point?
And the value? Drop it off the edge of the planet Mac. For instance, this week I listed a 1955 Bowman Eddie Lebaron rookie card graded BVG 7.5. That is basically an 8 for a key rookie from 54 years ago and a HOF player as well. I started the bidding at $9.99 figuring it would go to about $40. It's real true value is about $60 and it should be $75. Well how does $10.50 sound? SUX to me but that is where it ended up and to think I once turned down $30 for it in my store when I had one.
Well enough of that and onto Meg Whitman. She left eBay as CEO and as one of the richest women in the world. Let me say that again "one of the richest women in the WORLD!" Does the word billionaire come close. Her reported NET WORTH is $1.4 Billion. That is right, "Billion" with a "B."
So now she wants to the Governor of California. Well la-de-dah. Her pitch is threefold. Here it is, via the radio commercials which I've heard ad nauseum.
1. Create new jobs because as she points out she created thousands of new jobs at eBay while she was CEO, creating thousands of new businesses. That is true, businesses with no benefits and thousands of new businesses who don't pay or collect taxes creating the largest underground economy in world history.
2. Government shouldn't spend more than it takes in so she will freeze spending, cut taxes and take those government service departments which are out of control and eliminate them and lay off thousands of people who are government employees. Wow! Talk to the state legislature about that before you do anything because that is what you have to. Let's see lay off thousands of state workers? Doesn't that kind of conflict with No. 1 above? Put more people on the street who are paying taxes and paying their bills. Hmmmm, now that sounds like a plan. Oh and getting rid of those departments which aren't paying their way? Schools, roads, the State Board of Equalization (the guys who collect sales taxes) and all those government watchdog agencies who keep an eye on all those oil companies and other large anti-green and anti-government oversight firms. Wow that will work. Cut taxes? How long do you want to stand in line at the DMV? The EDD? Or any other state required agency? Cut taxes, cut jobs and make lines longer and have services only available three days a week.
3. Schools. "We're going to give more choices to parents and reward better teachers by paying them more." So let's see that means school vouchers for private schools and home schooling (more money out of public schools) and Merit Pay for Teachers. All Merit pay does is create greedy money hungry administrators and teachers in the classroom. Merit pay works if your kids are widgets but they are not widgets. They are indivdiual learners who learn at their own pace and more often than not there is nothing any teacher can do which will make a slow learner, learn faster. Now you can get all the smart kids into a few classrooms and no matter who the teacher is they will perform better on those tests. That teacher will get more money because of the better grades.
Now here is something which might work. Teachers might go for it if you let them draft their kids just like NFL teams draft their players. Let's say you have three first grade classes in a school. Each teacher the first year draws their position from a hat. They draft from the upcoming 2nd graders in an even mannered order as in a Fantasy Football Draft, but the second year and from then on they draft in reverse order of finish. If teacher no. 1 has the best overall student test scores in year one, she drafts last the following year and so on.
You can even let the teachers trade kids. You give me two better than average kids for one dumb one and one highly intelligent kid. And there are some dumb ones just like there are intelligent ones. Now don't forget the Non English Speakers. We have to spread them out evenly which sounds a little like discrimination but hey this is corporation here, we can push that under the rug for now.
Under this system each teacher has a chance build a winning team to make more money. Otherwise, under the way it's actually planned, what is to prevent a teacher from offering half of his/her bonus salary to an administrator in return for stacking her class with smart kids. And if an administrator doesn't like a teacher what is to prevent them from stacking her class with dumb kids and kids who can't speak English at all? Nothing. This is why running a classroom is not the same as running a corporation. It only works with widgets and you may want widgets from your loins but my kids were never widgets.
You see what you will get for teachers in the future is not caring teachers who want to help kids. You will get greedy salesperson types who only care about the almight buck, not the kids. And why not? You are paying them more to get higher grades and getting higher grades is not teaching them to learn, it is getting them to get more points on a standardized test, biased test or not. Heck I might become a teacher. Show me the money! Who cares about those little brats? Whip them into shape, memorize things, reward them with candy, whatever it takes to get those little brats to get higher scores. Who cares if they learn anything? I don't. Just SHOW ME THE MONEY! Now for those of you who know me you know I'd never become a teacher under any circumstances. It's a very difficult job and you have to care, which is why Merit Pay does not work.
So Meg, yes you built up eBay, but let me ask you this. You keep saying cut taxes. If you are elected governor of California are you going to go after all those new businesses you created via eBay and make them collect and pay their California Sales Taxes? Oh, that's right go to her web site and ask Meg? I'll wait until I get her on the air instead.
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Finally I can announce copies of my new book are on store shelves as we speak. I'm told sales are good for "Fan Letters to a Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale." I will be signing copies of the book this Sunday afternoon at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., in West Hollywood. You can also see a video of the making the book on YouTube. C'mon out and pick up a copy. I'll also be in four northern California cities in coming weeks. The week of November 15th I'll be in Oakland, Chico, Sacramento and Bakersfield for signings with one coming up in Ventura but it's as of yet not decided regarding a date. You can read more at my website.
Tags: whitman baseball grading merit waggin don ebay lebaron rudolph beckett california patti pay football psa meg governor
Friday Oct 02, 2009
The Brill Report: Kobe in the fold
There is no more perfect fit in sports marketing. Kobe Bryant and Panini. What more could you ask for after Kobe signed an exclusive deal with the trading card and sticker maker. Here are the facts as Panini sees them.
1 ) Panini is the exclusive maker of basketball trading cards in the world. Kobe Bryant is the no. 1 players in the NBA today, LeBron James notwithstanding Kobe has won championships.
2 ) Panini is an Italian Company with world wide distribution in stickers. Kobe was raised in Italy, speaks fluent Italian and collected Panini stickers as a child.
3 ) Panini knows how to market it's goods. Kobe is known world wide and is a very easy marketere. He is Marquee.
It was only seen as inevitible and since UDA and UDC lost the rights to make NBA trading cards Kobe had to find someone to market with. His comments hold true.
"I know from my own experience growing up, how fun collecting and trading these products can be. I really believe collecting these products has the power, through the unique emotions of sports, to unify and strengthen bonds within families and across social groups, no matter what age you are. Panini and I are passionate about developing this hobby in many new and exciting ways."
It was a natural fit for the Italian company and the kid who grew up watching his father Jelly Bean Bryant play in the Italian version of professional basketball. Speaking Italian fluently means a great marketing tool for Italian TV as well. Kobe can address fans in their native tounge and this means a lot to those who have watched TV with subtitles.
I like Panini and always have. They will bring a fresh new approach to the trading card game even though it will take some time. Having Kobe locked up shows they are serious.
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(PANINI AMERICA) -- I'm sold! Panini just sent dealers and journalists a nice new packet and it actually included something usable. It was a large round basketball mouse pad with the word "Panini" on it. Finally something useful in the mail from a card manufacturer as a freebie outside of shopping bags. I've always liked Panini, my Italian is descent and I have friends and relatives in Italy. OK Panini I've given you a plug, now how about a job?
(RUMORVILLE) -- My how rumors spread. A former customer came up to me this week to pick up her annual Topps Factory Sets. I hold them while she's out of the state for months at a time. Her first question to me was "Is it true none of the card companies are going to make cards will the players on them? Are we still going to be able to get our Topps sets?" I explained the licenscing situation and how it evovled and how only Topps will have guys in their uniforms and logos. Her answer was "Good Topps will be the only real cards then?"
(1991 DONRUSS) -- Six weeks and counting. It has been six weeks since I unveiled my plan to make 1991 Donruss and other products of that era hot and valuable again. No one yet has taken me up on it. Darn it! I tried to get rid of that stuff for you guys but no one would listen. Another tree falling in the forest and lots of lumber was cut from 1986-1993 for trading cards.
(MCFARLANE LTD) -- McFarlane is taking the collector thing to the next level on it's prime action figure line. The Sportspicks figures will carry six different levels of collectibility including MVP which will be limited to up to 50 figures. In this instant collectible world no one yet has figured out what makes the thing collectible and desirable is time and the end user, not the manufacturer today.
(CORRECTION) -- Brad Abbott owns www.Rickeyhendersoncollectibles.com and contacted us to correct us upon stating it was Rickey's site. It is not but he has worked with the Henderson people regarding the site and products. Thank you for letting us know.
The latest Patti Waggin Tale. You have heard me talk about my new book about to hit store shelves on September 28. Well "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" has been delayed about a month. It seems the shippers in China put the books on the wrong boat and it's still on the water. They will get to my publishers warehouse October 18. Now as long as Somali Pirates keep their hands off my ship we should be fine. Delayed, but fine. Our book signing at Book Soup in West Hollywood will be on November 1, at 2pm.
Sorry about taking last week off. Just too much to do and ran out of time. You can contact bob at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com
Tags: rudolph baseball to a panini basketball burlesque fan waggin mlb kobe mcfarlane topps soup letters rickey nba book donruss stripper don patti
Thursday Sep 17, 2009
The Brill Report: Bummed on eBay
I'm Bummed, really Bummed. The only thing I really want these days is actually two things and one of them I will never see, let alone get. I just missed out on the second ever of such items and I'm bummed. The items in question are the Topps 1962 Civil War News Sets in both French and Spanish. I have the USA version and the UK version, but the other two are very, very rare.
I've only ever seen the French set twice in my life. I've spoken about it with other CWN collectors but the hallowed set has rarely ever been seen. Twice it has popped up on eBay in the last six months. The first one sold for around a thousand dollars from a UK seller. The second one, which closed this week with the owner from Canada, closed at $547. I bid $537 with 3-seconds left. The winner was obviously willing to go much higher. I would have but in the end it would have just driven up the price for him because he had more money to spend.
This wonderful set is based on paintings and came out shortly after Mars Attacks from Topps. It was the 100th anniversary of the War Between the States, or if you are from below the Mason-Dixon Line, the war of Southern Rebellion. Remember the cannons at the airport in Richmond, VA still point north.
The set is the most colorful and wonderful set ever produced by Topps and was the first box of trading cards I ever recieved as a child. My sister popped the $1.80 for her little bro for this one. I was a Civil War buff. I opened the box and bought a few packs and was finally only one card short of a a complete set. "Submarine Attack" tells the story of the CSA Hunley, the first submarine used in warfare and actually attacked an enemy ship, later made into a TV movie by Ted Turner starring Armand Assante. In 2004 a military funeral was held for those who died on her final voyage. The wreck was discovered a shorr time earlier.
I found that card on the final day walking out the door taking one more last shot at the last table at the 1991 National in Anaheim. The price? $2! I was more excited than a pig in s**t. Man this was it!
So later on I set my sites on 1) the UK set, 2) the never seen French set 3) and the very rare Spanish set. Oh and in the midst I collected the Confederate Money inserts and decided to put together a complete PSA 8 graded American Set.
I so far have all but 18 of the USA cards in PSA 8 grade. I have the UK set and would like to put together a graded set but not now. Funds being what they are. The UK set, which is made from Topps but distributed by a regional company and carries the tag name; A&BC cards. They are smaller in physical size and the back is more white than gray in it's back ground.
The French set is the same except the text of course is in French. The Spanish set is the same dimension and in Spanish text but all blood, guts and fire are removed and the set looks rather bland. I've only seen a few of the cards on line over the years and they are rather boring and ugly. What makes the set colorful, the fire and blood is all removed. Still it is the rarest of all the rares in this genre.
The story goes it was more of a test as was the French after the United Kingdom Set was actually a hit. The british are very interested in the American Civil War. I recently recieved a book about the war, written by a Scotsman, from a friend in Scotland. The take on the war is very interesting certainly and I read things I never heard of in USA books and studies.
The UK set is rather plentiful but the oh so nice and rare French is not. I tried to buy the set outright from the Canadian but it was his first attempt on eBay and he was playing by the rules. Good for him, bad for me. I didn't get it. The Spanish set? Now that is another story. Is it out there? Does it exist?
One of the unique items about this set overall is the fact there are "newspaper" stories on the back of each card, this Civil War News. The writers admittedly made it all up. In some cases they actually got it right. I read an article once where the authors of the cards were interviewed and they said several of the stories were complete fabrications but some of them were based on actual events. Either way they did a wonderful job. Too good perhaps.
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We are expecting our new book to be on book shelves any day now. "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" is scheduled for September 28 but we understand it is a little ahead of schedule. The story of burlesque queen Patti Waggin and her husband former Washington pitcher, Don Rudolph is told through photos and fan letters as a coffee table style book.
Tags: topps fan letters 1962 mars french hunley brill waggin baseball news bob patti a&bc attacks uk war rudolph cwn don civil set spanish
Thursday Aug 06, 2009
The Brill Report: MLB Takes Chunk Out of Upper Deck
Upper Deck is exclusive with hockey, Panini is exclusive with basketball and for all intents and purposes now Topps is exclusive with baseball. Major League Baseball (the league not the players association) has in one swift blow relegated Upper Deck to the status of Donruss Baseball. In a surprise announcement, just one month after the MLBPA (Players Union) renewed the license for Upper Deck to continue to make baseball cards, the league (MLB) pulled the rug out from under UD by granting Topps an exclusive license for logos and trademarks.
Not in 30 years has one company had such exclusivity when it comes to baseball trading cards and the effects on Upper Deck could be just short of devastating. The top man at Upper Deck hasn't endeared himself to the leagues and PA's in many years and when UD lost the right to make basketball cards it became the last card company to handle licenses for all four major sports.
Evidently MLB likes Michael Eisner better than Richard McWilliams and with Eisner's track record and promise of returning collecting to younger collectors, MLB was sold. When Eisner first bought Topps over objections from McWilliams, he promised kids would again be the target ala Disney his old firm. Despite targeting kids in advertising, UD continued to make higher and higher dollar products aimed at Diamond Club Collectors and the dwindling base of well heeled collectors. The economy has not sustained such a move.
Donruss, and now Panini, has gotten away with making logo-less baseball cards by putting in lots of autographs from minor leaguers and retired players.
"It just proves you don't need the logos to sell baseball cards," one collector expressed to TBR. "Who cares about logos?"
Purists do and those purists will collect Topps any day over Upper Deck. So for the moment Upper Deck only has the NFL and NHL as full blown licenses. If the NFL chose to eliminate one of it's licensees, a possibility but not a probability, insiders tell TBR it would be Upper Deck. Such a move would seriously cripple the company in the trading card business.
Upper Deck and McWilliams are loaded with other ventures so don't cry any crocadile tears for the folks at Sea Otter Place. They still have a strong line of memorabilia, good gaming products and Upper Deck International. Although with it's European and Latin American distribution, Panini will give UD more than a run for it's money. Actually UD would be chasing Panini in most markets.
This is the not the first time the discussion of UD and no MLB came up. Over the years there were several instances where the league or the players union were not happy with the California card maker. Rumors persisted they would lose a license or at best be slapped with a fine or other restrictions. However, to see the company which founded itself as the collector's friend in 1989 actually lose out to Grandpappy Topps is pretty hard core.
For his part McWilliams is a multi-millionaire who among other things owns a small commuter airline and while he's had his personal problems, he does put in his days at the office. Unlike the early days, UD has become less of a revolving door for it's staff. Several key people have been there for a longer time than many others. With the fortunes of Upper Deck trading cards slowly dipping into the same Pacific Ocean it sees out McWilliams office window, one could not blame them if they began looking and deserting what could be a sinking trading card ship.
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(MALIBU) -- JAKKS Pacific inked a deal to sublicense a hot product. The company has the rights to make UFC toys and now is sub licensing the making of the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) to Round 5 Corporation. Now both companies have the rights to the growing MMA pool of players.
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(MORRISTOWN, NJ) Upper Deck, the most litigous of the companies in the industry is being sued by a man who says he sent 6 Pin Flags to UD so Tiger Woods could sign them under the UDA program, and they got lost. Robert Zafian, co-owner of Green Jacket Auctions, is suing UDA for $40,000 after the company admitted, according to his attorney, the flags were recieved and signed but then probably lost. He says UDA promised to pay him $200 per flag which it considered the extent of its liability. He claims they were worth much more, and signed were worth around $40,000.
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(HOUSTON) HLT&T Sports is going after MLB charging Baseball is trying to put the company out of business and reneging on a deal made years ago. HLT&T repackages sports cards and has been selling them for decades including in sports stadiums. Since 2000 the company has sold it's wares at more than 15,000 games and even World Series. It claims it asked MLB Properties many years ago if it was okay and got the nod as long as it did not use logo's and trademarks on the packaging. Now MLBP wants it stopped. The company wants damages in excess of $200,000.
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You can reach Bob Brill at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com and don't forget to look on line at your favorite bookseller, or in your favorite bookstore for Bob's new book, "Fan Letters to a Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale." The book, about the life of burlesque queen Patti Waggin, who was married to former White Sox and Senators pitcher Don Rudolph, will be on book shelves within two weeks. If you can't find it you can order both the basic book and/or the limited collectible edition (only 200) through the web site www.pattiwaggin.com.
Tags: upper insiders brill players patti baseball bob deck fan cards panini tiger uda diamond donruss mlb waggin sports ud jakks nba richard union eisner woods don collectors topps mcwilliams letters nfl rudolph
Friday Jul 24, 2009
The Brill Report: TAKING IT TO AUCTION
TAKING IT TO AUCTION
As some of you know I've recently been associated with Huggins & Scott Auctions out of Maryland and to say the least I've learned some things. I've also been pleased with the fact my hobby knowledge is paying off. There is also no shortage of people who don't understand the process. There is also no shortage of stuff from the hobby's most over produced era, 1982-1999. Let me help set a few things straight.
There are several good and legitimate auction houses in the hobby these days and more seem to be springing up all the time. Remember the number of grading companies formed during the heydey of grading? All want a big piece of the pie while there are niche's to be had, the pie has shrunk and the most competitive will survive.
During the grading heyday of course there were the two biggies; PSA and Beckett. SCG carved a niche since they graded oversized cards, GAI would grade packs while nearly everything coming from Mint, BCCG and others would be a 10 whether it had a bent corner or not. Eventually nearly all of them faded away leaving the market to the big three.
Auction companies sprang up after eBay starting taking much of the hobby business. People like auctions and while eBay still does a booming business changes and fraud at the internet auction site opened doors for other auctions on the internet. Mastro was probably the biggest but persistent rumors about improprieties and government investigations pretty much put them out of business. Their key staffers went elsewhere. Heritage remains along with Huggins & Scott, Mile High and a host of others. Several more have gone by the way side including Mr. Mint Alan Rosen's auctions. Now it is all about marketing and how much you can afford to spend to get buyers to your site.
There are more than enough hobby related items to be auctioned off and in this economy they are coming up daily. Vintage cards are still the best but good solid vintage autographs are right behind them. NASCAR, modern manufacturered memroabilia and cards post 1970 don't sell. Even wax boxes from the era turn sour?
A couple of tips about going to auction with your stuff. Vintage cards are always in demand and while condition will determine price, buyers are not really condition sensitive. I've personally taken in a large number of vintage off grade cards and when I say off grade, it's really more about quantity than quality. Quality will bring more money but a strong lot of off grade vintage cards will also do well.
Autographs? Jimmy Spence of JSA handles most of the certifacation for the auctions houses in the hobby and why not. He is the best. Many of the auction houses have deals with him and they usually take care of the certifacation. The company will usually charge you what Spence charges them for the service and it comes off the end of your sale.
The auction houses charge anywhere from 10% to 20% to the seller although this varies due to what the owner is selling, how much of an advance he'd like if one is offered, what the competition is offering and how good the collection is. A customer selling a complete T206 Set with all the cards in PSA 7 condition might be offered a 7% fee, while someone offering up 1500 boxes of 1988 Donruss in sealed cases would easily be giving up 15% to 20%. Those are hard to sell while the other will sell easily.
The buyer is also charged a commission and this is where the auction house makes its money. The commission taken from the seller usually pays for the representative of the company who found the collection, the shipping and some advertising. The buyer's commission is what pays for the catalog, employees and hopefully the auction house itself makes money so it can stay in business. Selling $2 million in merchandise does not guarantee the company a profit considering all the factors involved.
I've done very well with complete Topps Sets from the 1950's and 1960's, 800 count boxes of vintage baseball and football cards while bulk autographs don't seem to do as well. There is usually some interest in a bulk lot of autographs. What there is no interest in are inserts and insert sets. These are dime a dozen items and commonly manufactured.
Will this all change? Probably as things in the industry change we'll see changes in the auction process too, as well as customer tastes and new collectors coming to the auction market to buy. Some of the auction houses will fade away due to lack of financing not due a shortage of material. Personally I get calls almost every day but unfortunately much of it is for modern day baseball cards. The questions I get are usually from the uneducated...
"What kind of cards do you buy?" We don't buy we consign.
"What kind of cards do you collect?" We don't collect, we sell.
"Is Shoeless Joe Jackson still dead?" No, I heard him out back talking with Elvis last week.
"What is my Upper Deck 1996 Michael Jordan Rookie Card worth, I have three of them." A lot less than the 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie Card.
"I have lots of card from back in the day when I was a kid, I'm 22 now and found them in the garage. I'd like you to take a look at them to see if you are interested." I'm not, I want to talk to your father who collected cards back 'in his day.'
"I have lots of old Becketts I was going to throw out but I want you to put them up for auction." Walk them out your back door and head straight for the trash can.
"My grandfather died and left me a bunch of boxes of sports stuff and cards he collected when he was a kid. What do I do with them?" Nothing, what is your address I'll be over in 10 minutes.
One big name dealer years ago said there are no more great finds. Of course there are because people die and their collections usually go to their families who don't want them. They want the money the collection might bring but even then many of them don't care so much. They have no emotional attachment to them. This is what we are looking for. If you have an emotional attachment, keep it because chances are you won't get enough money for it to overcome your emotions.
We are trained to be conservative in estimating the value of a collection because we don't want you to be disappointed. We also would like to know what your expectations are. If you have a collection you paid $75,000 for and in today's market the value is $10,000 and you want $95,000 chances are you should try to sell it on eBay instead. It will take you longer, you won't get your money in one lump sum and you might get $12,000 for it. It's a hard lesson to learn but a lot of folks are learning it.
The one good thing about today's market with it's bad economy is there is always a great market for premium merchandise. Especially if that stuff is linked personally to a player. A ring worn by Ali, a check written by Babe Ruth or a bat owned by Joe Jackson. These are all premium items and will find a home with someone with expensive tastes and cash to burn. A bat signed by Hank Aaron while under contract to Score Board, a Willie Mays baseball signed in 2006 or a "Limited Edition" numbered litho signed by guys who all hit 50 home runs in a season -- well there are lots of them and they are not unique. Anyone who really wants one can have one and this is not good for the collectibles market or your investment.
Most auction houses don't deal with framed items. They would rather take the stuff out of the frames, ship them to their warehouse in a less costly matter and sell the items as they are. Few collectors, buying at auction, are buying them for the frames. If you walk into a store and see a framed piece and you want it, you buy it. You usually don't buy it at auction. At auction people are looking for "rare" or "a bargain."
Selling at auction is a great way to get the most for what you have and if you don't have a clue as to how valuable what you have is, it's a tremendous way to find out. Chances are you will be pleasently pleased although there are often disappointments. Like the man said selling anything anywhere, auctions, swap meets, eBay, garage sales -- it's a crap shoot. However if you use a legitimate auction house which advertises, publishes a nice catalog and has good reps come out to visit with you, you are halfway home to a good experience.
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(BURBANK) Hollywood Collectibles Show was good the last weekend in Burbank as a "Happy Days Reunion" themed show took center state. Even Erin Moran was there and she was previously estranged from the group. Henry Winkler (The Fonz) was a huge hit and we heard him remark afterwards "This was really a wonderful thing, certainly worth being here."
(DV Valkenburgh)
(In photo above, Happy Days stars; Donny Most far right,Henry Winkler far end standing, Marion Ross in Blue, Anson Williams looking away in black shirt)
Photo credit to Dave Rodriguez, Signatures.com. The free table area was loaded with about 60 or more signers. These are celebrities who get their table for free and can charge what they want. Most are former TV and movie stars, Playboy Playmates and working actors and actresses such as Deborah Van Valkenburgh seen below. The "Too Close for Comfort" star and co-star of the classic cult film "The Warriors" is constantly working and usually makes all the Hollywood Collectible Shows. She was there with co-star Lydia Cornell. Almost the entire living cast from the Bob Newhart Show was there. We were there to promote our new book "Love Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" and pre-sold a few books in the process.
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(THE MOON) Mounted Memories is offering up framed pieces of the Apollo 11 Moon walk. The items feature text of the mission and photos of the landing, the walk and some of those famous shots NASA says it lost in the years gone by. There were no shots of anyone's forehead simulating the man in the moon for you conspiracy theorists.
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(ORLANDO) College Hunks Hauling Junk, a clean out company, cleaned out a storage locker and founds lots of sports memorabilia. Judging from the COA's, the holders and the names of the players who signed it looks like someone who collected stuff from The Score Board. Mays, Aaron, Schmidt and many more former TSB inkers. Some of the stuff was ruined by the poor conditions but some will go to charity.
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(EBAY) The recent deaths of star names has put a real boost into the memorabilia market, and it also continues to send shock ways through the fake autograph market. The deaths of Michael Jackson and Steve McNair pumped up the market as usual and as unfortunate as that is. At the same time the obvious fake autographs flowing out on eBay and other auction sites continues to show what is wrong with our industry, and the world for this matter.
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(PITTSBURGH) For the same likely reasons we have to also follow the news and scandal market to see where the value of our collectibles go. Case in point, another athlete accused civily (not criminally) of rape months after an alleged encounter took place. Ben Roesthlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers vehemently defended himself in a news conference this week, stating earlier the encounter was consentual. The woman who is making the accusations filed the civil suit but never filed a criminal complaint. The question is should athletes now have to fill out a form before and after having sex stating their intentions before and after? Imagine if Mickey Mantle and some of the other great players who were known to stray frequently were around today?
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Bob Brill can be reached at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com. You can find his new book "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" available on many different on-line book seller sites although the limited edition version may only be purchased from the web site, www.pattiwaggin.com. Patti Waggin was married to MLB player Don Rudolph and both have fan clubs on the the site. Special bonuses and discounts apply for those who join.
Tags: the don jimmy stripper beckett waggin van dancer burlesque jsa memories patti jordan scott spence strip elvis mounted and michael report steelers topps baseball rudolph winkler tease huggins psa heritage valkenburgh ebay brill exotic
Monday Mar 30, 2009
ThePit.com - Largest IPO Event Ever!
This week April 2, 3, 4 & 5, ThePit.com (A SportsBuy owned site) will be hosting its largest IPO (Initial Player Offering) since acquiring ThePit.com from the Topps Company 3-years ago. Nearly 100 new rookie cards will be added of many of the talented up and coming baseball prospects including Stephen Strasburg, Rick Porcello, Lars Anderson, Matt Wieters, Neftali Feliz, Mike Stanton, Buster Posey & much much more.
Both Base & Autographed Rookie Cards will be added on the top prospects and current young stars such as Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, Joba Chamberlain, Travis Snider and more.
The event has been extended from 3 days to 4 days, starting with 25 new rookie cards added on Thursday April 2 at 5pm (PST). Approximately 25 additional rookies will then be added each following day on Friday April 3 at 5pm, Saturday April 4 at 3pm and Sunday April 5 at 3pm (PST).
Visit ThePit.com Message Boards to get in on the discussion for this weeks Big Event!
Tags: rookie_cards baseball thepit.com
Friday Mar 20, 2009
The Guy Who Set Up the "Shot Heard Round the World"; Whitey Lockman, dies at 82
Whitey Lockman, whose key hit for the New York Giants in the decisive 1951 National League playoff game against the Brooklyn Dodgers set the stage for teammate Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Round the World," has died at 82. He passed at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.
He is best known for his role in the third game of a playoff series against the Dodgers in 1951, Lockman came to bat in the bottom of the ninth facing starting pitcher Don Newcombe and hit a one-out, run-scoring double that cut the Dodgers' lead to 4-2. Dodgers Manager Charlie Dressen brought in reliever Ralph Branca, who gave up a three-run home run to the next batter, Thomson, which unleashed Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges' famous call, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" It was called the "Shot Heard Round the World."
Lockman played 15 years in the majors (Giant, Cubs, Cardinals, Orioles and Reds), and made the All-Star Team, and then managed the Chicago Cubs for parts of three seasons in the early 1970s.
Lockman's vintage cards are actively collected.