The Brill Report: The NFL; Less is Good?

By Bob Brill

  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

The Brill Report: Who Blew the Yankees?

By Bob Brill

Okay now here is the ultimate disaster for sports memorabilia. Was it Steiner? Was it the Yankees? Or was it the *&^xn&8#+-AT-! Mailman? But somebody blew it and someone needs to fess up!

The NYY and Steiner get together to offer seats for sale from the old Yankee Stadium. The price tag a whopping $1500 a pop! Now that is bad enough but for an extra $500 the collector/buyer can get the seat of his choice. So, John Lefkus decides he'll go for broke (which is an appropriate term here) and get the very exact seat he's sat in for 23 years. He's a freaking season ticket holder for gosh sakes! He ought to know where he parked his butt for 23 years and 81 games a season. He's sat in that seat for approximately 1863 games, or 16767 innings. He ought to know which seat is his.

Steiner and the NYY sent him a reburbished seat with new hardware! These are things Lefkus says they stated right in the ads they would NOT DO! HE showed his lawyer the ad and then added when he got the seat it had obviously been dismantled during demolition and reassembled without regard for what parts came from what chairs.

Now his rear end sat in that seat often enough to understand the seat ain't his. I'm sure he sat down, moved around to get his proper feel and it just didn't FEEL right. Again if anyone would know it would be Mr. Lefkus.

He filed a class action suit. You go GUY! Kill'em, nail'em to the wall. Get your butt in an uproar and put theirs in a sling. Aren't you just a little bit tired of those who can screw you in the collectibles world, will screw you? We're not talking a $1.25 baseball card here. We're talking $2000 worth of sitting down for 23 years. Plus Shipping & Handling which we're sure Steiner and NYY didn't throw in for the heck of it -- although for a 23 year season ticket holder they should have walked it to his house and threw him a party.

What a hack job! Oh by the way, Lefkus says Steiner put a different seat number on it and tried to pass off a non aisle seat as HIS Aisle seat. Now c'mon guys did you have to do that to the guy too?! If I'm paying $2000 plus the price of my season tickets I want the ^%&$*# right seat!

The guy wants $5 million. Brandon can afford it and so can the NYY! Pay Up or Go Away!

(LILLINGTON, NC) $40,000 worth of baseball and football cards were stolen from a home in Lillington, NC, as cards again are once again the target of thieves. Owner Bart Dillow says $400 in cash plus jewels also were taken. As the economy continues to be bad, thieves continue to look for easy to flip items and sports cards still are a sound investment for a thief.

(HOLLYWOOD SHOW STARS) Guess who appeared at the Hollywood collectibles show in October to sign autographs? Big names Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper and even Valerie Cartwright of Lost in Space and Make Room for Daddy fame. The show has really come on lately with the big name signers.

(CASH FOR CLUNKERS IN SPORTS) You read it right. Famed artist Don Marquess, who does lots of sports stuff for his Marquess Gallery, is offering a strange bit of twisting of the Obama Administration. If you turn in art, any art, posters or whatever you will get a one-third discount on any art you buy from him. It has to be at least an 11 x 14 size purchase to qualify and your art really doesn't have to be much of nothing to qualify. Check out his stuff at www.baseballfineart.com. Tell them you read it here. It won't get you anything special but thanx anyway.

(PATTI WAGGIN DON RUDOLPH BOOKS ARRIVE!) Yeah Baby! Finally. The books were delayed a month when the printer in China put the books on the wrong boat. Thank the Good Lord Somali Pirates weren't looking for a book on a baseball player and his stripper wife. Suggeted Retail Price is $49.99. Check it out on line at Amazon or the others, our own web site www.pattiwaggin.com, or at your local book store. Ask for it by name "Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale," or by author name; Bob Brill. The Special Edition book is only available on our website and it's limited to 200 and sells for $199. It comes with an autographed item by the late Patti Waggin and a DVD of one of her performances and is signed by the author as well as numbered. You can also email me at bob.pattiwaggin@gmail-DOT-com

Tags: don waggin rudolph lefkus seats letters steiner yankees patti fan brill stadium sports stripper burlesque nyy

The Brill Report: MLB Takes Chunk Out of Upper Deck

By Bob Brill

  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

THE BRILL REPORT: Grading? Is it Bogus?

By Bob Brill

  This is a question the hobby has pondered for a number of years and like almost everything else in this industry the questions linger and there are no solid answers. We hopefully will provide some answers in this dispatch but I fear will only raise more questions. The bottom line in a democracy is raising more questions is a good thing.

  There are three main grading companies; PSA, Beckett and SGC. At one time there were about 30 including our own TBR Grading Service. While TBR was probably the most innovative and toughest of the grading companies we just ran out of marketing money so we had to shut it down. PSA remains tops among collectors especially of those who collect vintage while Beckett is also very popular and SGC flounders behind. The rest are gone and if they do exist they are insignificant.

  The focus today is an experiment we tried and is finally over. While all three grading services have good reputations the collecting public still questions their accuracy and motive. How do they compare cards and how do they differ from company to company? Do they switch out your great cards for not so great ones? If one dealer sends in 1000 cards and I send in 10 cards will he get better grades because he spends so much? Are certain things overlooked because a dealer sends in lots of cards on a regular basis? How accurate is grading and is it really just an opinion?

  We will site several examples but the one we want to focus on now involves two specific cards, graded (or not graded by each of the big three). The two cards in question were a 1965 Phil Niekro and a 1965 Masanori Murakami Rookie Card. These two cards were acquired in a collection of extremely high grade cards from the 1960's. They were collected by a very strong collector who obviously admired centering first and foremost and had since he began collecting in 1955. He died in 1995 at the age of 40 and left his collection to his daughter. We purchased the entire collection from her. We submitted many cards to PSA for grading and got some really nice grades.

  The two most beautiful cards in the collection were the two rookies named above. After careful consideration we thought we had a legitimate shot at a 10 on the Murakami and a 9 or even 9.5 on the Niekro. PSA refused to grade them sending them back as "not meeting minimum size requirements." They did not say "showed evidence of trimming," but didn't meet minimum size requirements. So were they trimmed or just left the factory a bit off cut but perfectly centered?

  The source of the purchase was dead so he could not be consulted. He either got them from packs which was highly likely or bought them from a dealer in the 1980's. He bought a lot from Larry Fritsch who has a sterling reputation. Did he buy them from an unscrupulous dealer who trimmed them? PSA didn't say trimmed they said didn't meet the minimum size requirements.

  After closer inspection it seems the Niekro did seem slightly smaller, not so with the Murakami. We sent the two cards to Beckett Vintage Grading. Both cards came back. One sheet said both cards "had been restored." In both cases BVG said the cards did not meet the minimum size requirements from left to right and were "below measurement tolerance."

  So it looked as if there was some consistency. I still however was not sold. While the Niekro did look a little suspect the Murakami looked dead on. Were the two cards judged together and assumed to be tampered with by the graders? We don't know and they would say of course not because each card is graded individually as you expect them to say.

  The two cards are quite valuable. The Murakami carries a high Beckett price tag of $50 while the Niekro also carries a $50 catalog value. We would not object to the cards being graded by the same person at all. The next move was to send the cards to SGC. Never before had we sent cards to SGC but this time it was necessary for this experiment. The cards were returned this week and guess what?

  The Niekro as expected came back as ungradable. Again the words "minimum size" requirments not being met kept the graders from slabbing it. However, the Murakami was graded. It received the high grade of 96 or equivalent to PSA 9, Mint. They did not believe the card was trimmed or altered or even under the minimum size requirements. The Murakami card no. 282 in a PSA 9 is valued at $250! It was according to SGC and as we expected a non-trimmed card of high grade. It wasn't the 10 we felt it was but a 9 was great.

 So did the graders at SGC screw up or just miss the mark, or did they take the time and grade the two cards seperately and make the correct call? We like to think they did since it goes along with what we believe. Did Beckett and PSA think the cards were borderline and worthy of passage but backed off because they wanted to seem to be the grader with the toughest standards? This might be the case.

  In another instance several years ago we broke 50, 1991-92 Upper Deck NHL Hockey Update Sets which included the Keith Tkachuk and Alexi Yashin RC's. Carefully going over each card of the two players in question we found about 20 of each to be near exact copies of the others. So we sent the 20 Yashin's to one grading company and the 20 Tkachuk's to the other.

  Imagine our surprise when we recieved the cards to learn 80% almost exactly recieved an 8 and 20% recieved a 9 grade. The grading numbers were almost exact when it came to the breakdown from the two firms. Could we figure at this point if a customer sent in a large number of one card at the same time with nearly exact credentials, this would result in 20% in higher grades? It would be difficult with such limited experimentation to come to such a conclusion but the question was there regarding large submissions to smaller ones.

  PSA prides itself on its security and rightfully so. Beckett prides itself on its holder and innovations. Some of those innovations backfired. BCCG, Beckett's self proclaimed "low end" grading service was the joke of the industry. In an attempt to get large firms such as Wal-mart to carry graded products the company came up with the idea of allowing dealers or firms to submit a minimum of 1000 cards for a $2 grading fee. The holder would be basically the same but there wouldn't be an inside sleeve and less time taken to grade and no sub-grades.

  At the Hawaii Trade Conference that year a high ranking Beckett official stated this was "our lower end grading service."

  "If the card is graded a BCCG 10 it really is more like a BGS 8," said the official. "It is designed to get more lower end cards graded."

  He left the company a few months later by the way. The whole project still is seen as an embarrassment to the company which was at one time a leader in the industry for integrity.

  SGC made it's reputation on grading the oversized Tiger Woods Rookie Cards. Since then PSA has gone to grading oversized cards and taken away a lot of the market. PSA still stands out in the minds of collectors for one big reason. They want to complete graded sets and register them. As one dealer put it when it comes to PSA grading "it's all about set registration."

  TBR had several innovations which the industry has failed to adapt. TBR was the first to put sub-grades on the front label. Beckett did adopt this for vintage grading until it chose to drop sub grades for vintage cards. TBR also offered for free to the two big companies the TBR video grading system. This was developed by Bobby Brill II, a photographer and videographer who came up with the concept of placing a video camera on a poll overseeing a small platform. In this way the grader could move the card around on a felt slab underneath the camera and watch on a video monitor. This ingenius method allowed the grader to see a blown up version of the card and not hold the card while straining tired eyes.

  The younger Brill had worked for PSA for a short time as a temporary grader and was amazed at the lack of technology PSA employed in grading. Basically a lamp and a ruler were employed. The video system was offered to Beckett and PSA but both turned it down.

  The TBR holder was the smallest in the industry for basic cards and was designed to fit into a two-row shoe box easily. Currently no holder of the major graders does this. A special box must but carried to hold the cards, unlike TBR.

  TBR, according to consumers, also had the most accurate and logical grading system of points used in the industry. It was uncomplicated and easily understood. Unlike BGS and PSA it did not use a complicated algorithm system, but rather an applied point system which worked. One point was assigned each corner down to a half point or zero, each edge was assigned a half point while the front and back carried one point totals each as did centering from side to side and top to bottom. A perfect card would gain 4 points for the corners, 2 points for centering, 2 points for the edges and 2 points for the surface front and back. Knock off anything less than perfect and a different result came about. Grading of centering and surface marks was 50% discounted for pre-1981 cards due to technology of those times.

  Beckett at the time used an algorithm which stated the overall grade of the card could not be higher than one full point higher than the lowest sub graded. So if the corners graded 9, centering graded 9, edges graded 9 and the surface graded a 2, the card would be no better than a 3. We thought this ludicrous and developed our own system.

  The only flaw in our system was with creased cards, which would throw the balance of the system way off. We chose to make it a policy we would not grade creased cards.

  So the bottom line comes up again. Is Grading Bogus? There are a lot of good people in the grading field and a lot who are not, but then this is the hobby. So when it comes down to grading and it's legitimacy? Is it a calculated opinion, nothing more. It is a way to make money for a few companies and in the hobby this seems to be the bottom line.

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(BETTENDORF, IOWA) GAI, speaking of grading, is back with a new management team, a new system, a new website and in a new town. Thousands of miles away from it's former Southern California (Orange County) base the much beleaugered grading company is back in business. Still carrying the GAI name it now stands for Global Authority Inc., rather than Global Authentication, Inc. Gone are Justin Priddy and Steve Rache; the company is now being run by Demian Werner and Mike Baker. Several years ago TBR broke the story of how the company authenticated Tiger Woods signed golf balls when it was well know Woods does not sign golf balls. This started a string of news releases which eventually led to the companies demise. It was purchased out of bankruptcy and now has moved to Iowa.

(HONOLULU, HI) What is one of the hottest collectibles emerging on the scene today? How about surf related items? At the Annual Surf Convention in Honolulu recently, a bidder paid $40,000 for an 11-foot board made 60 years ago. A second board sold for $39,000 and was made in 1955. More than 100 historical boards went up for bid with 400 bidders on hand.

(MEMORY LANE) The latest sale of a T-206 Honus Wagner card brought a record for a low grade card. The card was graded a 40 by SGC and sold for $925,000 in the ML auction. A 40 is the equivalent of about a PSA 3.

(VENTURA,CA) Our next signing for the book "Fan Letters to a Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale," will be in Ventura, CA on September 24th, a Thursday at 5:30pm. We recently recieved a phone call from someone who had seen the web site and remember fondly Don Rudolph from his minor league days. As a nine year old kid Don (Patti Waggin's husband) kept in contact with the boy by writing him post cards and letters. Try that today.

Remember to check out our website www.pattiwaggin.com and purchase either the collectible version of the book or the regular version. Go to the site and check it out. The book is due in mid-to-late August. You can reach Bob Brill at bob.pattiwaggin-AT-gmail-DOT-com.

Tags: patti psa cards boards surfing surf service letters rudolph beckett murakami japanese sgccard fan don waggin niekro phil tbr bvg sgc grading sports