Craig Biggio was scheduled to sign 500 items for TriStar Productions in the wake of his Hall of Fame election. The company has an exclusive deal 
with the first Houston Astro to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
His first public autograph session as a new member will be Feb. 15 at NRG Arena in Houston as part of Tristar’s winter card and memorabilia show.
The Houston Chronicle dug into what being able to add “HOF 15” will mean for Biggio and what his items are currently bringing in the market.
———
Former sports memorabilia and photo dealer John Rogers is facing another issue with a bank. In a claim filed recently, Bank of Little Rock alleges that Rogers “intentionally misused” money and defrauded them after he was issued a $900,000 loan in December 2013.
Rogers took out the personally guaranteed loan to buy business equipment, but the bank claims that isn’t what was done. According to this story in Arkansas Business, the loan is in default with an outstanding balance of $590,833.
And just exactly what will become of all of those photo archives and other assets? There’s a lot of stuff to liquidate including photo archives and sports memorabilia assets amassed by Rogers. Here’s a follow-up story from AB that ran Sunday.
——–
Would the story of the Topps Company make a good movie? Danny Bloom, who lives in Taiwan and writes for San Diego Jewish World, loves the tale of how a couple of bright young guys turned post-War America’s love of baseball and bubble gum into an American icon. He also thinks Woody Gelman’s contributions to the company have been overlooked in some of the stories written after Berger’s death last month.
———
Weekends sometimes bring out some great recollections from writers about collecting baseball cards as a kid. Steve Ziants of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a vivid memory of 1968 he shared in this column that’s worth two minutes of your time.
