Hunt Auctions has turned over management of the long-running Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show to Joe 
Drelich and East Coast Sports Marketing. The move is effective with the upcoming March event.
The Philly Show began back in the 1970s, when it was created and operated by the Eastern Pennsylvania Sports Collectors Club.
East Coast Sports Marketing will become the majority owner of the Philly show and Drelich says he will handle show management and autograph guests. David Hunt and his company will stay on as a minority owner.
“We are excited to partner with Hunt and such an iconic old school sports card show and put our energy and marketing process to work to further enhance this already great show,” Drelich told us in an email.
Drelich and his team also operate the Chantilly, VA shows which include numerous autograph guests. Drelich says he’s entering into this partnership separate from the CSA show although he remains an owner and along with Rick Danis, fully in charge of show management.
Hunt Auctions also announced a Premier Live Auction for Saturday, March 25 near its Exton, PA headquarters. The company held such an event twice a year for over 15 years.
Heritage Auctions has opened a new office in Chicago. Plans were announced last year but the facility opened for business a couple of weeks ago. The 3,600-square-foot office, located at 215 W. Ohio Street in the River North neighborhood., will serve as a satellite for the Dallas-based company.
The goal is to acquire more consignments, conduct private business and increase the company’s profile throughout the Midwest. Heritage also has offices in New York City, Beverly Hills and San Francisco as well as in Asia and Europe.
The office is regularly open to the public from 10 a.m. 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is 312-260-7200.
Topps “retired” card number 7 in its flagship baseball set following Mickey Mantle’s death in 1995. Sometimes the company used the number to feature a Mantle card but on other occasions there simply was no number 7 in the set, which confused many collectors who weren’t familiar with the history.
This year, the number has been given back to an active player.
The company explained the decision in an article for the YES Network’s website.
Topps has made a habit of inserting cards featuring the stars of baseball-oriented movies in its 
sets. Charlie Sheen and the rest of the cast of Major League were the subjects two years ago. Last year, Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and the Bull Durham crew had autographed cards inside some products.
This year, Topps went back to the Hollywood well and created a card of Norman Dale, the coach in Hoosiers played by Gene Hackman. There has been no announcement on the number of Hackman-signed cards in 2007 Topps Series 1 but a few have surfaced on eBay. All four sold at prices ranging from $273 to $410.
Collectors Universe, parent company of PSA and PSA/DNA says the second quarter of fiscal 2017 was a huge one.
Coin grading continues to be explosive but the card and autograph revenues through PSA grew 15 percent to $4.1 million. Those numbers represent record second quarter revenues for that end of CU’s business, which has achieved quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in 25 out of the 
last 26 quarters.
CU’s CEO, Robert Deuster, believes market conditions in the collectibles business continue to be favorable and could lead to more growth.
CU stock rose 13 percent after the second quarter report was announced late last week. Stock closed at $24.92 per share, up about $10 from the company’s 52-week low.
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