Attendance at this year's National continued to be very strong on Friday. While no figures are made available during the show, it wouldn't be surprising if this year's event is among the most well attended since the wild and wooly early 1990s. The crowd is an interesting mix. Vintage card collectors and investors, autograph collectors, those looking for certain memorabilia … [Read more...]
Panini Produces Personnel Promotions
Panini America announced a pair of promotions on Thursday. Kevin Haake is the company’s new Director of Hobby Sales. Haake has been with Panini since 2009, overseeing the growth and development of retail partners including Walmart, Toys R Us, Walgreens, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. Haake is from Kansas and went to school at TCU. He was once editor of Beckett Baseball … [Read more...]
Good Hobbies Gone Bad: The Curious Case of Sports Card Déjà Vu’
About 25 years ago – an era of Bash Brothers baseball, Dream Team basketball, and a Russian exodus to the NHL - I walked away from an industry I loved. Gregg Jefferies, Shawn Kemp and Eric Lindros cards looked at me in disappointing fashion, forgotten friends left at a bus stop of wax pack memories. This exit was a dramatic decision. I was privileged to informally apprentice in … [Read more...]
Mike Piazza Marlins Cards a Fixation for Dueling Collectors
Collectors can find all different kinds of ways to collect. Some save baseball cards of guys who are in the Hall of Fame. You can find others who who chase after guys who will someday be there. Some collect obscure players or those who've been all but forgotten to everyone else. Then there are the two guys who collect cards and other items that represent the five day period … [Read more...]
Dealer Charged in Jersey Scheme Paints Ugly Picture
In an industry battling a nagging notion that some sort of fraud exists around the next corner, court documents emerging from the case against one of the five men who've pleaded guilty in a fake jersey scheme will not be a comfort. Brad Wells, a Florida dealer who admitted to fraud charges last week in U.S. District Court, alleged to FBI agents and postal inspectors during … [Read more...]
Gallery of Awful Autographs
You try to picture the scene in your mind. A giant box of trading cards shows up at a player's home. He opens it up and his first expression is probably one you can't put in a respectable hobby news outlet (or even ours). There is a stack of 200, 300 maybe even 500 or 1,000 cards, all in need of his signature. He has to do it. He agreed to it. He's getting paid for it. … [Read more...]
Q&A With NSCC Director and Co-Founder Mike Berkus
Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Disco was still hot. Mailing a letter costs 15 cents. Charlie Finley and Bill Veeck still owned baseball teams. It was 1980 and in southern California plans were underway for the "1st National Sports Collectors Convention". Tables were 50 bucks for the entire weekend and admission was a dollar a day. The goal was to get collectors … [Read more...]