Sportsfest was pretty solid this weekend.
Friday was one of the best first-days we ever had, with a lot of action in the autograph area and tons of buying and selling between dealers and customers.
Saturday’s traffic was a little on the light side, probably because it was so nice outside, but Sunday was very busy. There was constant floor traffic yesterday and it was really cool to see all the pro wrestlers in the autograph area. Talk about some nice guys that were willing to chat with their fans and smile for a picture.
Check out T.S. O’Connell’s photo of
King King Bundy with a six-week old baby!
Good stuff.
I had an interesting Saturday. SCD had a professional camera crew come in to tape our annual “What’s it Worth Day”. Bob Lemke and I were the experts on the sports side and we were happy to evaluate people’s items for about five hours straight.
The video, sponsored by Mr. Mint, will be featured on our website in the next few weeks.
It was really good to see some familiar faces again. I had some nice talks with
American Memorabilia’s Victor and Kieta, card dealer Rick Giddings, the
Memory Lane crew, card dealer Bob McLean and
Gameusedforum.com’s Chris Cavalier among many other dealers.
Everybody really enjoyed the new Schaumburg facility and hotel. I really was impressed and was very excited about our hotel room, which had a flat-screen TV in the bathroom mirror. At first I thought having this feature in our room was kind of pointless, but it was very cool that I got to watch Sportscenter while brushing my teeth.
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IN BREAKING NEWS:
Heritage Auctions is not going to be rewarding a bounty for Bonds' record-breaking home run baseball afterall. Here is a press release the company released this afternoon:
Safety, Liability Concerns Prompt
Withdrawal of $1 Million Bounty for Bonds' Ball
(Dallas, TX) - Concerns about the safety of fans in the stadium and potential legal liability have forced
Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas to withdraw its previously announced offer of $1 million to purchase the baseball that Barry Bonds is expected to hit this season to establish a new career home run record of 756.
"There's a real concern that mania over the breaking of Hank Aaron's lifetime home run record coupled with a reward for the ball could lead to fans' injuries," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auction Galleries (
www.HA.com).
"After personally traveling to San Francisco and meeting with a senior Security Department official at AT&T Park about the potential for a melee in the stands, and discussing potential liability with our attorneys, we have reluctantly, but we feel prudently, withdrawn the $1 million bounty for the baseball. We didn't hear of any way to prevent possible public safety problems, and we don't want a fan or a child injured or killed," Rohan explained.
"We will be happy to speak with the eventual owner of that ball about consigning it to an auction, but we are no longer interested in buying the ball, and if there are indeed any injuries associated with any scuffle for the ball, we would decline to handle it at all."
Heritage is the world's largest collectibles auction house. Last year Heritage sold at auction Babe Ruth's 1933 All-Star jersey for $657,250 and its auction of items from the archives of basketball originator, James Naismith, generated more than $700,000 in winning bids.
For additional information, contact Heritage Auction Galleries, 3500 Maple Ave., 17th Floor, Dallas, TX 75219. Phone: (800) 872- 6467. Online: www.HA.com.