Free Updates
Navigation
Categories
| July, 2008 (3) |
| June, 2008 (18) |
| May, 2008 (20) |
| April, 2008 (13) |
| March, 2008 (13) |
| February, 2008 (16) |
| January, 2008 (12) |
| December, 2007 (10) |
| November, 2007 (9) |
| October, 2007 (14) |
| September, 2007 (8) |
| August, 2007 (21) |
| July, 2007 (18) |
| June, 2007 (19) |
| May, 2007 (21) |
| April, 2007 (19) |
| March, 2007 (5) |
Search
Archives
More Links
|
 Wednesday, January 02, 2008
CARD/MEMORABILIA SHOW EXPERIMENT WAS A SUCCESS
Posted by Chris
If you’ve been keeping up with Gavel Chat, you already know that I gave card show promoting a try this past weekend. The show took place in Green Bay, a city that hasn’t had a good show in more than ten years. In fact, any time I asked someone about possibly doing a show in that area, they usually rolled their eyes and told me it just isn’t a very good market for that sort of thing. Still, I had a feeling that with the right amount of promotion, and in a good location, that it just might work. Well, I am happy to say that the show was a success. There was a very nice flow of traffic for almost the entire show and every single dealer said they would sign up for another show in the future. The really cool thing was all the neat items that walked through the door. Lots of nice vintage football autographs, some 1960s game-used Packers equipment and vintage cards were brought in by attendees. Now that I have a little experience setting up a show, I would like to offer some tidbits on what to do and what not to do when promoting a small card show. - Don’t take short cuts. If you’re setting up a show to become rich, you better think again. You need to advertise, and that costs money. We paid for classified ads seven days leading up to the show date. The total for those ads was $68. - Take advantage of the “free” promotion options. Hang up flyers, post show information in your local newspaper community calendars, publish the show information in places like SCD’s show calendar. - Don’t charge admission, especially if it is your first show. There isn’t a better way to turn people off then by charging admission. - Have raffles periodically throughout the show hours. We gave away some $10 gift certificates to be used on the show floor. It kept people in the building and made the dealers happy that we went the extra mile. - Don’t have too many shows throughout the year. If there is a show once a month, I think this is too many. I wouldn’t have more than four shows per year. Overkill is not a good thing. - Make sure the dealers are displaying quality material. We handpicked our dealers. That meant no Beanie Babies or crafts. This is a card show, not a craft show. - Limit the show to one day. There is no need to have a small, local show run any longer than a day. Card shows aren’t what they used to be, but a one-day card show can stay busy… Two days would be pushing it. - One of the coolest things we advertised is that we were giving “free appraisals.” Tons of people came in with their items wondering what they were worth and it gave dealers a chance to make offers. Win/win for both the customers and the dealers. *******************
I am by no means am an expert on show promotion, but it isn’t rocket science. Put together a quality offering of dealers/items and make sure people know about the show. The people will come and keep coming in the future if you follow these simple rules. Thanks to everyone involved in the show. I had a blast.
1/2/2008 3:59:26 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
|
|
Friday, December 21, 2007
NICE PATCH CARD – BUT IS IT EVEN REAL?
Posted by Chris
 I am not really into modern sports cards. I would much rather stick my money into a nice autographed football or a vintage program. That said, I know quite a few people who still are obsessed with modern cards, especially those that are autographed and feature multi-colored patches. It's been recently called to my attention that there is a major problem with crooks taking out pieces of jerseys from patch cards and are replacing them with more attractive swatches, to fraudulently increase value. You would think the card companies would try to eliminate the possibility of jersey-card fraud by affixing a clear plastic covering over the swatch or something, but most jersey pieces are affixed in a manner that they can be removed and unethically replaced. I stumbled upon this site recently, www.fakepatchreport.com, and it is pretty slick. Anybody who collects jersey cards should go there and check it out. The hobby needs more proactive collectors like founder Jeremy Lee. Props to Lee and his efforts to make the hobby a safer place. ********************
Just an update on my card show that I am having on Dec. 29, in Green Bay.My experiment has gone very well so far. We sold all of our tables and have a bunch of dealers on a waiting list. I know of many collectors who are going to travel up to a couple hours to check it out, as well. The Green Bay Press Gazette newspaper is doing a story about the show in this upcoming Monday’s paper. We also were able to secure some really good dealers, including SCD’s very own T.S. O’Connell and Troy Kinunen of MEARS. I am very excited. Now all we need to do is keep our fingers crossed for good weather. *******************
Happy Holidays everyone. Gavel Chat will be back starting January 2. I am heading to Chicago this week for the Packers/Bears game. Lots of sports this weekend between the NFL games Saturday and Sunday.
12/21/2007 12:06:19 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Monday, December 17, 2007
MY 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Posted by Chris
 Okay. You all know that annoying little song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Well, with the holiday spirit in mind, I decided to give Gavel Chat readers my 12 days of sports and memorabilia. Here is what I am asking for this holiday season: No. 1: No more increases in buyer’s premiums from major auction houses. No. 2: Better images and more quality product images on eBay listings. No. 3: To put steroids and the Mitchell Report stuff behind us. I am sick of hearing about this. What’s done is done and nothing can be changed.  No. 4: For the NFL Network to put the axe to Bryant Gumbel, and for Monday Night Football to put the axe to Tony Kornheiser. I’m sure they are nice guys, but I could do without their babble while I’m trying to enjoy an NFL game. And no. Don’t bring back Dennis Miller. He was worse. No. 5: More younger people in the hobby. I don’t even mean 10 year olds. I
would like to see more people in their 20s get into this industry.  No. 6: More responsible authenticators. Nobody said memorabilia and autograph authentication was easy, but if you don’t have the knowledge to authenticate a 1930s Detroit Lions jersey or a George Gipp autograph, just lay off of it and admit you can’t authenticate it. It’s okay. We will understand. No authenticator has the knowledge to authenticate everything. No. 7: Of course, I have to throw it in there … I wish Brett Favre could win one more Super Bowl. I know some of you hate that I write so much about the Packers, but too bad. It’s my blog:) No. 8: Not sports or memorabilia related, but I wish the weather could be a little more tolerable in Wisconsin. I am not that big of a whiner, but today I heard some noises coming out of my frozen car. It sounded like a cat was stuck under my hood or something.  No. 9: Do away with long turnaround times on payments from auction houses. I understand that this stuff takes time, but if I consign items to an auction house this year, I don’t want to be getting my check next year. No. 10: Cheaper autograph guests at card shows. What ever happened to a $10 autograph guest? And no. I don’t mean Virgil the wrestler. I want a real superstar athlete for an affordable price.  No. 11: More auction houses to stand behind their products. I understand the “All Sales are Final”deal, but if an item is blatantly fake, please do something about it. Remember. What goes around comes around. Honest auction houses that take care of their customers will be rewarded in the long run. No. 12: KEEP reading Gavel Chat. I love writing this blog and the more readers I have and the more of you that participate, the better it will be for everyone. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
12/17/2007 5:31:42 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Friday, December 14, 2007
MASTRO RESULTS ARE IN
Posted by Chris
 As always, Mastro Auctions’ holiday sale, which ended last night, turned lots of heads in the sports memorabilia hobby circle. I have to admit, I thought some of the Colgan’s Chips cards, including the awesome Jim Thorpe would sell for more than the $43,247 it ended at. Maybe people are saving money for the Joe Jackson Colgan’s card that Mastro will sell next year, or it could be that the market is a little down during this holiday season … Not sure. The 1952 Topps set went for $132,850 … It was a stunner for sure. The Black Sox documents went for a staggering $83,283 amd an early career Ted Williams cap sold for $60,597. Tomorrow is the last day of Memory Lane’s auction, and Premier has its sale ending on the 20th of December. That will pretty much wrap up all the auctions of 2007. It was a memorable year for vintage collectibles. to say the least. The good stuff seems to never dry up. I can’t wait ‘til next year’s Spring sales. Better start saving right now!
12/14/2007 3:32:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Thursday, December 13, 2007
WILL THE MITCHELL REPORT HURT MEMORABILIA SALES?
Posted by Chris
 Well, by now you have all heard the names that were listed on the Mitchell Report. We all knew about Barry Bonds, but guys like Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, may have surprised more than a few people. There was even an Internet hoax that was stirring around names like Albert Pujols as being involved in using steroids. That particular accusation was squashed rather quickly, thank God. So, what are these findings going to do to memorabilia sales? I have a feeling it is going to seriously hurt prices. Bonds and Clemens are not going to be let into the Hall of Fame any time soon and memorabilia of Palmeiro, Sosa and McGwire is already proof that sales will suffer. Taking a brief timeout from his holiday sale, head man of Mastro Auctions, Doug Allen, already chimed in with his thoughts to Gavel Chat about the Mitchell Report's potential affect on memorabilia sales: “Overall we have seen the newer material suffer based on the allegations of Steroid abuse by Barry Bonds. The current news will definitely have an additional impact on players that were not previously implicated such as Roger Clemens.”There’s no denying it. Who the heck is going to pay top dollar for a game-worn Clemens jersey right now?
12/13/2007 4:44:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Monday, December 10, 2007
HOBBY PIONEER, LARRY FRITSCH DIES
Posted by Chris
 One of the greatest card collectors ever and a Wisconsin native, Larry Fritsch passed away Saturday. During my first tenure at Sports Collectors Digest, when I was a grader for its card grading division, I had the chance to work at Fritsch’s shop/warehouse, where I graded some of his 65-million-card inventory. Now, I don’t have too many memories of Larry, mainly because I dealt with his son, Jeff, most of the time. Although one story jumps out: One day Larry showed up during one of my shifts at their warehouse in Stevens Point and I began asking him stories about his days in the hobby and his collection.  I mentioned to him that some day it would be great to see some of his extremely rare cards. Not ten minutes later Larry came out with a container, no bigger than a shoe box and tossed it on the table in front of me. Larry was quite the showman in his own, little way and really enjoyed showing people his collection, as building the New York card museum would suggest. With a grin, Larry told me to open it, so I obliged. In it was probably a million dollars worth of cards! There was a T206 Plank, Wagner, two Doyles and two 1932 Fred Lindstrom cards (the only two in existence I might add). That was in 2001. Quite the sight for a kid trying to make it in the card business fresh out of college. He will be missed.
12/10/2007 4:43:32 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Friday, December 07, 2007
HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS MAN?
Posted by Chris
 He may be a millionaire and not even know it. This potentially very lucky guy won the skirmish on Sept. 5, 2007, that landed him Barry Bonds’ 762nd home run ball which was hit in Colorado. That ball didn’t mean a whole lot at the time, as nobody thought it would be the final ball the home run king would hit, but due to his recent legal troubles, Bonds may never play again. And as a result, would never hit another home run, making No. 762 the most coveted ball ever. The story of the lucky guy who probably caught the ball has quite the twist, however … If you watch this clip of the home run: CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO, you will see that the first guy who touched the home run ball actually had another ball in his hand at the same moment he touched the money ball. According to a Rockies season ticket holder, who was at the game, the guy in the purple shirt thought he caught the record ball.
What he didn’t realize, according to the season ticket holder that we talked to, the guy in the purple actually ended up with a batting practice ball and not the good ball.  What a mess! Anyway, it turns out that the guy who actually caught the record ball, who’s identity remains unknown, tried to have the Rockies’ ushers authenticate the ball as being No. 762, but they wouldn’t because of all the confusion. That said, I would love to find out who the actual guy is with record ball. Maybe one of Gavel Chat’s readers might know who he is. If I were him, I would come forward as fast as I could. The longer he waits, the harder this story is to believe. I want to thank Tuff Stuff editor Scott Kelnhofer for giving me the idea for this blog. Scott covered this before anyone else even thought that 762 might be Bonds' last dinger.
12/7/2007 2:36:19 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Thursday, December 06, 2007
BONDS ASTERISK CARD HITS EBAY
Posted by Chris
 This is a new one ... Click here, One of Upper Deck’s most popular products, Sweet Spot Signatures, seems to be adding a little comedy to its offerings. This “asterisk” card hit eBay yesterday and it already has 20 bids on the auction. All signs point the card as being legitimate, but I have never seen or heard of this, so the verdict is still out. What's next? A syringe card? A Cream or The Clear card? Maybe this was a joke that slipped through the cracks, or maybe it was intentional… Maybe it was just a doctored version put out by a collector. We will wait and see if more show up on the Bay in the future. I have a feeling it's going to sell for a lot. People seem to love this kind of stuff.
12/6/2007 4:20:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
NEW BLOG FOR STANDARD CATALOG OF BASEBALL CARDS SET UP
Posted by Chris
 Here you go all you blog junkies... My collegue Don Fluckinger, the editor of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (yep, that's really his last name:) asked me to inform my readers about this: Now that the 2008 SCD Standard Catalog of Baseball cards is out on
shelves, the work's just begun on the 2009 edition. "The Latest Finds"
at http://standardcatalog.wordpress.com is the new online address where
readers and collectors can help us make the most complete price guide
and checklist on the market, ever.
The editors will post reader questions as well as currently uncatalogued
"mystery finds" that collectors and auction houses unearth between editions.
"The idea," says editor Don Fluckinger, "is to make this blog the
interactive online home of the Catalog. I look forward to expert
specialists--right now we have a PM-10 pin question up there, and we
could use someone who knows that series--helping us find the right place
in the catalog for all these 'new discoveries' found in the attics, flea
markets, and antique shops across the country."
Fluckinger encourages collectors to drop by regularly and if they happen
to recognize an uncatalogued item and can shed light on where in the
catalog it belongs--or, more importantly, help spot fakes or mis-
identified pieces--please join in the blog by offering input in the
comments area or email him directly at don@prospecthillpub.com if they
want to remain anonymous.
12/6/2007 12:36:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
MASTRO’S SKYDASH COLLECTION IS UP AND RUNNING
Posted by Chris
 With eight days to go, the Jim Thorpe Colgan’s Chips card out of Mastro’s current auction is already at $25,000 and well on its way to a six-figure realized price. This is one that all baseball card fans will want to keep their eyes on, as it will be one of the highest-selling cards ever. ************************
I was just checking out Game Exclusives website, a company who specializes in really nice game-used football equipment from teams like the Bears, Cowboys, Seahawks etc., and I couldn’t help but notice the Tony Romo uniform it had listed for under $5k. Romo is probably the most collected modern player right now, other than Tom Brady, and this piece really stands out to me as quite the investment. I have by know means written off my Packers yet, but the Cowboys have a great chance to make it to the Super Bowl, and if they do all the attention will be focused on Mr. Popularity, Tony Romo. I think this is a no-brainer purchase at that price and should be an easy flip to make a couple thousand easy bucks. ************************ Speaking of the Packers... They play the Raiders at home this Sunday and I have seriously been entertaining the thought of going to Oakland's hotel to try and get a glimpse of owner Al Davis. I have never went to a hotel to get a player's autograph, other than one time in 1989 when I got snubbed by David Robinson in Milwaukee, but I think this might be one time I would try.
I am a huge fan of football history and Davis was one of the great Pioneers, from the early days of the AFL, to his feuds with Pete Rozelle.
I know Davis is a horrible signer, but it may still be worth a try. At least maybe I could get some nice photos.
12/5/2007 5:16:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Monday, December 03, 2007
LELANDS’ HOLIDAY AUCTION YIELDS SALE OF A $26K WIRE PHOTO
Posted by Chris
 All I have to say is “Holy Crap!” I am a big fan of Wirephotos, and while I think they are some of the most undervalued collectibles out there, I never thought I would see one sell for more than $26,000. That said, it was this awesome Babe Ruth photo that sold for a whopping $26,349 in the Lelands.com sale that ended Friday. CLICK HERE TO VIEW AUCTIONThis was one of many images that Lelands’ sold from the San Francisco Examiner archives in the past year. What must be a world record for a Wirephoto, it is a piece that you can’t help staring at for a few minutes in awe. If I were in control of selling this fantastic lot of photos, I know that I would hold back the really great images toward the end. I have a feeling Josh Evans and the boys at Leland’s might be thinking the same as I do. I can’t wait ‘til their next batch. **********************
December marks the time that I question moving back to Wisconsin from heat of Las Vegas. Granted, I love my job at SCD and going to Packers games is one of my favorite things to do in the world, eight inches of snow over the weekend and near below-zero wind chill temperatures have me questioning my decision to move back to my home state. Hope I can make it ‘til the end of the winter. I have a feeling a vacation to a warm climate is in my immediate future.
12/3/2007 11:28:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
Thursday, November 29, 2007
GAI still M.I.A.?
Posted by Chris
 I just went to GAI's website and other than one link, nothing on its site works. What ever happened to Global being back up for business and what is up with its poor customer service. I would call and ask them, but I can't find a working phone number for them anywhere. The whole thing is just so strange. I posted a message on the Network 54 message board and someone on there said they heard GAI would be up and running on Monday. I guess we will wait and see. ****************** Tonight marks the most-hyped NFC match up of the year, when the Packers take on the Cowboys. I haven't been this excited for a football game in a long time. Thankfully I decided to go with DirectTV in order to get the NFL Network, but not everyone is fortunate enough to receive this programming. I will say, however, I am sick and tired of all the people who whine about not getting this game because of the NFL and its new network. If you want the game, get satellite. If you don't want satellite, don't cry about it. DirectTV is not much more expensive than cable and it offers quite a few more HD channels than any cable company, so why not make the change anyway. What the NFL is doing is not much different than what ESPN has done over the years. ESPN took over one NFL game per week and the only way you can get that game is to have cable. NFL Network took over one game a week (for only part of the year) and you can only get it with Dish or select cable companies. Same thing. Deal with it.
11/29/2007 12:25:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
|
|
|