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 Friday, January 11, 2008
WHO ARE YOU IN FAVOR WITH, MONTE OR BROADWAY RICK?
Posted by Chris
 Yeah, I know you probably had to do a double take if what you even thought was a possibility that the topic of this blog was about the Monte Irvin/Rick Kohl saga of five years ago and yes… believe it or not, it is. The reason I was even so courageous (if that’s even the right word) to dive into this topic was due to one of my favorite message board’s recent posts that had a member asking about the reputation of the card dealer Broadway Rick Kohl. Let me start by saying, I don’t know Kohl, or really even have an opinion of the man, other than I enjoyed viewing his flashy neon-green pants a few years ago at The National Card Convention. READ THIS ARTICLE ABOUT KOHL AND MONTE IRVIN
This Daily News story really made Rick come out looking like the bad guy, but I have been in similar situations like this when on my own buying trips and am wondering if Kohl was really in the wrong here. What are the rules set for the percentage a buyer should pay from someone’s collection? Keep in mind, Kohl is a business man and some business men feel they should buy items at the lowest  amount they can get them for in order to make the most amount of money possible. Personally, when purchasing items, my threshold is to pay 50-percent of what an item will sell for. Is that too much? Too little? Who’s to say? I’m not sticking up for Kohl, merely raising the question whether he was really that bad of a guy to give Irvin only a couple grand for these pieces. Nobody put a gun to Irvin’s head and made him sell the pieces. Granted, I have no clue what the 84-year-old man’s mental capacity was at the time this took place, but if he was fully aware of what was going on, I have little problem with the way that this transaction went down. What are your thoughts? This should start up some good debate.
1/11/2008 5:39:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
DOES ANYONE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?
Posted by Chris
 Okay, let me start by saying, this eBay seller really isn’t doing anything wrong. He is describing his item as a reproduction signed Babe Ruth baseball. CLICK HERE TO VIEW AUCTION Usually when I see something of this nature it is poorly done and not a whole lot to worry about, because a poorly done Ruth is probably not going to fool anyone anyway. That said, this repro was done rather well and could definitely fool a potential buyer if it was described fraudulently. Now, like I said, the seller has disclosed that this ball is a reproduction, but will the next guy who sells this describe it that honestly? I think we all know what the answer might be and that potential crooked activity may cause someone a loss of thousands of dollars. Should eBay pull this auction? I almost think they should, but will they? We will see.
1/8/2008 5:24:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 07, 2008
SCD's website to sports new look
Posted by Chris
 Just in case you log into our website in the near future and think that you visited someone else's on accident, you can rest assured that your mind isn't playing tricks on you. Toward the middle of this week, we are going to launch a revamped version of your favorite card and memorabilia site, sportscollectorsdigest.com, with easier-to-navagate links, more multimedia tools and a totally streamlined home page. I have been working on the new look of the site all day and let me tell you, it looks pretty slick and is very user friendly. I just wanted to let everyone know. This is very exciting for the online portion of the magazine. ********************
Well, if you read Gavel Chat last week you'll understand why I don't work for ESPN. My picks for this past weekend's playoff games were less than impressive ... I thought the Steelers would advance and was way wrong on my Giants pick. Thank god I didn't put any money on the games. That said, it is a little easier to hold back on the gambling now that I don't live in Vegas anymore. *******************
As far as the auction world goes. I should have some information on SCP-Sotheby's upcoming Jan. auction very soon. Also, I have been hearing a few tidbits that have been floating around the auction gossip world that I can't elaborate on just yet, but be prepared. News is slow right now, but it won't stay that way long.
1/7/2008 5:00:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 04, 2008
Posted by Chris
 Many of you may already know, I'm a big ticket collector. I think tickets are the most undervalued niche in the hobby and there's no better way to bring the fan closer to the game than by collecting tickets. That said, I just wanted to bring to the attention of my Gavel Chat readers the special that PSA is offering right now for all their members. PSA is having a $10 special for any ticket valued under $500 (no minimum). This can be a pretty big savings if you have a stack of tickets waiting to be sent in for grading. ****************
I received this email this week from Mastro:
MEARS Authentication took what in the auction industry is an unprecedented stand. In order to do business directly with auction companies they are requiring access to private consignor and confidential bidding records. We are uncomfortable providing this type of access to any organization let alone one that as part of their business model conducts private purchases and sales. It is on this basis we made the decision not to renew our contract with MEARS. What has transpired since this decision is a process that we believe will make us a better firm and enable us to offer game used jerseys that have gone through an unprecedented third party review process.
Effective in 2008 Mastro Auctions will stand behind all of our game used jerseys by issuing our own LOAs. Behind these LOAs will be the most targeted and comprehensive authentication process in the business. For each auction we will assemble a team of experts that will work together to examine all of our game used jerseys. No individual names will be associated with this work based on the fact that we will only offer items where the team unanimously deems the item to be authentic. We have engaged John Taube of PSA/DNA to oversee this process to ensure the necessary steps are being taken to ensure this authentication is being conducted in the most professional and comprehensive manner possible.
With the proliferation of fraud and alterations in our industry it is critical to have access to exemplar files to aid in the authentication process. We will arm our authentication team with the best exemplar database in the industry. First, we have gone through our historical database over the last 10 years of items sold and populated our new exemplar archive with images of tagging, styles, lettering, patches, etc. In order to augment this we have embarked upon an extensive retrieval process to collect detailed images from our customers who have the best private collections in the world. Although this process will be time consuming and expensive what will result will be the best authentication tool to ever be made available to the industry
I want to assure you that consistent with all the moves we make, a tremendous amount of thought and planning has gone into this change. We are confident that what will result is a better product for the industry and our valued customers.
Doug Allen
President COO
Mastro Auctions Inc.
7900 S. Madison Street
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
p: 630-472-1200
m: 630-336-6650
Mastro Auctions
It looks to me like bat authenticator John Taube will be helping them with its process of authenticating jerseys… I found this rather interesting because I thought John was just a bat guy and not a jersey guy. Maybe I am reading this wrong. Other collectors have asked me about this very topic and as of right now, I'm not sure the exact details of what Mastro has in mind. We will soon find out. ************************
The NFL football playoffs start this weekend and I will give you my picks just for fun. I see the Steelers defeating the Jags, even though they are underdogs and banged up. I also see SD winning, but not covering the spread over Tennessee. The Seahawks should roll over the Redskins, but I think 's almost a toss up between the Giants and Bucs. I guess I will go with the home team due to the inconsistency of Eli and the Giants.
1/4/2008 4:01:27 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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