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 Thursday, February 28, 2008
What is this seller's goal here?
Posted by Chris
 I love eBay. For the most part, you can list anything for sale that you want, no matter how awesome it is or how stupid we may think it is. I would like to get your thoughts on a listing I stumbled upon today. It is an auction selling a Chris Everett photo. Just look at the title and description of this. What exactly is the seller trying to accomplish by listing an auction in this fashion? Do they think this is going to help them make more money? Is this photo worth anything to begin with? Is the seller an old enemy of Everett? Sometimes I just don't understand the intentions of people or their mindset when it comes to eBay auctions. Are they just having a little fun, or do they think that listings like this are good marketing ideas? I have no idea.
2/28/2008 3:11:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Man, have I been busy!
Posted by Chris
I just want to apologize to Gavel Chat readers, because I've been forced to neglect blogging for a few days. I will be up and running with a new blog tomorrow, so hang in there and thanks for checking in periodically. This is been a crazy week in the hobby. Thanks everyone!
2/27/2008 5:06:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 22, 2008
Breaking news in the auction world
Posted by Chris
 Hobby giant Upper Deck has joined forces with Hunt Auctions, in a partnership that will be sure to turn many heads in the industry. CLICK HERE TO READ STORY
Basically what this means is Hunt’s stellar reputation will be combined with Upper Deck’s gigantic promotional power and ability to present quality pieces to collectors. Hunt already has a killer auction slated for this year’s FanFest in New York, and the synergy that will take place with one of the hobby’s largest card company’s will be something the auction world has never experienced until now. Detailed information has not been released yet, but I talked to Upper Deck’s auction manager Dan Schmidt yesterday and from what he tells me, this is something that is going to benefit the hobby a great deal. The combo of Hunt and Upper Deck’s main focus will be to bring the auction world to mainstream buyers, and with a 100 percent commitment to always offer “guaranteed authentic” products, something both Hunt and Upper Deck have taken pride in for their entire existences. ***************** In more exciting news having to do with our website, I am pumped to let everyone know that we will be adding a "Youtube-like" area on sportscollectorsdigest.com where we will be adding video interviews, box breaks, show segments etc. The coolest part about this new feature is it will have categories where our readers and site members will be able to add their own videos. Whether it's a clip of your collection at home, or one of your own box breaks, sportscollectorsdigest.tv will be an awesome place to visit. We are currently beta-testing the site, but I will give everyone the heads up when our site is complete.
2/22/2008 1:00:24 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Big auction news tomorrow
Posted by Chris
Sorry guys, I can't get into the specifics right now, but tomorrow I will be breaking a huge story that affects the sports memorabilia auction world. I have been working on the story all afternoon, so I didn't have time to cover it on Gavel Chat. SCD is also working on a very exciting new component to our website, and I will let the cat out of the bag on that also tomorrow. Sorry for the tease, but it's some interesting stuff!
2/21/2008 6:07:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
NBA All-Star weekend and my thoughts
Posted by Chris
 I admit. I wasn't going to watch the NBA All-Star weekend festivities, however, about a foot of snow kept me from doing anything too constructive this weekend, so I decided to check out the dunk contest and game on Sunday. While I thought the dunk contest was half-way entertaining, I have to ask ... What was with all the props? A cupcake and candle,, for crumps sakes? When MJ and Nique were going at it at Chicago Stadium they weren't allowed to incorporate cheesy props into the contest. It was still ok this year though, I guess. The game was also ok... Better than I thought it would be. But, was it just me or was it really hard to follow the game? The jerseys were both very light in color from the back and it made it really tough, at least for me, to follow what exactly was going on. Not that it was that big of a deal, I mean, I wasn't even going to watch it, but I did so the least the NBA could do would be to have designed better jerseys.
2/19/2008 4:21:22 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 15, 2008
SCD and Tuff Stuff staffers make it to the bigtime!
Posted by Chris
 Well, not exactly movie stars, but I wanted to get your attention. Today marks the debut of our online Sports Collecting online radio show. Every Wednesday at noon CST collectors will have a chance to listen to new content and will have round-the-clock access to archived shows. Tuff Stuff editor Scott Kelhofer is the host of the show and I'm very excited about this. They did a great job on making this happen and yours truly will make special guest appearances, on occasion. You can all listen in order to make fun of my horrible Canadian-like accent. But seriously, there are going to be some very interesting guests on the show, so make sure you check it out. Have a good weekend everybody. I will be trying to survive the snow and will be watching Div. I women’s basketball at my alma mater, UW-Green Bay, at our new gym. If anybody has anything sports-related to share from their weekend, don’t hesitate to comment!
2/15/2008 3:41:46 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Vice President of SGC weighs in on Mantle rookie card controversy
Posted by Chris
 In case you missed it, yesterday’s Gavel Chat blog was about a New York Post article that focused on James Haas, who according to the article is a majority shareholder of Global Authentication, and his issues with SGC and his Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps rookie card. According to the article, Haas visited the president of SGC, David Forman to determine whether flaws on his card “could be fixed without hurting its authentication.” Haas left the card at SGC and up until now, still he has not gotten his card back. The article states that Haas filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Morris County. The article doesn’t say whether the lawsuit was filed so Haas could get his card back, or because he filed because Forman didn’t repair flaws on the card. This is such a crazy story and the New York post did a very poor job covering this topic. Nowhere in the article does it even specify whether Haas left the card with SGC, tell what his actual lawsuit was, and the photo caption called Forman an “appraiser.” He is not an appraiser, to my knowledge. Anyway, I called Sean Skeffington, the vice president of operations for Sportscard Guaranty (SGC) and got his side of the story. I am working on contacting Haas. If anyone has his contact information, please let me know. Here’s what Skeffington had to say: Basically, in a nutshell, what happened, Haas had a ‘52 Mantle that was graded a 10 by GAI, and for whatever reason he wanted us to review the card. We did that and decided it wouldn’t be an SGC 10, it was a 9. It had two imperfections that kept it from being a 10.
He was obviously convinced that it was a 10, which it wasn’t. He wanted us to keep reviewing it, and we didn’t change our mind. We also wanted him to sign something stating that we are giving him the card back the way we got it. That we understand that you thought it was a 10, it is not. There was inherent damage to the card. We got it that way.
A lot of time transpired. We didn’t want to be put into the position that someone would accuse us of damaging the card.
I don’t know if he thought since Global made it a 10, that we should make it a 10. He came here demanding his card but he hadn’t signed the paperwork he needed to.
The thing that bothered us the most about the entire episode is that in his complaint he said that SGC is “a rating and restoration company.” According to Skeffington, that’s what made this a story, when Haas stated that SGC said they would fix the imperfections on the card. I don’t know that he did this in order to damage our reputation or to damage Dave’s reputation. He obviously wanted the card back, but he threw in some things about SGC that would either damage our reputation, that would make us look like we were taking advantage of this guy.
Nobody ever promised him, or discussed that we would fix or restore his card to make it an SGC 10. We have never done this to his card or any card. We don’t do those types of things. It’s absolutely ludicrous. According to Skeffington, there’s no question that the article has been damaging to his company and he said that they are discussing taking legal action because of this story. Right now the card is being held by a third party’s bank safe deposit box and it’s in an SGC 96 holder. He said that we contracted with him to improve the card so it would get a 10. That gets the attention of everybody. If he didn’t make this stuff up, it would be a non-story.
The fact of the matter is, he did say this stuff and I am working on chatting with Haas. There are always two sides to every story, so I would really love to hear what he has to say. Hopefully I will have an update on this story by Friday. -chris
2/14/2008 3:20:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Hillary the Kissing Bandit
Posted by Chris
 If you haven't seen it yet, here is a picture of Upper Deck's latest artistic card that has been pulled off shelves. It seems like after the card company released this in a new product they decided it would be better to yank it. That, of course, didn't stop some from slipping through the cracks. A couple thousand dollars can get you a very nice game-used bat or jersey, heck of a nice vintage baseball card or this awesome Hillary Clinton card from 2008. You make the call on what one you will spend your money on.
2/14/2008 9:50:02 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Lots of stuff brewing on sports memorabilia message boards and in the news lately
Posted by Chris
 There’s been plenty of chatter about controversial hobby topics in the past week or so on different industry message boards and in the news. For instance, in Monday's issue of Trade Fax, it reported that due to eBay's recent changes in its selling fee structure many users are plotting to strike against the popular Internet auction giant:
Several thousand eBay sellers are threatening to boycott offering items on the site from Feb. 18-25 as a way to protest the company's new policies. At issue are higher commissions
paid by sellers and the fact sellers can no longer leave negative feedback for their buyers. There is also a 21-day hold for accessing some PayPal payments. The new fees and policies go into effect Feb. 20. eBay has lowered listing fees
upfront, but the company has increased the percentage of commission it takes on an item's final listing value. For many sellers, the end result is an increase in what they will pay to sell an item. Sellers have threatened similar boycotts in
the past when eBay has raised its listing fees. *************
Some very odd stuff has been going on with a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card and the story involves the grading companies SGC and GAI. I just left a voice mail with the Vice President of Operations for Sportscard Guaranty, Sean Skeffington, and will report anything I find out. National media has been giving it some attention and SGC and vintage card collectors are concerned. Check out this thread from the Network 54 Message Board.If anyone has any comments on these topics, feel free to share them with us. To be honest, the New York Post article on the Mantle card made my head hurt and the story was way too vague for me to chime in with my thoughts on what was actually going on here. Hopefully I can talk to someone who knows the exact details. A lot of times when National media attempts to take a crack at a memorabilia hobby story, a topic they know so little about, they screw up the facts and make it more confusing than it actually is. I've seen HBO's "Real Sports" do this and this Post article may be another case of some vague reporting. UPDATE: I just talk to Sean Skeffington and I will post what he said tomorrow on Gavel Chat. I also am going to try to get a hold of the owner of the Mantle card, as I would like to get his side of the story as well.
2/13/2008 5:11:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Mantle photo ended with baffling price
Posted by Chris
 On a seperate note for this Tuesday, Henry Yee had a bunch of killer original photos that ended last night on eBay. The biggest suprise out of the whole bunch was this Mickey Mantle batting cage photo: CLICK HERE. I honestly didn't think this piece would go for more than a few hundred bucks. What am I missing here? 6K++??? What the heck!??
2/12/2008 5:21:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Gavel Chat reader responds
Posted by Chris
Today I received this well-thought-out e-mail in my Inbox from a guy named Jeff who read yesterday’s blog. I wanted to share it with everybody else. The one thing that I would like to point out is the part where Jeff has this comment: “I wonder if your sources might be a little biased due to the profit motive. While signing autographs for true fans is one thing, signing autographs for dealers to buy and sell is quite another.” While I agree with many of Jeff’s points, I must say that I don’t really understand this one. If Paul Hornung, or any other athlete is charging for their signature, doesn’t that give a dealer or anyone else the right to profit from buying one of these autos as well? Here is Jeff’s entire email: Thanks to Jeff for the note and keepem coming!
Chris,
Let me start by saying that Paul Hornung is a friend of mine. And he ain't perfect (who among us is?). But I think your sources might be giving you a bit of an unfair view of him.
I've observed many times how he treats the autograph-seeking public (and, how the public treats him, too, which, frankly, is not always courteously). From what I've seen, I think he is usually more patient and more gracious than most people (including me) would be under the circumstances. It is hard to understand what it is like to go out for dinner with family and friends and to be interrupted continuously by persons wanting something autographed, each of whom "hates to interrupt you" and will "only take a minute." Well, each piles on the other until the food gets cold. No joke. And, yes, sometimes that gets old and sometimes he has to cut them off. Otherwise, he would get nothing else done. I've seen him ask people to wait until he's done eating, and watched them react with offense that he wasn't willing to drop what he was doing right then to accommodate them.
There is something else to realize, and I hope I can explain it properly, without sounding defensive for him. Basically, a certain aloofness is necessary. Otherwise, some people would mistake friendliness as an invitation to engage in more conversation, thus increasing the duration of the interruption. Look how pro golfers do it, how they sometimes sign but always keep moving. To stop moving is to invite a crowd to form around them, and then they're stuck. I've seen Paul do the same thing. And I've seen him cut off all autographs when the crowd gets to be too big or disruptive to others.
Please note that anything negative I've said about fans doesn't really apply to Green Bay. From my very limited experience in Green Bay, those people seem to me to be by far the most polite and respectful toward their former stars. They're always excited, but still say "Please" and "Thank you," and still are polite and pleasant even if their request has to be turned down for some reason. I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of autograph seekers go after Paul, but I've never seen any as civilized as the people around Green Bay. They are true, respectful fans.
I wonder if your sources might be a little biased due to the profit motive. While signing autographs for true fans is one thing, signing autographs for dealers to buy and sell is quite another. It is true that Paul does not have much patience for those who are trying to make a profit off him, especially the ones who pretend to be fans but are just in it for the money. Don't get me wrong - Paul sells his own autograph at organized book signings; but that is his to sell - not somebody else's. And he can be pretty brusque as he's trying to keep those lines moving at organized events. But, otherwise, somebody will want to talk about some old game they saw and how they ran into him at a bar after the game and on and on and things can really bog down.
Paul Hornung doesn't need a defense from me. All you need to know about what kind of person he is, you can get from the dozens of charities he's supported with his time and money over the years. Contact the Sister Visitor Center in Louisville, Kentucky, (a Catholic charities organization) to see what the sisters think of him and of the work he puts into the fund raising event he holds for them every year.
At any rate, there are always two sides to every story. Thank you for taking the time to consider the other side.
Sincerely,
Jeff
2/12/2008 4:14:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, February 11, 2008
Is your hero a jerk?
Posted by Chris
 Let me start by stating, I've never spent more than one minute with Paul Hornung. I don’t know him as a person, but know he was one of the greatest football players of all time. I recently attended a card show in my area and was chatting to a few different dealers, and somehow Hornung’s name came up. Not one, two, but three dealers pitched in with stories of how much of an "arrogant jerk "Hornung was to them when they met him at autograph signings. They gave me detailed stories and these guys seemed very credible. I've also heard this from a few other Packers collectors who have met Hornung. Mainly, they use terms like “arrogant” and “pompous.” Like I said, I never really spent much time with the man … Just shook his hand at a game once or twice. And that brings me to my question. Do stories that you hear from other people effect your opinion on your hero? Anybody who has been in the hobby for a few years has heard great stories and horrible ones about how their favorite players act to the fans. Every time I see a piece of Hornung now, in the back of my mind I remember those bad stories. Is it right to base an opinion on someone who you don’t even know? Has anyone else asked themselves these questions? I am curious to hear others opinions and experiences. Feel free to drop me an email and we can share them with our SCD readers. chris.nerat@fwpubs.com
2/11/2008 4:44:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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