Weekly Market Report - January 11, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

For those who didn't know (or didn't realize), the #1 picks in both the NFL Draft and NBA Draft in 2005 were from the University of Utah. This is a truly unique accomplishment, and to pay tribute to the University and it's great athletes, Topps created a limited number of Dual Autographed cards featuring Alex Smith (San Francisco 49ers) and Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks). The card, which is sequentially numbered to 100, can be found in 2005-06 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects Basketball and in the upcoming 2005 Bowman Chrome Football. Each of the products includes 50 copies of the card. I am not a big card collector, but this is one that I want bad. [read article]

Upper Deck is partnering with Wal-Mart stores in the six Canadian NHL markets and Meijer stores in Detroit area to offer fans hockey player appearances during the Olympic break in February. Upper Deck senior sports marketing manager Kerri Stockholm is quoted as saying "Player appearances attract a lot of attention and hopefully get fans and kids into a store, but we want fans to participate in a hockey trading card activity once they’re there." Now I like Upper Deck. I think that they do a great job of making collecting appealing to kids and that is great for the hobby. However, why do you have to involve Wal-Mart? Every freaking industry in this country is dominated by Wal-Mart simply due to the immense amount of money that passes through them. You can't upset Wal-Mart or you'll lose half of your sales! That results in Wal-Mart running your business. Please, Upper Deck, I beg of you, don't let this happen to sports cards. [read article]

One site that I have always found fascinating is ThePit.com. I'll admit, I've never purchased or sold anything on it, but I check often because I think the idea of a sports card stock market is pretty cool. I was pretty shocked to see that it has been sold. There won't be much info up until next week, but according to their release they have "carefully selected to sell the ThePit.com to a company that believes in ThePit.com model and are dedicated to doing all they can to help ThePit.com reach its maximum potential." If that's true, this could be a very good thing for the hobby because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is HUGE potential in what they are doing. It will be interesting to see who this mystery company is. [read official release]