Weekly Market Report - January 25, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

When I was looking around for stories for this week I noticed an interesting one on Spawn.com. The headline reads "LEBRON JAMES GIVEAWAY CANCELED - Change of Plans by the Cavs." In the story it states that "The Cleveland Cavaliers decided to make a change in the giveaway presented that night based on factors out of our control." I found the whole "factors out of our control" thing a little odd so I went to the Cavs site and found the following: "Fans to Receive a LeBron James Upper Deck Collectible Card Set At Cavs vs. Milwaukee Game on February 6th."

I wonder what really happened. Would those "factors out of our control" happen to be money? If that's the case the whole thing is messed up. McFarlane has likely produced the figures already and Upper Deck just swept in with more $ and knocked them out? And why wouldn't the Cavs just have TWO nights, one for each? It's not like their is a promo every night and I'm assuming these things make money for them or they wouldn't be doing them. If anyone knows more about this I'd be curious to know what happened. [read release]

I realize that the spring time is not the hottest time of the year for Football (although the NFL is pretty much as year-round as it can get, they do televise the scouting combine), but is there really a market for Arena Football League collectibles? Apparently Beckett thinks so (or was paid to think so), because they are releasing a 20th Anniversary AFL issue as well as devoting a section on their site to AFL collectibles.

For the record, as a sport, I love the AFL. I was lucky to live in one of the first AFL cities (Albany) as a kid and was able to watch the league evolve into the nationally televised sport that it is today. But I think that this is a bit of a stretch. AFL players reportedly make between $1,500/week and $7,000/week, which basically amounts to the highest paid players getting paid around $120,000/season. If the league was really that popular, don't you think that the demand for players would be a bit higher? And if somehow there is a demand for their autographs and game used stuff, I hope the players are able to cash in on it. It would be a crime if the AFL got rich off their collectibles while players were making $30,000. [read release]

Topps will be producing a basketball set utilizing the classic design of the company’s 1952 baseball set. But that's not what I picked up on when reading this article. What stood out to me was the "Card No. 7 in the set will feature a photo of Mickey Mantle in a basketball uniform." And then the article just continues on...as if we would be expected to read that. Huh?!?!? So...is this like a high school photo of him in a basketball uni? Did they photoshop a bball uni on him? I suppose the better question is why? Was the Mick some nasty baller that everyone knew about and I'm just totally in the dark about the whole thing?

Look Topps, I know the Mick is your guy, but come on. I think you can milk enough out of him on the baseball side of things. No need to jam him down our throats on the bball side. This is worse than when the Miami Heat retired Dan Marino's jersey. [read article]