Weekly Market Report - February 22, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

The "$6 Million" 1927 New York Yankees original photo signed by the entire team was recently posted on Justdoit23.com. The photo traces back to the estate of former Yankees pitcher George Pipgras and is graded a PSA/DNA 8.

My first thought was - wow, this thing is cool but is anything worth $6 million? Well, it turns out that the description explains that the $6 million comes from the fact that "if you had every game worn uniform in that photo, it would set you back a cool $6,000,000." Yea, and my Michael Jordan rookie card is called the $6 million card because if you owned everything pictured in that card (his shorts and jersey, the basketball, hoop, and arena) then it would set you back a "cool" $6 million. What kind of messed up logic is behind that? Also, how come it's not for sale but there is a "Buy" button at the bottom of the page that, if clicked, lets you put the photo in your cart for the low price of $0.00. What's up with that? [read release]

Both Topps and Upper Deck recently announced that they will be releasing special card sets to commemorate the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl XL championship.

The Topps set will have 38 individual player cards, five Season Highlights, five Playoff Highlights, five Super Bowl Highlights, one Team Card and one Super Bowl MVP card. Sets can be purchased online at www.topps.com for $19.99. It will be available the week of March 13.

UD's set includes five ''Season Highlight'' cards; four ''Super Bowl Memorable Moments'' cards; one ''Super Bowl MVP'' card of wide receiver Hines Ward and 40 regular player cards. A 3.5'' x 5'' Steelers Super Bowl XL Champs commemorative card tops off the set. It is also priced at $19.99 and will be available the week of Feb. 27, a few weeks before the Topps set.

Steelers die hard's will likely want to pick up both sets for the relatively low price tags. [read articles - Topps, Upper Deck]

Over last weekends NBA All Star Weekend, Beckett managed to catch up with many of the All Stars to discuss what they collect. I was surprised to find out that most of the players exchange memorabilia with each other. One would think that a pair of game used shoes would have the same effect on them as it does on us, but apparently not.

By far the most interesting quote was from Wizards All Star Gilbert Arenas who said "Last year, I don't think anyone knows this, but everybody was getting autographs and I couldn't ask [for any]. So, what I did was I bought everyone's jersey who played in the all-star game with me and each game we played them I had them sign them. I just finished it with Dirk Nowitzki two days ago."

Now that's a dedicated collector. [read article ]