Weekly Market Report - March 8, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

A few weeks back, Topps announced that both the 2006 Topps Baseball Series 1 and the upcoming 2006 Topps Heritage Baseball will have a missing card number. The subject originally slated for the missing cards is Kansas City Royals prospect Alex Gordon. However, since Gordon is not "Rookie Card eligible" under the new Rookie Card guidelines, he was removed from both sets and not replaced.

Isn't it funny then that these cards are being found in packs and surfacing on eBay for around $800? I find it hard to believe that Topps wouldn't be able to pull all of the cards, and that a few "accidentally" slipped through into packs. And how did Alex Gordon slip through to begin with when every other guy who wasn't rookie card eligible wasn't included in the set? I obviously have no hard evidence to support this, but it seems that Topps did all of this intentionally to garner some publicity. [read article]

McFarlane will be selling exclusive Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell Pirates figures at the MLB FanFest for baseball's All-Star Game. The two exclusive figures have a limited production run of 3,000 figures each and showcase Clemente and Stargell in the uniforms they won their signature titles in.

Again, could McFarlane have made a better choice? Clemente is one of those guys that I have always loved, both as a player and as a person. He's one of those athletes that you actually WANT to be a role model for your kids because of the life that he lived. He truly was a great player and a great person and I think it's great for McFarlane to honor him with this figure and introduce him to a new generation of fans and collectors. [read release]

The article begins with this: "In 2006, SSPKIDS.COM will once again travel the country with the Seventh Annual It's Kids Time Xtreme Mall Tour. For over three years Donruss has been on tour introducing young collectors to the joy of trading cards, and this year will sponsor the football portion of the tour. Each weekend-long event is filled with family fun, interactive games, live music, nutritional information, safety clinics and sports."

Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I wouldn't have mentioned this if it wasn't for this beauty of a quote later in the article:

"This is the best Kids Mall Tour," says Debbie Levine, Mall Tour Marketing Director.

What? There are OTHER kids mall tours? Do they compete with each other? Do they all work the same circuit? I wonder if they ever book the same mall on the same weekend...I bet that could get ugly. [read article ]