Weekly Market Report - May 31, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

Todd McFarlane, who paid $3 million for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball in 1999 and just over $500,000 for Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run ball in 2001, told the Associated Press that he’d be interested in buying Bonds’ 715th home run baseball, but would not pay more than $70,000 for the ball.

Good for Todd. We all know he's the ultimate collector, but at least he understands the value of the ball and isn't going to overpay for it. [read release]

This week McFarlane unveiled photography for the upcoming NFL 13 series that will hit stores in late August. The series includes Randy Moss (his fourth figure), Carson Palmer, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Tedy Bruschi, Drew Bledsoe, and Eli Manning.

There's a nice mix of figures in this set. It's nice to see young stars like Palmer and Williams finally getting some attention from McFarlane. The coolest pose is definitely the Randy Moss Raiders figure. Randy looks pretty intimidating even as a figure. He's holding his helmet, presumably celebrating a victory, so wouldn't you think he'd be happy? Nope. Not Randy. He still looks pretty pissed. I don't think I'd want to mess with that guy. [read release]

Tuff Stuff and Upper Deck recently announced their August checklist for the "first-ever exclusive, extensive and fully licensed sports card set available in a magazine." Cards include Pedro Martinez, Derrek Lee, Kenji Johjima and Mark Teixeira.

Now, I was pretty pumped about these cards. That is, until I got the first set in my June 2006 issue of Tuff Stuff. The cards have a cheap feel and the perforations are horrible. In Tuff Stuff's ads, the cards appear to be glossy like a regular UD card but the cards really are lower quality than what you used to get from UD in McDonald's Happy Meals back in the 90's. And is it too much to ask to get perforations that don't leave jagged edges? They do make them you know. You can buy a sheet for a few bucks at Staples for business cards. [read release]