Weekly Market Report - June 14, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

As was previously reported, McFarlane will be releasing the NBA Legends 2 series in late October. Last week McFarlane unveiled photos for the series which includes Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Isiah Thomas, and Walt Frazier.

I'm not sure why, but I'm particularly enamored with these legends series. When Kenner did it with Starting Lineups it was no big deal. But the way that McFarlane finds a way to capture each superstar in their defining pose combined with the realism of the figures make them unbelievably cool. In this series, the two Lakers figures really stand out to me - a young Magic is doing his famous no-look pass and Jerry West is in his famous dribbling pose that became the NBA logo. [read release]

Continuing the amazing Jerry Kramer story from a few weeks back, the replica ring was sold for $22,000, nearly double the amount experts predicted. According to the article, "all proceeds from the auction will go toward assisting retired players who are disadvantaged or indigent due to the inadequate pension and disability compensation provided to older players by the league."

What a great story with a perfect ending. Kudos to Kramer for using the publicity surrounding the return of his ring for the good of his fellow retired players. [read article]

MLB finalized plans last week for the first ever National Baseball Card Day. It will be held on Saturday, June 17 and more than 500,000 card packs will be given away to kids, collectors and fans. The packs are exclusively-created for the promotion and will be distributed by participating trading card hobby shops and retailers nationwide.

The release says "National Baseball Card Day is part of a comprehensive effort to promote the baseball card category to kids and new collectors. MLBP, MLBPA, and industry leaders Topps and Upper Deck have both individually and collectively worked to develop baseball card products that appeal to fans of all ages; encouraging them to trade for their favorite players and to build their own complete sets."

Lets hope so. Everyone knows that the hobby is losing collectors at a ridiculous rate. Can one day really make that big of a difference? We shall see. It'll be interesting to see where the card companies go if it doesn't work. [read release]