Bi-Weekly Market Report - December 13, 2006
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| Topps Promotes Case-Breaking Parties With Online Video |
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From Beckett: "In an effort to promote its all-new CASE BREAKING PARTIES, Topps teamed with Alan Narz and Big League Cards (Orlando, FL) to host the inaugural event and then aired it on the Internet via Topps.com and YouTube." My take: I applaud Topps for trying to jump on the YouTube bandwagon, but this video is extremely corny. Go ahead...watch it. It looks like something I would have produced as a joke with my friends back in college. It almost seems sad that the card market is resorting to this. It feels less like keeping up with the latest technology and more like a desperate attempt to hold on to the waning attention of collectors...particularly young collectors.
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| Tuff Stuff Launches Free Online Pricing...Sort Of |
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From Tuff Stuff: "Looking for prices you can't find in the magazine? They're all here — free! And you don't have to sign in! Check out our new online price guides in each product area, or click here to go to the overall page!" My take: It must be hard to be a print media outlet these days. You see more and more of your audience leaving you for cheaper (i.e. free) alternatives online. What's the answer? Well each company has their different opinion, but the reality of it is some companies (Beckett) are handling it better than others (Tuff Stuff). If I was Tuff Stuff (and this is something I may do with SportsLizard), I would put up a kick ass price guide that is 100% free. It wouldn't only show the cards not listed in the magazine (a putrid attempt to get people to buy more mags) but it would show every card. And it wouldn't be in a PDF file. That's no better than a print magazine. It would take advantage of the web - you could search, filter, and save/print any selection of cards you want. You could "tag" cards and save them as ones that you own, and then view/print your collection. I can go on and on, but you get the point. This isn't what Tuff Stuff is doing. They need to realize that they aren't in the magazine industry, they are in the information industry, and they need to keep up with the times. A great site like the one I mentioned would fetch a TON of advertising $. More likely than not, that's going to be how you survive Tuff Stuff.
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| Jason Taylor McFarlane Figure at the NFL Experience |
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From McFarlane: "McFarlane Toys continues their road trip tradition in 2007, setting up our awe-inspiring booth at the NFL Experience at the Super Bowl in Miami next January. The NFL Experience will be located inside Pro Player Stadium in downtown Miami and our booth will be open from Wednesday, Jan. 31st through Sunday, Feb. 4th. This is our fifth consecutive Super Bowl appearance, and like previous years, we'll be providing an exclusive Sports Picks figure for our Miami collectors. " My take: What, no Joey Harrington figure? Taylor is having a MONSTOR season and if the Dolphins didn't implode early on they'd be on their way to the playoffs and Taylor would be on his way to an MVP season. How's 11.5 sacks, 2 INT's, 8 forced fumbles, and 2 touchdowns sound through 13 games?
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