The Brill Report

LOUSY WEEK FOR CARD COMPANIES MISTAKES ROLL

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 195

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(WHEN A ONE-OF-ONE ISN'T! TOPPS MAKES A MILESTONE MISTAKE!!! FOR THE MOMENT)

TOPPS PULLS APRIL FOOL'S DAY HOAX WITH FAKE CARD IN SERIES ONE!!

** UPPER DECK/BECKETT FLAP HITS INTERNET

** TOPPS MAKES A YOUNG ERROR

** UPPER DECK PUMPS WE-PLAY

** COLORADO DEALER SCORES BIG ON NATIONAL DAY

** SPORTS ILLUSTRATED OPENS THE VAULT

These stories and more in today's edition of TBR: The Brill Report...

                             ======================

(UPPER DECK CHANGES GAME OVER BECKETT BUST FLAP)

Several hobby heavyweights are entered into a fray over what some are accusing one card company of mis-leading the public. Falling short of calling it false advertising at least one collector and one dealer/Internet host are challenging Upper Deck and Beckett Media. They accuse the two companies of conspiring to make their products look much better than they are via Internet box breaks. Both UD and Beckett say this was never the intent and have come together with a plan to offer the rare cards to collectors through a drawing. One of the accusers says that's not good enough.

The whole thing came to a head when Beckett officials broke two boxes (packs which sell for $600 each) of 2007 UD Exquisite Football. The boxes were said to be random boxes coming off the UD line. The first angry collector posted the video on UTube with his comments about how this seemed to be rigged; a couple of loaded boxes Upper Deck supposedly was giving to Beckett to promote the product. You can see these videos at the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_5WR3wFTRA

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRiGYIJ65tk 

Dr. Wax Battle, whose Internet show is very popular, brought this to the attention of Upper Deck officials and was pretty upset since he felt what he called his original idea had been morphed into a tool to promote products unethically.

"When I invented the 'live' video box break we included a thumbs up or thumbs down verdict," said the Internet host. "For a company like Beckett to produce videos they should just be infomercials -- just display a range of what you can get."

He added what Beckett does is mis-leading since they have a publication. the relationship with the manufacturer/advertiser and the Beckett Media stores where dealers pay a tremendous amount of money to buy and sell. A sort of one hand washes the other relationship. UD is one of the two biggest advertisers in the hobby when it comes to Beckett Publications.

"Beckett has a responsibility to the hobby if you are going to be the entity you say you are, leave the box breaking to collectors," he added.

Dr. Wax Battle (real name Rick Dalesandro, owner of The Back Stop in Tom's River, NJ) says he's devoting his entire show this week to the situation. His show begins airing at 4pm EST Wednesday at www.thebackstop.net.

After he brought it to the attention of both Beckett and Upper Deck's Chris Carlin, both responded. Tracy Hackler of Beckett denied anything was misleading and the accusation of loaded boxes.

"Sometimes I wish these situations were as juicy and as elaborate as some conspiracy theorists envision them to be but the fact of the matter is they are not," he said in an email. "We simply don't have the time or manpower to devote to something so involved; nor do we have the desire to be sinister, contrary to what you may think."

He went on to say regarding the break in particular no one at Beckett had any idea the box was loaded nor do they deny the contents of the boxes were "quite spectacular." One of the pulls happened to be a dual cut legendary signature card featuring the Bears Walter Payton and Brian Piccolo. A fantastic pull certainly.

Hackler, associate publisher at Beckett, added as far as his personal reaction to the pulls, as the collector on UTube accused him of (being too subdued not to know what was coming) he said he gets ripped on the Beckett boards no matter which way he goes. If he yells excitedly or remains calm.

In response to the flap Upper Deck announced it was going to take the cards pulled from the Beckett boxes and use them in a promotion to get them back into the hands of the collectors. Upper Deck said like all manufacturers it makes a practice of sending boxes to reporters and publications for promotional purposes.

"Upper Deck DOES NOT make a practice of sending 'special boxes' and packs to these hobby partners," said Carlin. "As anyone can see from reviewing the history of Upper Deck product in these Beckett Box Buster episodes, the recent episode was an anomaly."

Carlin called them "collation inconsistencies" which could happen in any hobby shop in the world. Adding the company appreciates collector concerns he was announcing a program to get those cards into the hands of collectors.

Beckett Media will handle one promotion, UD the other. Collectors who fill out a form with BM will be eligible to win a card from the break, and also a pack of NFL Exquisite. UD's version of the program will feature collectors who bought the product sending in their empty box for a drawing. Two more sealed packs will also be given away. The deadline for submissions is May 30, 2008 and the address is:

The Upper Deck Company

NFL Exquisite Box Buster Promotion

5909 Sea Otter Place,

Carlsbad, CA 92010

As for his reaction Dr. Wax Battle believes it should never have happened in the first place and will continue monitoring the situation with his Internet TV show this Wednesday. As to the matter of whether boxes can be "loaded." The answer is of course yes.

"You can load any box to have anything you want it to have," said one card company spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's actually pretty easy."

You can also load them to have less than the desired options. At The Score Board in 1995 a series of "salesman" boxes were produced for a phone card series. Almost all types of inserts were available in these boxes except the most sought after and most valuable. The idea was to give these boxes to reporters and reviewers; not a regular random box off the line.

                                   =======================

(OFFICIALS AT TOPPS DECIDED APRIL FOOLS DAY 2008 IS A GOOD DAY)

Topps officials felt there needed to be a little levity in the hobby for a change amidst all the recent goings on and lack of sales with the slow economy. So the company decided to insert a fake phenom Japanese player and unveil "His Fakeness" on April Fool's Day.

Chat boards have been talking up Kazuo Uzuki for weeks. A 104 MPH fastball throwing high schooler going right to the major leagues! But who was this kid? The fact is he is NOBODY. Turns out in Japanese "Kazuo Uzuki" means "First Son of April" or April Fool's!

The card is inserted 1:72 hobby packs.

With all the new Japanese imports in the big leagues Topps thought it would be fun to add this twist and evidently it worked. We're still trying to find out who the pictured kid really is, because he's going down in the history of baseball card lore.

                                  =======================

(TOPPS MISTAKES LEAVE COLLECTORS BEWILDERED)

Two mistakes by Topps are leaving a strange taste in the mouth of collectors who wonder how such major errors could take place. Topps, Upper Deck and Donruss make their share of mistakes as millions of trading cards are produced each. Errors, planned or not, are bound to take place. The two mistakes from Topps are not of the planned variety.

First the company released the fact that previous to 2008 it had put the wrong facsimile autographed on Chris Young's cards. There are certainly two different Chris Young's in the major. One is a pitcher for the Padres while the other is an Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder.

"Topps confirms that Padres pitcher Chris Young's 2008 Topps Baseball Card features a facsimile of his actual autograph. Prior to 2008 the Padre's Chris Young's trading cards included the signature of Chris Young of the Diamondbacks (outfielder)," came the statement from Topps.

Confusing? Well hopefully these photos will help clear things up.

  The card on the left is a 2007 Topps Chris Young pitcher card while on the right is the Chris Young outfielder card. Both have the same signature and it belongs to the guy on the right.

The card to the left is the actual facsimile autograph of pitcher Chris Young of the Padres and not Chris Young of the Diamondbacks. They are substantially different.

     By the way above left on the card to the left is the actual signature of the outfielder from the D-Backs, Chris Young on another company card. Obviously he abbreviated his first name so he could get the entire signature onto a sticker. This has become a problem for card companies in dealing with stickers.

Collectors want full signatures, players sign so many they end up abbreviating the names. Oh by the way there are no variations to the wrong pre-2008 signatures and Topps says its a dead issue if collectors want the real thing. The cards are history and it's not feasible to go back into print for this kind of thing a year later.

SECOND TOPPS ERROR;                                                      

(This Troy Patton 1/1 Red Parallel sold for $47 on eBay.)

Wow this one is a doozy certainly. It's one thing to make an error regarding a facsimile autograph but quite another to make a mess of a series of 1-of-1 cards. Pulling a 1-of-1 Red Parallel in 2008 Moments and Milestones isn't such a hot pull after all. Turns out the rookie cards no. 145-189 were supposed to have one red parallel each, or, a 1-of-1. Uh-uh.

"Topps is confirming that because of a manufacturing error in the recently released 2008 Topps Moment's & Milestones Baseball Card numbers 145-189 feature more than one Red Parallel," said a release from Topps. "By design each of the rookie cards 145-189 should have only ONE red Parallel but because of the error the subjects have an additional 20 Red Parallels."

Basically there are 20 cards labeled 1-of-1 for each of the cards. Ouch!

                            =======================

(UPPER DECK BACKS WE PLAY SITE, NEW KIDS SITE)

A new interactive site for kids could become all the rage and at least one card company is jumping on the WePlay.com bandwagon. Upper Deck is throwing advertising dollars behind the venture and why not as the site is utilizing a number of players UDA has in it's stock. The new site, www.weplay.com is an interactive site featuring among others LeBron James, Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning.

"Two hundred-forty million people in America are one degree of separation from youth sports," said Steve Hansen, CEO of WePlay. "Youth sports is held together by emails, phone calls and clip boards and we want to change that."

(Jeter more than involved in new WePlay kids social site.)

The site is a social networking site jammed with videos. Mainly advertiser supported you will see a video of a camera crew which followed James to his local high school gym. And with 52 million kids playing organized sports according to the National Council of Youth Sports, there are endless possibilities.

The site is being run by CAA, the Creative Artists Agency, Pequot Capital -- a hedge fund and it's Internet arm of MLB. Even some of the players are getting financially involved. Jeter is investing some of his own money in the project and in return gets equity in WePlay.

Upper Deck is promoting it's digital trading card library and on-line gaming for it's advertising dollars.

                                 ========================

(NATIONAL TRADING CARD DAY BIG HIT FOR COLORADO DEALER)

Mike Fruitman of Mike's Stadium Sports in Aurora, Colorado, knows how to have a good time. When he's not in his store, or playing with his toddler, he's leading the security charge at big time concerts in the region. He's the one with the "Security" written on his back, taking drunks to the tank and turning rowdy's over to the local cops. A good time for Mike? How about taking in nearly $10,000 on National Trading Card Day at his store.

"In addition to a massive day at the register we added 50 new emails, gave out information about Topps Topps of the Class Program to a hundred kids, started loads of customers on the new UD 20th Anniversary Sets, went through 100 hot dogs, and got hundreds of people to visit my store," said Fruitman. "We got that many people to check us out because of simple BASE cards."

(Fruitman and customer stretch sales roll of register tape across showroom floor.)

Fruitman said he placed a few well timed calls to a local sports radio talk show and convinced his son's elementary school to allow him to send home flyer's about the event. Both helped tremendously and he gave away some Topps and Upper Deck Sets. The numbers of dollars sold paved the way to continue doing this.

Fruitman urged everyone in the business to focus on the positives.

"I would urge you all not to focus on the dead beats who abuse this program and to email the shops you communicate with to get their thoughts as well," he added. "I looked at eBay the day before the promotion and was only able to find six low life pond scum selling their sets."

The reason baseball and the manufacturers scrapped the program after year one was because dealers were selling the sets instead of using them for the promotional giveaway. It took a couple years to bring the program back.

                                =========================

(KEVIN NASH NAMED TNA SPOKESMAN FOR TRI-STAR CARDS)

Wrestler and avid sports card collector Kevin Nash is the new spokesman for the trading card series soon to be released by Tri-Star. Tri-Star inked a deal with TNA to produce wrestling cards and Nash will be featured in all three. He will even help pick some of the cards.

(Kevin Nash is among the more popular of the TNA stable mates and will headline Tri-Star products for wrestling cards.)

"Kevin Nash is one of the top wrestling stars in history and is knowledgeable about the business of trading cards and as a collector of cards and memorabilia as well," said Jeff Rosenburg, president of Tri-Star. "He is widely known and recognized outside of wrestling circles based on his appearances in movies and TV shows."

Nash called the move a perfect fit for him.

"One of my fondest memories was my brother Mark and I trying to complete our 1968 Topps Baseball Set and that was before you realized you shouldn't be marking on the checklist," said Nash. "I had the privilege back in the NWO days of working with Tri-Star and always found them a first class company."

Nash signed autographs back then and will also do so for the upcoming products. He'll also provide event worn materials.

                                =========================

(HIGHLAND MINT CRACKS THE GOLD BARRIER AS PRICES FOR BULLION SOAR)

With gold hitting record amounts anyone and everyone with access to it, is making moves. Including The Highland Mint. The Mint is now offering a limited edition (85 only) Pure Gold Yankee Stadium Final Season Gold Coin.

The coin, is .9999 Fine 24KT Gold and comes with the Yankee logo and in an acrylic capsule and a wooden display case. Dealer cost is a cool $2300. Gold hit over $1000 an ounce last week and while it has since dipped below the $1K mark, it remains an excellent investment.

                                ========================

(NBA GOES AFTER STARTING FIVE PROMOTION)

(UPDATED INFORMATION)

Participating hobby shops still have a couple weeks left in the NBA's Starting Five Promotion. Those who signed up received merchandise to give away to collectors. Those who made a purchase get a special holder. Those who collect and complete the five card set will be entered into a drawing for a trip to the NBA photo shoot.

Some of the cards were even autographed. The five players were LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Dywane Wade and Steve Nash. The NBA also provided a number of $20 Gift Certificates the dealers could give away to lucky customers as well. The promotion ends April 13.

                                ========================

(SPORTS ILLUSTRATED OPENS THE VAULTS, WHAT NEXT?)

Sports Illustrated is by far the most widely heralded Sports publication in American History, yes an icon. The company has now opened the SI Vault where you can order any past SI cover framed or unframed; for a price. For a mere $19.95 the collector can have the cover of any of those great SI's from the past. For $69.95 they can have their Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris cover (a look back in May, 1991 at the Yankees past) framed. The metal frames are pretty standard. Add an extra $16 for Canada.

We can certainly see any number of possibilities in the future as SI expands it's already widely viewed vault. In the first nine days it produce 2.5 million page views.

                               =========================

(LONG-TIME & KEY EBAY BACKER STEPS DOWN FROM BOARD)

Investment entrepreneur Robert Kagle is stepping down from the eBay board of directors. He'd been one of the original backers as an investment banker. He put in around $6 million from his Benchmark Capital. During the dot-com peak his investment was worth an estimated $5 billion. Both he and the company said it was for personal reasons and there are no disputes between Kagle and the company. He'll stay on until elections are held at the stock holders meeting later this year.

                              =========================

EBAY SLASHES JOBS, MAJOR CUTS AND OVERHAUL

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 194

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(TRI-STAR CROSSES THE LINE INTO WRESTLING TRADING CARDS!!!)

** 125 LOSE JOBS AT EBAY

** TRI STAR SIGNS-ON WRESTLING MEN & LADIES

** UDA BRINGS BACK JORDAN & MAGIC TOGETHER

** TOPPS GETS INTO THE GAME IN HITS PER BOX

**  MICHAEL VICK HITS NEW LOW

** THE BUSH'S 41 SIGN ON WITH DONRUSS ** NTC SET TO GO MARCH 29 **

All these and more in today's edition of TBR: The Brill Report...

                                       ================

(EBAY CUTS 125 JOBS, 70 AT HOME BASE)

More than 100 people worldwide are losing their jobs with eBay as the company rushes to restructure under John Donahoe. Donahoe, the new CEO replacing the resigning Meg Whitman, announced earlier he was cutting fees in some area's and raising fees in others. The latest move involved 125 people of the $15,500 eBay employees worldwide. 70 of those jobs are at the San Jose based headquarters.

(eBay doesn't mean what it used to.)

It is not known what kind of positions were eliminated domestically although eBay just finished a consolidation of the service groups for eBay and PayPal. It is assumed many of the positions were from these areas due to redundancy. Either way even a one-percent job cut is high. One official explained it was more streamlining than cost cutting.

In an attempt to get people to return to eBay many changes were implemented in the last month. Sellers for the most part of lower end items are not happy about as eBay raised fees charged on lesser dollar items. However, reaching certain levels qualifies sellers for listing discounts.

Once the darling of Wall Street, eBay, has fallen from grace in the past year as listings were not growing as fast as before and more people were going on-line to purchase items from other sites rather than take the time to bid on eBay. Donahoe's attempts are to stop the bleeding in that aspect but heightened competition and eBay losing it's luster, it will be a hard road to hoe.

                                      ===============

(TRI-STAR INKS TRADING CARD WRESTLING DEAL WITH TNA)

Tri-Star proved it could make strong and valued trading cards with it's minor league series and now is jumping over the top rope and into the ring with wrestling partner, Total Non Stop Action (TNA). The first card series, "TNA Impact" debuts this spring, with two other series to follow.

(TNA Wrestling's Christy Hemme)

"TNA is ecstatic to partner with Tri-Star for it's trading card category," said Jason Walker, Director of TNA Licensing. "This is a very important high profile category for TNA and we're thrilled to see the high tech Tri-Star will do."

Tri-Star has produced very strong and innovative trading card products based on it's license involving the minor leagues. Wrestling however is a different matter.

"We are very excited to have been selected by TNA as the exclusive company to have the rights to produce it's trading cards and memorabilia," said Tri-Star president Jeff Rosenberg. "TNA is gaining a partner in Tri-Star with vast experience in the creation, production and collectibility of trading cards, and we look forward to working with TNA to showcase their stars in a new and collective way."

(TNA's Traci Brooks in action shot. TNA also has men wrestlers but you see them all the time.)

Tri-Star will do memorabilia cards and autographs much like it has done with its autographed series of cards. Something which did not go un-noticed by TNA executives.

"Many of our fans are card collectors," added Walker. "So we wanted to make sure our trading card partner delivered the best range and and quality cards available in the marketplace and Tri-Star will give it the attention it deserves."

There will be three series in 2008 with Impact due out shortly, Cross the Line this summer and TNA Knockouts featuring the women of the sport in time for the holidays. The show brings in 2.3 million viewers to Spike TV every week and remains one of the most popular shows on the network.

                                     ===============

(UDA BRINGS BACK JORDAN AND MAGIC AGAIN)

Michael & Magic are back together at Upper Deck Authenticated by popular demand. The company is offering the two signed side by side on the court for an SRP of $1300. Dealer price is just under $800.

There continues to be a demand for Jordan and UDA has him locked up for years. The on court photo of MJ and Magic is one of the most frequently sought photos carrying their autographs.

The framed 16 x 20 photo was produced again in limited editions and UDA officials say they had Jordan in signing feverishly recently. It shows as the company is now offering Jordan Basketball and other items as well.

                                      ================

(TOPPS FINALLY GETS BASE BOXES INTO THE GAME WITH 1-PER-BOX HITS)

Topps base brand Jumbo Packs (formerly called Collector Packs) have always done well, so well in fact they've hurt hobby store sales of base packs. Those 36 pack boxes are much harder to sell than Jumbo boxes as the Jumbo's not only give you more cards they yielded two hits per box. Topps finally saw the light.

Officials at Topps announced the Series 2 Baseball base boxes will contain a relic or autographed card. Upper Deck an Donruss have done this for several years. Not that a jersey card will help spur sales but the chance for an autographed card will make the difference. Topps base has never guaranteed a hit per box.

(Topps makes historic change with Series 2)

"It will make it easier to recommend a box of Topps as well as Upper Deck and not just the UD boxes when low end collectors ask which box should they buy," said one dealer. "It has been tough to tell a customer asking about boxes to buy the Upper Deck because they will get something over Topps where they may get something."

Topps has traditionally been slow on these matters while being in front of the curve with technology. Photographic paper, UV coating, Chromium technology all of which Topps was either first or not far behind. Jerseys, autos and other items Topps has lagged for years.

In addition to the bumping up of regular boxes, Topps will also increase the hits in Jumbo boxes to three instead of two. The basics call for one autograph and two relics. The wholesale cost will remain the same too.

Many dealers would not buy Topps base brand preferring to try to get Jumbo boxes on line or from distributors. Buying and selling Jumbo's has always been at a premium even when the content did not warrant it and regular hobby boxes were certainly the better buy. This new move should increase Topps direct sales slightly and pump up the price a bit on the secondary market as well.

                                     ================

(UPPER DECK GOING FIRST AND LAST WITH $150 FIGURES)

The price tag may be too high for collectors despite the idea they are getting figures depicting a specific moment in sports. Upper Deck is now offering a Michael Jordan "Final Shot," and  Tiger Woods "Fist Pump" at the first Masters he won in high end figures.

There are two problems with these. First off, "16 inch Hyper-realistic Poly-Resin on a modern poly-resin base" is still plastic, or a form of it. It's not metal, wood, or even ceramic. Will collectors balk at paying $150 each for these "poly-resin" figures? They might.

(New UD Jordan & Tiger carry $150 price tags.)

As with the other UDA figures these are pretty good. Some collectors and dealers balked at the real likenesses saying they should have been done better. Others like them just fine. The packaging as usual is very high end and in some cases does exceed the need to showcase the item itself.

One UD official told TBR not long ago the packaging is part of the marketing and believe it or not isn't cost prohibitive. Making the packaging very nice doesn't really add to much to the bottom line so the company chose to do it. Available in October.

Dealer cost is $90 per item.

.                                    ================

(NATIONAL TICKETS ON SALE NOW)

Tickets for National No. 29 in Chicago are on sale now. You can buy them and print them on-line at the National Website. The show runs from July 30-August 3

                                   ================

(HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? MICHAEL VICK LOW)

Dreams Corporation is going pretty low. Even in announcing the offering sakes rep Adam Kramer must have felt embarrassed with this offer:

"OK, we all know Michael Vick is not the most popular man in the world these days, but Mounted (Mounted Memories) has lowered its prices to BLOW OUT PRICING!! So just in case you have one of those customers who enjoys these "off" autographs," the email proclaimed. "Mounted offers the following..."

(Michael Vick at his lowest $10.)

So how low can you go? How about Michael Vick signed 8x10's $!0, 16x20's $15, mini-helmets $35, Footballs $60, Replica Helmets full size $75 and Pro-LIne Helmets $150. Shoes and jerseys $75. The cost of the blank Reebok jersey is normally $135. Add the signature of Vick and it loses $60! Wow.

                                  =================

(MARCH 29 NATIONAL CARD DAY SHIPMENTS IN HAND)

Dealers received their packs for National Trading Card Day this week. The actually event is scheduled for March 29, the last Saturday of the month. The card packs, to be given away to fans and collectors will contain 6 UD cards and 6 Topps cards plus an informational cardboard casting.

(Two of the chase cards in the NTC Packs.)

"We're really excited about National Trading Card Day," said Evan Kaplan, Category Director for MLBPA."Building a baseball card collection is a great way to kick off the 2008 Season."

The cards include UD spokesman Derek Jeter and best friend and Topps spokesman, Alex Rodriguez. Each one also has a UD and a Topps Rookie card or a chase card.

Stadiums hosting the final exhibition games of the spring will have the card packs to hand out as well as participating hobby stores.  You can also get a pack by going to MLB.com/cards  and there will probably be some available on the Internet. The Internet is not the place to buy them though as MLB and MLBPA have worked at ways to keep unscrupulous dealers from selling them on-line. They are a promotional give away and after the first year the sponsors pulled out because dealers were selling them on eBay. It took a couple of years but the program is back.

                               ==================

(BUSH AND DONRUSS MAKE A NICE THREESOME, MINUS THE "W")

Don't county on George W. Bush being acclaimed any time soon but daddy & mommy Bush are out in front in trading cards. Both the senior George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara signed cards for Donruss Celebrity Cuts.  The 41st President of the United States and his wife each signed 41 of their cards.

(George Bush 41 to sign for Donruss Celebrity Cuts)

"We are extremely excited that Donruss was able to confirm the industry's first official trading card agreement with a former president," said Scott Prusha, Donruss Marketing Director. "This year's political race has been so compelling and garnered much media attention, so the fact that Donruss was able to contractually obtain the first official autographs or memorabilia from a president is something we believe will set our products apart."

Now if you are wondering about all those autographs of presidents and a slice of George Washington's hair Topps pulled out, we have to think Prusha is talking about actually getting them from a former, but living president. There are some fine lines going on here but you get the picture.

(Former First Lady inks Donruss Celebs deal.)

Among the items obtained by Donruss is a Barbara Bush scarf and a Texas A&M T-shirt from the former president. George Bush 41 played first base at Yale during his college days and a card of him was issued at the Republican National Convention in 1992. By the way Mr. & Mrs. Bush will sign five cards together for the card set.

Meanwhile Topps announced in Series 2 Baseball each of the candidates will have a Letter Patch relic card, with a manufactured patch for a letter in their name.

                                ==================

(GLOBAL WITH NEW WEB SITE)

Global Authenticating seems to be back up and in business with a new web site. The old site was down for quite some time when the company apparently shut down over  rent dispute. Company officials explained to TBR what happened and now it seems GAI is back in business.

The web site seems much easier and better although the newer versions of Acrobat Reader will be needed to download submission files for card grading. For card grading GAI is offering any card for $10 for a ten day service.

                               ==================

SAGE EARLIEST EVER RELEASE FEATURES TOP COLLEGE PIX

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 193

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(MEG DUMPS EBAY GRABS MCCAIN AND THE GOP!!!)

** NEW SCHEDULE FOR THE BRILL REPORT

** SAGE HIT DEBUTS EARLIEST EVER FOOTBALL CARDS

** MEG WHITMAN JOINS THE GOP'S MCCAIN

** GREEN TOYS TO HIT SHELVES

** BECKETT MONTHLY MAKES NEWEST DEBUT

** GOLD & SILVER COME BACK FOR SOME SHOPS

** UPPER DECK TURNS 20 WITH A BANG

** RECORD FORTUNE TURNS TO RECORD FAILURE

** UD PREMIERS NEW ORDERS

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN TODAY'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...

                                                 ====================

PUBLISHING NOTE: To our loyal readers. We have come to a time in the life of TBR to make some decisions. The first of which is to go from a twice weekly on-line newsletter to a once a week publication. It was never our intention to cut down on how often we publish but due to many circumstances we just don't have the time to put together two, complete and quality reports each week. So beginning this week we will publish on Monday only.

However, we will still update for breaking and important news any day of the week as soon as possible. We will continue to send out emails to loyal readers and update them, when we update the newsletter.

We hope you understand but time has become a serious factor and rather than water down The Brill Report and give you less than the quality reporting you have come to expect, we will publish a high quality newsletter once a week instead.

                          THANK YOU =============== THANK YOU

                                        ===================

(SAGE ROARS IN EARLY)

Earlier than ever before football is coming to the hobby. This Friday, March 21 SA-GE Hit will make it's way on to hobby store shelves and it will be loaded with hot, key rookies. The reasons are simple according to SA-GE President Tom Geideman.

(SAGE President and co-founder Tom Geideman)

"We are doing this to avoid the trading and selling of illegal cards," Geideman told The Brill Report in an exclusive interview. "There are so many knock-offs and illegal or non-licensed cards which come out right after the combine and before the draft this is a way for collectors to get the player's first legitimate card."

HIT normally comes out the week of the draft but Geideman explains whether the produce arrived later or sooner, the company has already signed all the key players.

"We came to terms with so many athletes so early we decided to, instead of waiting before signing the other players, we should go ahead and release these as soon as possible," he added. "The only player we did not sign in time was Darren McFadden and we will have him in Hit The High Series, which will be out around the April draft."

McFadden is considered the top player and especially the top running back in the draft but waited to announce his signing because he was not a senior and had not declared. Hit Hi Series will still be McFadden's first card. The only other company making draft pick cards is Press Pass.

The product will feature 30 packs in a box as normal, five cards per pack with one insert or autograph in every pack. The autographs are seeded 1:5 or six per box. As for the earliest release ever?

"One thing collectors tell us is they cannot get enough football," said Geideman. "They keep asking when are we coming out with the next series and for those who question it coming out so soon, well, they can wait a month to open it if they want."

The latter comment tongue in cheek from the head of SA-GE.

(Darren McFadden's card from the Hi-Series of HIT.)

"It has become a year round sport and you have to get excited about the rookie class, especially this early," he added. "Thee are some players who people won't know but who may turn out to be the next Tom Brady, whom everyone overlooked in the draft."

Among the top players signed by SA-GE are Matt Ryan, John David Booty, Dennis Dixon, Matt Ryan and of course McFadden.

SAGE was co-founded by COO Robert Sadlak who worked alongside Geideman at The Score Board in the mid-to late 1990's. The pair founded SAGE not long after that. SAGE by the way is the four letters which come from the first two letters of the co-founders last names.

                                                    =======================

(WHITMAN GRABS HER MAN; JOHN MCCAIN)

As a reader of The Brill Report you know Meg Whitman has had political aspirations for some time and leaving eBay when she did was planned to the minute evidently. A strong financial supporter of Mitt Romney, the former eBay CEO has now latched her star onto the only GOP hopeful in the field, John McCain.

Whitman was named co-chair of McCain's National Presidential Campaign. The 51 year old Whitman took eBay from a fledgling auction site to a Fortune 500 Company and herself became worth well over a Billion dollars. She stepped down a few weeks ago and the first news out on her is her new position.

Whitman joins Carly Fiorina as a co-chair and their fund raising will be put to the test as the GOP has some trouble raising the kind of money Democrats are expected to raise. Fiorina is the former head of Hewlett-Packard.

                                                    ======================

(GREEN TOYS NEXT ON AGENDA DUE TO RECALLS)

When the world goes GREEN toys must change with it. This is the idea behind a move to eliminate toys made with vinyl from major store chains. After last year's recalls of toys with lead paint in China, American consumers are wondering what will be next. Many major stores are pulling, or just not ordering, vinyl toys. The reason? PVC.

"Polyvinyl Chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC is a widely used thermoplastic polymer. In terms of revenue generated it is one of the most valuable products of the chemical industry. Around the world over 50-percent of PVC manufactured is used in construction. Despite the fact PVC production negatively affects the human environment and human health it is still widely used." --- Wikipedia

(A green toy from Green Toys Inc.)

Ultra Pro was among the first to eliminate harmful PVC's from it's petroleum based plastic products such as sports card pages. The company realized what the oil base was doing to cards. It was making them yellow with age and also cracking. A new system was designed and pages became archival safe.

Now there is a movement on line to eliminate PVC from the toys on shelves. Wal-Mart, Target and Sears are looking to make a move. PVC is banned in Europe and will be next year in California. The key contention is small children chew on their toys, and in chewing plastics made out of PVC's; the result is obvious.

Mattel and Hasbro are working on corn based plastics. At least that way something healthy might go into the child's system, might be the sarcastic way to look at the picture. The EPA has said in the past children likely don't chew on PVC toys long enough to do harm but there is growing concern in the aftermath of last year's toy recalls.

Green Toys Inc., a start-up based in San Francisco debuted it's new line at the International Toy Fair this past month. It makes items out of recycled plastics and organic materials. Last year Ty had to replace it's Jammin Jenna Beanie Baby which had plastic shoes containing PVC. Denim shoes made the doll safer.

Meanwhile an industry company called The Vinyl Institute is leading an information charge saying what many groups are saying about PVC is mis-leading.

                                     =================

(UPPER DECK TURNS 20 YEARS OLD)

2008 is Year 20 for Upper Deck. Tom Geideman by the way (See SAGE Story above) was the person responsible for selecting the first card to ever appear in an Upper Deck series; the 1989 Ken Griffey Jr., Rookie Card no. 1. Geideman was then just a teen ager looking to make a name for himself in the card business. After leaving UD and moving onto TSB, he co-founded SAGE.

Upper Deck is kicking off year 20 with a whole series of promotions. Among them an 80-card set available only by purchasing packs at selected and participating hobby stores. There will be high dollar buy back cards inserts in specialty packs which will be given to box buyers from those same stores. The promotion lasts for about nine months. Included in the distribution is a signed Michael Jordan Rookie Card from Fleer. UD now owns the Fleer name.

"Our goal has always been to drive consumers to our Certified Diamond Partners," said Mike Phillips, UD Director of Hobby Sales. "We are offering collectors an incredible set, fantastic buy-back cards celebrating Upper Deck's rich history and one of the most amazing prizes ever; all for doing what they already do -- that is collecting our products."

Collectors can also win one of the following trips; the next Super Bowl, plus following NBA Finals, World Series and Stanley Cup championship with airfare and some expenses.

                            =======================

(UPPER DECK UPS PREMIER)

When UD announced it was cutting the number of cases it was producing of it's high dollar Premier Basketball product to 499, dealers gained interest in the product enough to begin ordering. Premier has been a good product but not good enough to be a $300-plus pack, in the past. With dealers holding back on ordering the company decided to move.

(The look of Jordan for UD Premier 2007-08)

It chose to cut the numbers drastically and to pump up the contents.

"We recently conducted a signing with Michael Jordan who was kept very busy with a Sharpie as he added his signature directly to many of the cards in the set," said Chris Carlin, UD Hobby Marketing Manager. "NBA Premier and many other upcoming NBA releases will be brimming with autographs of Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Kevin Durant."

Soon after the announcement orders began to come in. Most dealers are now waiting longer to order, uncertain of funds, releases, the economy and foot traffic. The last year saw the numbers of hobby shops income fall drastically and in recent months things have been very difficult for dealers facing the fact they are selling something usually bought with discretionary income during a Recession. 

                          =======================

(GOLD SILVER MAKING MONEY FOR HOBBY SHOPS)

Hobby stores owners who also buy and sell coins are salivating at the streaking values of Gold, Silver and even Copper. While oil hit $110 a barrel, the price of gold actually broke the $1000 barrier for an ounce while silver zoomed past $20. Buying and selling spot gold and silver are becoming mainstays for hobby stores who are into the precious metals as well as the precious card board.

"I bought 78 Walking Liberty half dollars with no numismatic value for $240," said one dealer asking not to be identified. "I paid over $3 each for them and sold them the next day for meltdown at 11 times their value or $429."

Some jewelry stores as well as higher end coin and currency stores are buying on the spot. For small time hobby stores it's basically whatever the buyer is willing to take, and in some cases how desperate for cash they are.

(The gold American Eagles sell from the Mint for $1200)

The price of gold is soaring so quickly the US Mint is really pushing it's upcoming Saint-Gaudens' and other gold coins, due in 2009. The price however might be dicey considering many are wondering what the "top out" point will be. The once ounce American Eagle Gold Proof coins sell for $1200. The uncirculated coin is back ordered at $1045. The Mint announced this month it will remake the Masterpiece $20 gold coins which are so popular.

"We want to spur the highest level of artistic excellence in American coin design," said Mint Director Ed Moy. "Recreating thousands of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' ultra high-relief Double Eagles will be a defining moment in American coinage."

Currently the double eagles are selling for anywhere from $1288 to $1800 depending on condition. The Silver coin uncirculated sells from the Mint for under $26.

(The American Eagle Silver uncirculated from the US Mint.)

The US Mint meanwhile is having it's own troubles because it takes more to make a penny and a nickel than it is worth. In fact, every time a penny or a nickel is minted the US Government loses money and increases the national debt. The penny takes 1.7 cents to make, the nickel nearly a dime at 9.5 cents! The Mint is exploring ways to change this by changing the alloy mix but it will literally take an act of Congress to get it done and so far Congress has been pre-occupied with other things.

In the last five years copper has gone up 440 percent while nickel has jumped 310 percent. The other alloy in the coins is zinc which has seen a 260 percent increase during the same period. What this all means is while the penny and nickel have stood still, the cost to make them has outpaced them. In reality with the value of the dollar dropping the two coins are going the other way.

The key for hobby stores however is finding a local spot buyer and letting customers know they are buying silver and gold. Even buying an ounce of gold at $800 still affords the quick turn around at around $1000 for an easy $200 profit. At one time most card store owners had dabbled if not started in coins and precious metals.

                           =======================

(RECORD RECORD SALE A FRAUD ON EBAY? WHO WOULDATHUNKIT?)

A bid from Ireland for over $3 million for a record shops entire record collection turned out to be a fake. Not too surprising considering the number of bad sellers and buyers on eBay and also those who just want to pull the proverbial leg. However, the owner of a Pittsburgh based record store says he'll try again. This time though buyers must be pre-qualified.

(Rows and rows of record albums line the back and front rooms of the Record Rama Store outside Pittsburgh.) 

Paul Mawhinney of Record-Rama says the guy did submit information he had the money but as it turns out, he didn't. The collection is back on the auction block and closes March 29.

=======================

(NEW BECKETT MAGAZINE TURNS OFF SOME COLLECTORS)

The new Monthly Beckett Magazine debuted this week to less than stellar reviews. Some consumers liked it with comments of "well at least I don't have to purchase four magazines."

(New Beckett Sports Card Monthly makes it's debut.)

Others still were not as enthusiastic.

"This will not fly," blasts Neil Osina, a long time Los Angeles area shop owner. "Beckett needed to at least start at the turn of the century, 2000."

This in reference to only new releases being listed. Some collectors liked the idea of more information such as autographs. The new magazine will come out monthly on a 12 month basis. The regular Beckett Monthly Magazines which were sport specific will now publish every other month basically replacing the Beckett Plus brand and they will remain sport specific but much thicker.

The problem is for most collectors now you can't tell the Tuff Stuff from the Beckett they look so much alike.

                         =======================

UPPER DECK RIGHTS CONFUSED SIGNATURES

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 192

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(DON'T BE COLLECTOR-SHY WITH TWINS PITCHER, HE IS AN AUTOGRAPH HOUND!!!)

** UPPER DECK & TALE OF TWO AUTOGRAPHS, SAME GUY

** TWINS PITCHER IS BIGGEST AUTOGRAPH HOUND OF ALL

** NEW ARCHIVAL STORAGE BOXES JUST WHAT IS ORDERED

** KANSAS CITY COLLECTOR GETS REAL FOOTBALL TREAT

** AUTHOR OF CHILDRENS BOOKS TAKES ON BROOKLYN 1955

** FAVRE CARDS JUST THE THING FOR UPSET STOMACH, REALLY

** MOUNTED HIKES FAVRE PRICES, 18,000 ON EBAY

These stories and more in today's TBR: The Brill Report...

                                   ==================================

(UPPER DECK AUTOGRAPHED STICKERS END UP IN CONFUSION)

Michael Griffin of the Tennessee Titans may have a little variance in his signature but what collectors are seeing is something out of the ordinary in Ultimate Collection from Upper Deck. Two cards submitted to The Brill Report by a collector show two drastically different autographs on the exact same card. Not to mention these packs sell for $100 each, it is obvious something is wrong.

Upper Deck got back to us quickly with the explanation after doing some research. It seems as though the player decided to change his autograph on his own despite being warned not to.

(Griffen's signatures on these two cards are enough to confuse any collector who saw them both.)

"As I had suspected all is well with regard to the authenticity of the signatures," Upper Deck official Chris Carlin told the Brill Report. "We have confirmed both signature types are 100-percent."

Carlin provided a statement from the agent who witnessed the signing.

"He told me he had a few different signatures when we signed and I told him to sign them all the same," said the signing agent. "He signed differently after awhile, which I think was to speed up the process."

When players sign with Players INC they are asked to provide a signature they will use when they autograph cards and other licensed products. Often players signatures change over the years but they are not supposed to make wholesale changes, especially early in their careers. Doing so could lead to financial setbacks.

"We (Upper Deck) have a policy on consistency and legibility on signatures that we share with athletes," added Carlin. "Violation of those policies could be cause for us to work with different athletes in the future."

Often these autographs are provided by Players INC from spring signing sessions. Carlin indicated the autograph with the fuller version and circle is the more preferred.

"It just seems hard to believe they are signed by the same person," said Dave Rodriguez who found the cards. "I would think, if it is a small amount, UD would discard them rather than use them all since they were obviously different and could cause confusion."

Rodriguez is a hobby store consultant and autograph expert who owns Signatures.com. He brought the signature differences to the attention of TBR.

"What would they do if this was a major player?" Asked Rodriguez. "It would probably end up being considered a 'rarity' and sell on eBay for thousands more like the Hillary card or the Alex Gordon card from last year's Topps baseball."

This is not the first time UD autographs have come into question. During his rookie season the Patriots Ben Watson had three very different autographs on cards in both Donruss and Upper Deck products. Both card companies agreed it looked bad but deferred to the agent and the player.

Both the player and his agent Pat Dye Jr., were adament all the signatures, no matter how different, were signed by Watson himself. The agent explained to TBR some may have been signed at a table, others on a book while watching television and still others with a phone in his ear talking to his girlfriend.

We submitted all the variations to two respected forensic experts to judge not if they were signed by Watson, but if they were signed by the same hand. Our two experts agreed the signatures came from the same person, whomever he was. It seems Watson was consistent in his inconsistency.

There have been other cases. In the late 1990's Enrique Wilson signed two completely different versions for Pinnacle. His agent claimed WIlson is amadexterous and signed some right handed and some with his left hand. In 1995 Signature Prime autographs of one player were recalled by Signature Rookies when it was learned the player gave some cards to his brother to sign.

In still another case former Steeler Center, the late Mike Webster, actually never returned some of his cards he was given to sign. Instead it was reported Webster actually sold the cards at trading card shows.

These two Ben Watson autographs are more similar than the Upper Deck Griffen autograph from the 2007 product. The Watsons were confirmed legitimate despite the drastic differences which were attributed more to sloppiness than anything else.

The moral to the story is often players don't take the hobby/industry seriously enough to be as consistent and as concientious as we believe they should be. Too bad because it makes them look bad and causes questions to arise among collectors.

                                  ==========================

(NEW ARCHIVAL SAFE STORAGE BOXES GOOD FOR PAPER COLLECTIBLES AND MORE)

Your Family Legacy is offering a newly designed acid free storage box for everything paper collectible from deeds, to autographs to clippings to cards to family heritage stuff. The containers are about $15 and even  have a pull string so they can easily be slipped off a shelf into your waiting hands.

(Archival safe box designed to prevent acid aging for 200 years.)

Promoted as acid and lignin-free, the dust resistent box is developed to standards set by US National Archives and Records Administration. The box has a couple of different liners, closes securly and might be just the thing for hobbysts who collect signed documents.

Tests show the paper will prevent acid migration for at least two centuries. This should be long enough for any  hobbyst since the oldest known baseball items come from around 1869. The box as shown is just a tad over 10" x 15" by 5 inches deep.

                                  ==========================

(TWINS PITCHER HOUNDS OWN TEAMMATES AND OTHERS FOR AUTOS, COLLECTORS PUSH)

Pat Neshek is a pretty good set up pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. His 7-2 record, 2.94 ERA and his 1.00 WHIP should attest to this. However, he's just as proud of his autograph collection telling the Naples, Florida Daily News he has just about every player in the big leagues and the only ones he needs to get are the new guys coming up. He's not shy about asking teammates either as he keeps stacks of cards in his locker.

The 26-year old right-hander from Madison, WI, says if he wasn't playing ball he'd be with the rest of the collectors outside the stadium pushing for signatures of every player. His prized possession right now is a ball signed by the entire 1952 NY Yankees team. He says he stopped counting the number of cards he has at 6,000 in 2006.

His web site, one of the several the pitcher uses often talks about his collection. For instance this entry;

"Well, lots to talk about today. We got stuff about a chiropractor and a vegan meal, a Joe Mauer autographed figure, a good & bad letter from the mailbag and also a Japanese Package!"

(The Joe Mauer autographed figure signed on the outside of the packaging by teammate, nay batterymate of the pitcher.)

With this kind of access he will have the greatest autograph collection of all time and should never refuse -- well never say never -- but should rarely refuse a fan request for a signature. After all he's probably gotten a few stares from players he's played with and maybe even gotten a few turn downs along the way.

Either way, he should be an easy and fun signer to get.

                                  =========================

(KC COLLECTOR TUCKS NIGHT OF AUTOGRAPHS AWAY IN STYLE)

Stephen Bean didn't realize when he moved out of Southern California to Kansas City, Missouri, he might actually have a better chance to meet some of his favorite football stars in his new home town. Bean, left California about a year ago after retiring and as an avid collector just loves football cards. His wife, also retired, but working a new job at her own desire, hooked up her hubby with a couple tickets for the NFL 101 After Party (black tie event).

(Collector Steve Bean and Colts defensive star Bob Sanders)

While newly retired Brett Favre and a few other key players didn't show, Bean was happy to meet and get autographs from Herm Edwards and Bob Sanders among others.

"This was real cool, just real cool," Bean told TBR. "I was surprised at how short Sanders was because we stood eye to eye there for a second."

Bean had hoped to get a few cards signed but ended up with a nice batch of 8 x 10 photos and a program signed by all the attendees.

                                  =============================

(KEEPING SCORE NICE TOUCH FOR EVERY DAY BASEBALL FAN)

A New book called "Keeping Score," will noly only endear itself to Brookly Dodger and NY Giants fans but it will likely bring a few cultures somewhat closer together. The book, written by 48 year-old Korean-American author Linda Sue Park, is the account of a small girl living in Brooklyn writing to a soldier in the Korean War. Her daily accounts include the box scores of the 1955 Dodger games through the Playoffs.

Park, a huge baseball fan who grew up outside Chicago, is the author of several children's books but the latest venture takes her readers to a more adult realm. It is a book of hope smothered in baseball as only baseball can smother anything -- via the statistical world.

Among her other books are "When My Name was Keoko," "Project Mulberry" and her award winning "A Single Shard."

                                                  ===========================

(FAVRE AND THE PAIN RELIEVER CARDS)

Before he retired Brett Favre inked a deal to put cards into packages of one of the products he endorses, Prilosec. Prilosec is an over the counter heartburn relief medicine, something every NFL quarterback needs at some time or another.

The Upper Deck cards, six of them, include shots of a very young Favre including of his rookie season in Atlanta. The cards are very basic but they do come free with limited edition packages of the stomach equalizer you might say.

You won't get rich with them. The six card set has sold for as high as $11 but averages about a buck a card on eBay now the word has gotten out.

                                               ======================

(MOUNTED TAKING MAJOR HIKE OF FAVRE AUTOGRAPHS TODAY)

Announcing Friday it was the last chance before prices go up, Mounted Memories shocked dealers by taking a $30 price hike on autographed photos of Brett Favre. The old price for 8 x 10 photos signed was $109 and is going up today (Monday) to $139. The new price on 16 x20's is $169, up from $139.

No explanation was given for the sudden increase but demand is the likely reason. The company announced it only had a few left in stock at the same time.

Meanwhile, some are dumping their Favre items. Sports Displays.com in California announced it was cutting the price of it's in-stock Authentic Favre jerseys (unsigned) from $269 to $115, calling it a "Retirement Sale." Meanwhile the quarterback's merchandise continues to sell on eBay with a search showing as of Sunday night there were approximaley 18,000 items listed on the auction site bearing the name of "Brett Favre."

                                               =======================

(TALKIN' SPORTS GOES TO BABE RUTH'S HOME)

Randy Cook of Talkin' Sports has a real treat for listeners this coming week. On March 10 the first of two broadcasts will take place from the Ruth birthplace and Museum in Baltimore. The live broadcasts begin at 2 PM Eastern Time, with the second broadcast taking place on March 12.

You can find the live internet broadcasts and repeats by going to www.talkinsports2000.com.

                                               ======================

(NAXCOM OFFERING 31 DAYS FREE SHIPPING)

Win an auction for $5 or more and the shipping is free. At least for the month of March. This is the latest from NAXCOM in trying to boost it's auction site. The company went into full auction mode a few months ago and began capitlizing when eBay announced it is hiking fees. NAXCOM even allowed eBayers to transfer their feedback over to NAXCOM's site.

                                            =======================

(IN THE GAME SUPERLATIVE SECRET)

In the Game is slowly leaking out word on it's newest high end product; Superlative Hockey. So far the company says there are seven reasons to collect the seven card packs. Among them; no redemption cards, all jerseys and patches are off "game used" jerseys and not from photo shoots or old timers games and all autographs are on "cards" not stickers or what the company is calling "Hard Signed."

Details as we get them. We have to admit some of the the items such as those to the left present some pretty sic cards as the youngsters like to say. A series of older players using both goalie pads, sweaters and patches is a pretty awesome combination.

                                         ======================                                                   

                                 

FAVRE TAKES THE LEAD INTO RETIREMENT

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 191

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

DEALERS PLEASED WITH 2008 UPPER DECK ONE, ER UH, HILLARY!!!

** BRETT FAVRE MEMORABILIA MANIA

** UPPER DECK HILLARY DRIVEN

** GAME FOUNDER DIES

** HASBRO LAYS OFF GAME TEAM

** PAYPAL SURVEY SAYS SECURITY OVER PRICE

** EBAY SETTLES WITH A BUY IT NOW

** UPPER DECK GETS USA CONTRACT

Details on these and other stories below in today's TBR: The Brill Report...

                                      ==================

(BRETT FAVRE MANIA STRIKES UPON PACKERS' SUDDEN RETIREMENT)

The words "SOLD OUT" appeared on the Packers web site yesterday shortly after Brett Favre announced his retirement. Back order was the "order" of the day. Since the spring of 2005, just three years ago the Packer Store has sold more than 51,000 Favre jerseys both the cheapish replica's at $75 and the authentic's which can run into the hundreds of dollars. According to the NFL, Favre is the best selling NFL jersey of all time.

(ICE BOWL II was Favre's last as a player.)

The Packers, a small market team, ranked sixth in overall sales last year. Favre, with the third best selling jersey during that time, made up most of that. How popular? According to a marketing survey, when hearing his name, 90-percent of all sports fans know who he is.

It didn't take long for Mounted Memories, Steiner and everyone else with a Favre anything to sell to let the wholesaling public know. After going to my computer after breakfast and before turning on the TV, my very full email mailbox let me know what happened.

There is speculation Favre may take the same tact Sandy Koufax has over the years. Limiting his autograph and being more of a private person. Not that he won't sign but he's still young enough holding back his signatures keeps them in demand, and up in the higher dollar range. Whether or not he does this remains a matter of speculation and time will tell.

(Highland Mint item soon to be released.)

"Brett Favre retirement Photo Mint and others," screamed the email from The Highland Mint.

"Brett Favre End of an Era!" Proclaimed Mounted Memories.

Even Upper Deck tipped it's hand going the next step;

"Aaron Rodgers UDA signed products!" Shouted the email announcing there was a new quarterback in charge in Green Bay.

Before Mounted was sending out a new email; "Favre Sold out."

After getting over the initial shock dealers around the country report good sales of Favre merchandise. Many realizing the price will quickly be going up on his autographs and others began wondering if the family oriented Favre might not just go reclusive at his ranch and pick and choose when to sign and when not to sign.

(Favre Authentic Jersey sells for $270)

On the other end of things SportsDisplays.com in Ventura, California announced it was blowing out the last of it's Authentic Favre jerseys. Normally priced at $269, they close out which included free shipping was $115.

Either way it is the end of an era and a new opportunity since you can expect an increase in Aaron Rodgers merchandise, especially autographs, as a new gun is taking reigns in Wisconsin with the hope of a Super Bowl in the future.

                                     ==================

(UPPER DECK BASEBALL SELLING SURPRISINGLY WELL)

Dealers report stronger than expected sales of Upper Deck Series One Baseball for 2008. Maybe it's the chase for the Recalled Hillary Clinton "Morganna the Kissing Bandit" card or maybe the packaging structure. However, dealers report the increase in sales and repeat sales is a pleasant surprise for a lower end product.

The Hillary Clinton card has sold for well over $300 at times after the announcement UD had pulled the card because it was in bad taste. Major League Baseball contacted UD officials after seeing the card and said they thought it was in "poor taste" as did some insiders at UD. At the last minute the card was being physically pulled from the production line but some did get out.

The packaging is similar to last years when the company went to 16 packs of cards in a box but with 16 cards per pack. It competes with Topps Jumbos although the Topps base product Jumbo packs offer an autograph and a relic per box and more cards in a box. The Topps packs (formerly called Collector Packs) also carry inserts in each pack.

UD has said a new card will be placed in Series Two packs for Mrs. Clinton.

                                   =================

(UPPER DECK INKS USA BASEBALL DEAL)

Meanwhile, Upper Deck has signed an exclusive deal with USA Baseball to make cards of the young players and place them as inserts in current products. Series Two Baseball 2008 will be the first series to feature players from the USA Baseball Team and the USA Junior National Team.

Effectively the USA contract allows UD to get in non-MLB players much as Topps does with Bowman. The situation for years was a bone of contention between MLBPA and the manufacturers with licenses excluding Topps. Topps had the corner on rookie cards with a special agreement with the MLBPA.

Upper Deck cannot make official RC or Rookie Cards with the USA players but their first cards will appear in UD products.

                           =====================

(GARY GYGAX, FATHER OF GAMING, DEAD AT AGE 69)

Gary Gygax, who along with his partner Dave Arneson, invented the collectible gaming market as we know it in 1974, passed away after a long illness. Gygax was 69 and according to his wife had been in ill health for some time.

(Gygax at Gen-Con in 2005)

The two men created Dungeons and Dragons more than three decades ago and watched as it developed into controversy as well as becoming the forerunner for Magic and other CCG's and on-line gaming. The two men co-founded TSR but Gygax left in 1985 when the company was sold to Wizards of the Coast. WOTC eventually was sold to Hasbro during the height of the Pokemon Craze in the late 1990's.

(1985 version of D&D)

According to his wife, Gygax enjoyed the many fans who would continue to come by their home near Milwaukee and he even hosted tournaments as late as two months ago. Gygax love for fantasy games came from his father, a Swiss immigrant, who would read fantasy books before putting the boy to bed at night. Young Gary fell in love with the genre. A high school drop out he took some anthropology classes in a college stint but quickly ended up selling insurance.

While working he discovered warring table games and was hooked. He wanted to make a challenging fantasy game which he did along with Arneson. The two took the medieval game to new heights despite cries by some conservatives the game was demonic. There were some deaths related to kids who played the game during the 1980's. These stemmed from kids who were very likely already disturbed and who took on the role of the characters in the game rather than playing it as a parlor game.

Gygax was an avid writer who also penned the series of books known as the Greyhawk series. These were adventure novels.

                                      ==================

(HASBRO LAYS OFF CRANIUM TEAM)

After acquiring Cranium more than a month ago for $77 million, Hasbro announced it is laying off 40 members of the Seattle based team. Hasbro says only 20 of the employees it absorbed when the deal closed January 25 will remain. Most of those losing their jobs are in finance and sales, not the creative division.

Hasbro says it is encouraging those who lost their jobs to re-apply to other Hasbro divisions including Wizards of the Coast also based in the Seattle region.

                                    ===================

(TOPPS LETS YOU BE THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)

Taking the political theme to the extreme, Topps is allowing consumers to not only have a card of their favorite political candidate, now you can be on the same card as a VP running mate. Topps is capitalizing on what has become a strong American viewpoint to vote this year and having a card made with the collector on it will help spur this on.

(Sample of new Make Your Own Topps Card VP edition)

The cards can be made by going to the new Topps website at http://topps.mytradingcard.com.

There are various designed to select from including two for Rudy Guiliani even though he's out of the race. He's still popular. There are also 18 different designs covering the various years of Topps trading cards. The one shown above is 1966.

The minimum order is 8 prints which costs $12. You can order 200 for $112.

                                   ===================

(PAYPAL SURVEY SAYS SECURITY NOT PRICE KEY TO CONSUMERS ON-LINE BUYS)

A new survey commissioned by PayPal and conducted by JupiterResearch, says when given the choice between two sellers, consumers will pick security of payments and payment choices over discounts and price. The survey basically says on-line identity theft is a key issue when it comes to consumers making on-line purchases and the message about security has sunk in.

"Today's consumers demand security and convenience when they shop on-line, and merchants must answer with an extremely safe, fast and easy buying experience," said Cliff Hopkins, Senior Director of PayPal Merchant Services. "When merchants offer PayPal on their sites they allow 141 million customers around the world to shop with peace of mind because they don't have to share their financial information on-line."

The study showed more than half of the consumers who make purchases on line will think first about what payment form they will use before clicking the purchase button. More than 60-percent prefer being offered multiple payment systems when buying on a web site.

Further 62-percent feel more secure when they don't have to punch in their credit card information on line, a third want to avoid filling out the personal information when making the purchase while 61 percent like to be offered the choice of using a debit card as well as a credit card.

                                    ==================

(EBAY REACHES DEAL WITH MERCEXCHANGE WITH BUY IT NOW)

After years of doing battle in court the simplest way was to jut "Buy It Now," and this is what eBay has done. MercExchange claimed it created the "Buy It Now" technology used so often on eBay. the two went to court and now after a long drawn out process the two agreed to end the mess by letting eBay Buy It Now from MercExchange.

A judge had ordered eBay to pay $30 million to ME for violating it's patent. While financial terms were not disclosed eBay gets more than just the BIN technology. It gets three patents in relation to it, plus other technologies which it will develop and use on it's sites.

"We're pleased to be able to reach a settlement with MercExchange," said Mike Jacobson, eBay General Counsel. "In addition to resolving the litigation this settlement gives us access to additional intellectual property that will improve and further secure our marketplaces."

                                   ==================

DEALER IN O-J CASE SUES ANOTHER DEALER

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 190

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(TOPPS BARACK OBAMA CARD SELLS FOR $3100!!!!)

** CIVIL SUIT FILED BY O-J DEALER OVER TAPES

** HIGHLAND MINT OFFERS TY COBB AUTOGRAPH

** EBAY DRAWING HEAT FROM INVESTORS

** BARACK & HILLARY AUTO'S SELLING FOR TOPPS

** UPPER DECK REDEMPTIONS GETTING QUICK ** SPORT KINGS B DATE KNOWN **

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN TODAY'S EDITION OF TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...

                                       =================

(DEALER IN O-J CASE FILES CIVIL SUIT BUT DOESN'T NAME SIMPSON)

According to a lawsuit filed in Orange County, California by memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley, he was "set up" by another dealer who orchestrated the entire event in hopes of getting a book and movie deal. The book deal is in the works and you can bet when it's all over a movie will be forthcoming too.

"Beardsley was in fear of his life or great bodily injury," the lawsuit claims of the night the disputed sting operation went down in a Las Vegas hotel room last September 13.

Beardsley, an associate of Bruce Fromong, the main target in the so-called "sting" operation, says a third dealer set them up. Tom Riccio audio taped the entire event in a Las Vegas hotel room last year and according to Beardsley now has a six figure book deal. Beardsley claims this was the intent all the time and Riccio was just trying to capitalize on Simpson's notoriety.

(Alfred Beardsley who is suing Tom Riccio and naming 100 people in his case)

The suit seeks a restraining order and injunction prohibiting Riccio and others from using Beardsley's likeness, quotations of statements and summaries of those statements. The suit names 100 people but missing from the list is Simpson. Simpson has always claimed the memorabilia brought to the room by Fromong was originally his and stolen from him by a former business partner.

The entire thing went down as a sting operation according to Simpson who told police the meeting was set up by Riccio to meet with Fromong to get his stuff back. Several people in the case on Simpson's side, now have flipped and are testifying guns were involved. Simpson faces life in prison if convicted of some of the charges. He was charged with kidnapping in the case as well as armed robbery. Trial is set for later this year.

What Beardsley claims is as bizarre. He alleges Riccio, hoping to capitalize on Simpson, told him (Beardsley) he had a buyer for the stuff Fromong had; a software kingpin who lived in Nevada and the deal had to be done in Las Vegas.

"Riccio intentionally made false statements to Simpson which would cause Simpson to become extremely angry in the hope that this would result in a more profitable recording for Riccio to sell," the lawsuit states.

The suit goes on to describe what happened that fateful night.

(The Juice in not so happy days.)

"Riccio led in five men, two of whom were armed with handguns," claims the suit. "All of the men were yelling at Beardsley and Fromong, shoving them, searching them, and threatening them with weapons."

All the while Riccio was recording the incident with his audio recorder. Beardsley says he knew nothing about that at the time.

Both Riccio and Beardsley were granted immunity in the case and Beardsley is hoping he'll be removed from the case forever.

                                      =================

(HIGHLAND MINT OFFERS BY COBB AUTOGRAPH)

It is highly unusual for The Highland Mint to offer anything other than signatures of current or recently retired players. While the company at one time did offer signed photos on their traditional plaque with a coin of players from the 1950s, never before has THM offers a prize such as a slabbed Ty Cobb autograph.

(Ty Cobb Slabbed autograph from Highland Mint.)

The Cobb, not in the usual green ink, is certified by PSA and is slabbed. The company plans to put it on a plaque as usual with a coin and a laser engraved name plate. It seems there is only one available and the direct dealer cost for the item is $3000.

The Highland Mint is taking dealer inquiries at the moment and a call to 800-544-6135 needs to be made quickly if there is any interest. Cobb traditionally signed in green ink but there are other examples in other colors.

                                         ===============

(EBAY DRAWING HEAT FROM INVESTORS)

While still the Cadillac of auction sites, eBay has lost its luster and investors and analysts are pulling back. The stock actually declined 18-percent in the past year and the decision of Meg Whitman to step down has hurt the company in the view of Wall Street, especially as the company was not expanding as it had been.

(Whitman's departure has left a hole on Wall St.)

There has also been a major slowdown in Germany and the United States; the two biggest eBay markets and entrances into the Orient were not as hoped for. This past week a boycott by major eBay dealers who were angry at the increase of fees, did some damage, but has been hard to assess.

MedVed.net, which tracks such things says there was a decline of 17-percent during the first part of the boycott but several spikes in the latter few days. There are about 13 million listings currently which is about 10-percent lower than normal...so the strike did likely have some effect on eBay intake.

                                        ===============

(BIG BUCKS FOR BARACK CARDBOARD CUTOUT FROM TOPPS)

An autographed Topps card signed by leading presidential candidate Barack Obama sold for $3100 while another inked by his opponent Hillary Clinton pulled in $1300. It just seems she can't catch him in anything these days. Both cards were numbered to less than 20 and were pulled from Topps 2008 Series One.

(Clinton signed cards look like this in Topps One.)

Five different candidates signed cards for Topps including John Edwards, John McCain and Fred Thompson; two of whom have since dropped out of the race. All were numbered to 15 with the exception of the Senator from New York. There were 18 Hillary Clinton signatures. So far none of the McCain signatures has turned up on eBay per our own check of the site.

                                        =================

(UPPER DECK BLACK BASKETBALL KEY AUTOGRAPHS NAMED)

What do Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Bill Russell, Kevin Durrant, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Julius Erving all have in common? Upper Deck Black Autographs. These players are named as A-Listers in the new two-card-per pack UD Black, due out soon. With a suggested retail price of $250 per pack or $125 per card it had better be good.

(UD Black Basketball changing so quickly not even the UD web site has the answers.)

Fans and collectors were not thrilled with UD Black Baseball which featured two autographed cards per pack. Two of the above named A-listers will feature an autographed card per 10-box case. In six box hobby cases collectors will find either the autograph or a 1-of-1 autographed card.

This means the first solicitation which went to dealers is wrong and is being updated. The difference is the overall odds for a 1/1 autograph is one in two cases not the advertised 1-in-six packs. UD sales is allowing dealers to make adjustments in their orders due to the change.

Each pack will contain two cards, one of which will be signed by either an A-Lister or other players.

                                       ==================

(UPPER DECK REDEMPTIONS SETTING NEW RECORDS IN POSITIVE WAY)

It seems the era of long waits for redemption cards from Upper Deck is over at least for the most part. Most collectors we've spoken with and via personal experience are indicating the cards are being redeemed within a week or two and sometimes even faster. Much of it is determined by whether the cards of course are in house when the product hits the street and just missed the pack out deadline but the good news is UD seems to have fixed the problem.

                                      ==================

(SPORT KINGS SERIES "B" DUE OUT IN LATE JULY)

Dr. Brian Price considered Sport Kings such a hit, the planned release of Series "B" (rather than series 2) is set for July 24. The product will again feature athletes from all sports including Tennis, Golf, Track and the regular mainstream sports of baseball, football, basketball and hockey. The beauty of Sport Kings it truly recognizes stars and HOFer's from all sports.

(A Vintage PaperCut of boxer Gene Tunney.)

"The number of cut signatures will be increased in Series B," said Price. "The inserts will include 1933 The Year Sportkings at the Movies, and President and Players along with the return of Vintage PaperCuts and PaperCuts."

The company will also capitalize on a new trend; the make your own card craze. Both Topps and Upper Deck have offered collectors who win certain sweepstakes the opportunity to pick player autographs from a list and to design their own card using multiple signatures.

                                     =================                                     

UPPER DECK & HUNT JOIN FORCES

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 189

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(UPPER DECK RETAIL STORE MAY BE FIRST AS GRAND OPENING KICKS OFF)

  ** UPPER DECK ACQUIRES HUNT AUCTIONS

   ** NEW UD RETAIL STORE OPENS IN CALIFORNIA

   ** UDC TO GO AFTER FIELD OF DREAMS?

   ** TUFF STUFF GETS NEW NAME

   ** EBAY BOYCOTT? TUFF TO FIGURE

  **  NAXCOM BENEFITS FROM EBAY ANGER

  ** SAGE FOOTBALL, BURT REYNOLDS, O-J SIMPSON & DONRUSS

DETAILS ON THESE AND OTHER STORIES COMING UP IN TODAY'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...      

                                        ===============

(UPPER DECK ACQUIRES HUNT IN MOVE TO EXPAND AUCTION MARKET)

Never sitting still, Upper Deck is moving in another direction as the company expands away from just trading cards and UDA merchandise. Already a retail on-line presence and now a retailer in brick & mortar (see story below), UDC is fully into the auction business with it's acquisition of Hunt Auctions. And that is not all.

(Upper Deck and Hunt Auctions join forces.)

"So by acquiring Hunt Auctions and its incredible inventory of vintage sports pieces Upper Deck will now have an even wider assortment of memorabilia items," stated a news release from UDC. "Chronicling decades of the sports worlds most glamorous players and moments to showcase to it's passionate sports fans."

The auction banner will remain under Hunt and much of the vintage merchandise will be sold on Upper Deck's web site and in it's new retail store front in Orange County, California.

"This is an exciting partnership of the two companies," said Tim Muret, UD president for sports card and memorabilia marketing. "And the greatest beneficiaries of this will be the vintage sports memorabilia fans."

Upper Deck plans on putting some of the vintage merchandise on line and adding some to spice up it's retail store in Orange County, California which just opened. Hunt has been known for vintage auction pieces and sold items such as a Babe Ruth home run ball from the 1933 All-Star Game ($805,000), Lou Gehrig's 1938 World Series Uniform ($402,000) and Ty Cobb's 1928 autographs jersey ($236,000).

Upper Deck has been trying to get into the vintage market and has recently offered in it's catalog certain vintage items.

                                                  ===============

(UPPER DECK STORE FINALLY OPENED)

Steve Garvey and current Laker Luke Walton showed up to sign autographs at the new Upper Deck retail store in Huntington Beach, California, ushering UDC back into the retail business after a failed attempt at City Walk at Universal Studios. The new store, which UD claims will be used to test the market and promote the industry, has been in the planning stages for more than than a year.

(Luke Walton signed this weekend at the new Upper Deck Store.)

"This is a terrific opportunity to showcase our best merchandise and partner with some local sports favorites to make our retail store a most memorable one," said Tim Muret, VP of trading card and memorabilia marketing. "Our plan is to open a store where we can test new products, kid friendly marketing initiatives, and promotion and retail merchandising solutions."

UDC has said since news first broke the company was going into the retail business it was not going into competition with other hobby stores. This was experimental, and was going to be used to test products and concepts. UDC did own a retail outlet at Universal City Walk in Los Angeles. It was a high rent experiment which never reached it's potential and eventually was shut down. UDC did talk to other stores in the area and announced it would get the same allocations other hobby stores got on product, high end and otherwise.

"Upper Deck is strongly committed to supporting hobby stores everywhere," said Greg Goldstein, UD's VP of gaming and entertainment. "The Upper Deck store is a perfect place for us to test out new products to see first hand how customers respond to hobby promotions."

(Luke Walton center while far left is UD CEO Richard McWilliam at ribbon cutting of new UD store.)

With the power to bring in players such as Garvey and Walton and to stock UDA merchandise as well as vintage items from the Hunt Collection, it would seem UDC had little to risk on the store. Still Goldstein insists it's just another hobby store in the mix.

"The ultimate goal of everything we learn here is to help hobby stores increase sales and more effectively host in-store events," he said.

The company staged a remote with KLAC Radio to broadcast the opening live outside the store and inside the Bella Terra Shopping Center. Former Dodger Garvey signed for free for two hours. Artists from UDC distributed World of Warcraft also did some sketching for customers.

The 2100 square foot store is just blocks away from other stores in the area which brought about great concern. UDC tried to allay those fears by meeting with store owners.

"This is my life," said Brian Farole who owns Baseball Cards Plus a few blocks away. "It just makes sense we should be working together and this is something we can be a part of and that will help to keep the industry growing."

(Upper Deck Retail Store in Orange County, CA)

The UDC store has in store computers and a lounge area where customers can browse on-line and to check UDA merchandise as well as to get information on UDC products. Gaming tournaments will also be held frequently.

"We want to figure out ways to work with local hobby stores to attract new collectors create excitement," added Muret. "It is our intention to continuously test ideas and programs and to share those results with the hobby community. There is no better way to learn than at the street level."

Will this be the first of several or just an isolated case. Read further.

                                                 ===============

(NEW UD STORE SOUNDS MORE LIKE FIELD OF DREAMS)

At first glance it doesn't look like Upper Deck is going to try to compete with local hobby stores so there is really nothing for these hobby stores to fear. The target would seem to be more of "Field of Dreams." Field of Dreams is now a tightly run company with many of the stores company owned rather than franchised.

(A FOD Store has a pretty standard and classic look.)

The company has made great inroads with athletes, builds it's own memorabilia items and buys and sells vintage memorabilia. The new Upper Deck store builds it's own memorabilia, has the best athletes in the country with exclusive contracts and with the acquisition of Hunt Auctions will now sell vintage memorabilia. Sounds like two peas in a pod.

Ad the strength of a card manufacturer behind the UDC store and you have the makings of competition. The one thing FOD doesn't do is kid stuff, marketing and gaming. UDC does it well and owns it as well. It will be a key focus of the new UD store.

When hobby dealers first learned of the new UDC store in Orange County, California they were reasonably upset. Upper Deck tried to allay those fears by meeting store owners and evidently convinced some there was no conflict. Whether UDC met with FOD officials to try the same isn't known but isn't likely either.

On the surface this looks just like a manufacturer looking to move more of it's products rather than depending on a dwindling number of hobby store owners to do it. It is a smart idea. Smarter still if you take the side of it's a move on FOD stores. Certain FOD stores provide an athlete signing every day of the year. UDC can match this name for name but in the end has the biggest names in the business nailed to exclusive contracts.

                                                ===============

(TUFF STUFF GETS NEW NAME)

When Ernie White started Tuff Stuff Magazine 25 years ago it was an over sized publication with covers suitable for signing and framing and right in with what the hobby needed as a showcase. It was a wonderful publication with good articles and timely columnists. Oh yes, and those ads, lots of them for singles, sets, and everything else under the sun. Now it's no longer even Tuff Stuff. Starting with the May issue it will be "Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly."

(The new Tuff Stuff has a new name.)

"We wanted people who see the magazine on the newsstand to have a better understanding of what the publication is all about," said editor Scott Kelnhofer. "At first glance Tuff Stuff has probably been confused with a general sports magazine and perhaps not picked up by new collectors because they don't realize it's a hobby magazine."

Kelnhofer says he hopes this will change now it has a new name which is more descriptive. The magazine will expand its coverage of vintage cards, memorabilia and the auction market. It won't change the price guide which is a long time staple.

White by the way sold most of his interest years ago before the publication was folded into Krause Publications products which is now F&W. White later published a magazine on figures and other hobby toys.

                                               ================

(EBAY BOYCOTT HARD TO FIGURE)

When eBay announced fee hikes again many major sellers announced they would boycott the auction site for a week. The fee hikes went into effect last week and indeed many people did protest by not listing but as to how effective this maneuver has been is any body's guess. The figures are just to hard to well, figure. There are so many users on the site it is doubtful such a move would have any impact at all. There would at least not be a noticeable impact

                                              ===============

(NAXCOM WELCOMES EBAY SELLERS ANGRY AT NEW FEES)

In response to the negative impact at eBay NAXCOM decided to offer angry sellers a chance to make good on it's site. The company is allowing feedback to be transferred from eBay to NAXCOM.

(eBay's new fees were a gift to NAXCOM.)

"Since eBay announced their latest fee increases and feedback changes we have had a wave of angry eBay users moving their business over to NAXCOM, however for many eBay Power Sellers with very high feedback starting from Zero on NAXCOM was not very attractive," said NAXCOM CEO Eric Beckerman. "To accommodate those users we created a new system that allows them to transfer their feedback rating to NAXCOM so they don't have to lose all they've built up over the years."

Beckerman says prior to the new users NAXCOM has had over 10 million listings and 220,000 users.

                                               ================

(RECORD COLLECTION FETCHES $3 MILLION ON EBAY)

Despite all the negative news about eBay lately one man is positively satisfied after his record collection sold for over $3 million. Paul Mawhinney of Pittsburgh, PA, said a buyer from Ireland agreed to purchase his entire collection for what might be a record (no pun intended) $3, 002,150. It is the second highest item sold on eBay with an airplane previously selling for just under $5 million.

"I'm legally blind and had a couple of strokes a few years ago," said Mawhinnery who shut down his record store Record Rama which he opened in 1968. "It's time at my age to think about doing something else with my life."

He is 68 years old. The collection includes a million albums, 1.5 million singles and 300,000 CD's. The bottom line is selling in bulk works for some as he basically closed them out at about $1 per item.

                                            =================

(SAGE FOOTBALL TO HIT EARLY)

Wow, is it time for football again? It certainly is as Sage is releasing its first football product of 2008 a full month before the NFL draft in April. The March release of Hit Football The Low Series will feature the rookies in the draft.

(New look from SAGE for 2008)

Football has come full circle from the 1950's to be the key competitor with baseball cards. More collectors are jumping on the football bandwagon as the leading fall sport. Basketball this year despite a strong rookie crop, has not done as well. The NFL licensed releases will debut around June with Topps Draft Picks and Prospects, Playoff Prestige and a release from Upper Deck.

                                              =================

(MORE CHANGES IN SIMPSON TRIAL)

The flip on OJ Simpson continues as Charles Cashmore is expected to cut a plea deal in which he will tell the court there were guns present when a group of men led by the former football star burst into the hotel room of a memorabilia dealer. Cashmore was one of the men involved when Simpson, saying he was trying to get back his own private memorabilia from dealer Bruce Fromong. Simpson and the others were later arrested on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping because the dealer was held against his will.

(Charles Cashmore another flipper against Simpson.)

The trial, the third for Simpson in a decade, will start later this year. The Juice as he was known during his playing days, was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman. However, Goldman's father won a civil suit wherein the jury decided Simpson was responsible for the death of the couple.

                                              =================

(MOUNTED ADDS THE BANDIT TO ITS AUTOGRAPH PITCH)

Looking for Burt Reynolds? Formerly one of the top box office draws in the world, Reynolds hasn't been as active as he once was. A fallout with fan favorite Lonnie Anderson and a custody battle over their child did not help Reynolds' image. However, Mounted Memories has the "Bandit" as he was known in his beloved film "Smokey and the Bandit," and Reynolds is also signing football items from his college playing days.

(The Bandit Rides Mounted.)

Photos in the 8x10 range are $59, mini-helmets from Florida State are $89 while a signed football will cost $150. There is even a photo of Reynolds in uniform from the film "The Longest Yard."

                                             ====================

(DONRUSS DOES ARENA AGAIN)

Talk about your limited market. Donruss once again will produce cards featuring the Dallas Desperado's of the Arena Football League.

The AFL is very popular around the country and there aren't many cards featuring the players. Fans are avid about getting signatures and the players are easy to get as far as signers go. However, for Donruss Playoff to produce a small set based on one team in the minuscule AFL is going to be extremely limited and could become a classic regional issue down the road.

(A preview of the new Donruss Desperado's card)

                                           

SUPER BOWL SPENDING NEARS NEW HIGH

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 188

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(ROGER BLASTS OFF OR MOUTHS OFF WHICH EVER YOU MIS-REMEMBER BEFORE CONGRESS!!)

** SUPER BOWL NEARS RECORD IN RETAIL SALES

** EBAY HIKES FEES THIS WEEK

** EBAY SELLERS TO PROTEST

** CLEMENS FOOL OR FOOLISH? YOU DECIDE

** BONDS DEALER GOING AFTER *

** DON WEST IS BACK ON THE AIR FOR ONE NIGHT

** DONRUSS GOING THE EXTRA MILE

** LEBRON GETS INSURANCE

** COLLECTORS UNIVERSE POSTS LOSS

** RC2 FORCAST NOT GOOD ** 4KIDS GOES MONSTER WITH THE WHOPPER **

(Photo courtesy of flickr.com)

MORE ON THESE AND OTHER STORIES IN TODAY'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...

                                                      =====================

(SUPER BOWL SITE SPENDING NEARS RECORD WITH PATS AND G-MEN)

Local area businesses benefited by having two high profile teams battle it out in Super Bowl XLII as a near record $193 million was directly spent by attendees and visitors to the Phoenix area. The dollars spent were only surpassed by the previous Super Bowl which took place in Miami and only beat Phoenix by a couple million dollars. The key was having the then perfect New England Patriots and the New York based Giants.

(Eli got the best of Tom in the Super Bowl match up.)

"The participation of two major market teams and a strong tourist destination are typically enough to cause a high level of visitor spending," said Robert Canton, a director with PriceWaterhouseCoopers which reported the findings. "However, add to that fact one of those markets represents the largest corporate, sports and media markets in the country plus the excitement surrounding the Patriot's potential perfect season, the Glendale event goes down as one of the most impressive ever in terms of spending."

(Chart depicts last 11 Super Bowls with spending in Arizona at $193 million.)

The chart at the left, while somewhat difficult to see, details the spending over the past 11 Super Bowls and where the money was spent most heavily. Obvious to NFL fans Miami and Phoenix brought in the most but taking the Patriots and Giants out of the mix would likely have had a big impact on the dollars spent.

Detroit being one of the low points, it can be argued, could be due to colder weather. Despite the game was played indoors there was lots of snow and freezing cold outside. Detroit is also not a tourist destination such as New Orleans, the warm weather cities and California sites.

"Although any destination will experience a significant increase in local economic activity when hosting an event such as the Super Bowl or political convention, a tourist destination such as Phoenix this year, Miami last and Tampa next provide a unique atmosphere," added Canton. "This is conducive to a comparatively higher level of spending and extended length of stay."

The Super Bowl Experience and card show always do well for most dealers and fewer complaints are heard in the warm weather cities than the colder ones. TBR would be interested in hearing back from some of the show dealers who did the Glendale show to see how sales went. The PWC report does NOT include the multiplier effect in its study.

                                               ========================

(NEW EBAY FEES TO KICK IN THIS WEEK)

As promised new eBay fees kick in this week with some good and some bad news from the highly used auction site by hobbyists. The good news is Gallery will now be a free service instead of a .35 charge and most listing fees were reduced by as much as about 20-percent. For example, listing an item for 99-cents previously would cost .20. Beginning February 20 it will now be .15. Doesn't sound like much unless you are listing 1,000 items and then it adds up.

(Some sellers don't see new eBay fees as much of a gift.)

"The world is changing around us and that requires us to make change, change together and the changes are the start not the end and we think they are the right start," said new eBay CEO John Donahoe at an eBay conference in Washington. "Many of those changes are in response to the things you have been asking for, for years and we hope the whole package of changes is good enough."

There are other plus sides such as reductions in fixed price and eBay Store insertion fees. eBay Store listing fees are being slashed by about 50-percent. Fixed price listings and store listings however must now start at at least $1.00. There are going to be no more .01 listings. Sellers will often list items at a penny knowing they can charge $2 or more for shipping an item which isn't worth .25 but it's a way to sell the merchandise.

The other down side is the 20-percent increase in final valuation fees. This will effect every seller. Currently if you auction ends at $25 or less the seller pays a valuation fee to eBay of 5.25-percent of the sales price. Beginning this week this jumps to 8.75 percent for auction listings. In store listings will see the final valuation fee jump from 10-percent to 12-percent. In most cases the secondary jump (the amount over $25) will also jump a percentage point from say 7-percent to 8-percent.

(eBay President John Donahoe who at 46 is making nearly $800,000 annually, and looking at over $655,000 in bonuses and over $7 million in future stocks --- cutting and hiking fees.)

"We think the increase in final valuation fees will actually increase listings and will be offset by the decrease in listings fees," added Donahoe. "Our goal was to respond to what you have been asking for and that is to re balance pricing. The lower insertion fees reduces the risk of listing on eBay and easier for you to put up your best inventory or eBay."

The bottom line there should be more listings and those listings should be stronger. The elimination of sellers who start auctions at .01 will be a strong boost. The reduced listing fees will result in more items being listed. However, the increased valuation fees means the extra money saved in lower listings fees will be ultimately lost in the sale with the valuation fee.

For instance. Under the old rules if you placed a card in an auction starting the bidding at 9.99 it would cost you .40 plus the .35 for Gallery. If it sold for $30 the valuation fee would have been $1.47. Now it is $2.37. This is a loss of .90 for the item over previous fees. Add in the fact you saved .15 on the listing fee and another .35 by getting Gallery for free -- this means you only lost .40 over the previous rules. Large sellers listing 1000 auctions a month in this range would lose at least $400 per month in commissions to eBay.

eBay is hoping to increase listings by lowering the listing fees and this will help. It will also take home a better chunk of the change due to the increase valuation fees. In addition, PayPal is lifting the international restriction on "confirmed addresses" for shipping.

                                     ==========================

(SELLERS GROUP TO BOYCOTT EBAY DUE TO NEW RULES)

Meanwhile a host of eBay sellers will protest starting today, two days before the roll out. Not only are they protesting fee hikes and PayPal limits, the group of sellers is angry about the change in feedback. The key stumbling point is sellers will no longer be able to leave Negative feedback for buyers.

The reason is clear if you have ever sold anything on eBay. There are scammers on both ends but a buyer who gets the item and files a PayPal claim saying he never got it, or who does a credit card chargeback, of just isn't happy with what he bought can no longer be discouraged from doing so. The negative feedback, which often leads to being kicked off the site by the Admin, was a useful tool for sellers, especially larger ones. Not anymore.

The boycott is expected to last about a week overlapping the new rules coming out on February 20.

                                               =====================

(CLEMENS FANS "MIS-REMEMBER" HIM NOW)

Fans previously went nuts over Roger Clemens. The big strong Texan and Yankee killer turned Yankee hero. The tough guy with seven Cy Young Awards who appeared before congress last week only to make a fool of himself according to collectors we spoke with. Clemens, sitting down the table from his former trainer denied the trainer's claims he injected the pitcher with steroids on several occasions. Andy Pettitte meanwhile agreed with the trainer and even admitted to using the steroids once when injured but didn't go back. The fans saw Clemens in a different light.

"Why didn't he come out and just say 'yeh I did it once and didn't like it and gave it up just like Andy Pettitte did," said one.

This was the one opinion we heard most. Pettitte is now the darling of the MLB circuit. Clemens just looks like a bad guy defending himself. 

"He sure looked guilty up there," said another.

"It makes me think of that line from Shakespeare," said a third. "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much."

(Clemens looking more worried than intimidating.)

Clemens threw his wife under the bus, Pettitte under the bus and a couple others. Then in his comment referring to his wife's use of HGH for a photo shoot he created a new word when referring to Pettitte's recollection of the conversation;

"Andy mis-remembered what was said," said Clemens.

The end result for dealers and sellers is the same as collectors; Clemens dropping like a rock. His memorabilia and trading cards are falling fast with no end in sight. Clemens signed baseballs normally in the $200-$400 range and selling for $150 at best with others around $100.

                                        ========================

(HOBBY STORE OWNER CORRALLING BONDS ASTERISK * CARDS)

Hoping to diminish the impact of Barry Bonds on the Major League Baseball All-time Home Run record and perhaps increase his own eclectic collection, one dealer is out there trying to buy up every Upper Deck * card available. Keith McDonough of Bleachers Sports in Winnetka, Illinois you may remember was seeking Bonds memorabilia to stage a "Bonds-Fire" in protest over Bonds assault on Hank Aaron's record. Now he's taking a different tact.

(Upper Deck Asterisk Card available in Sweet Spot Packs.)

"We still have a following of people who don't like Bonds and the card commemorates a social stream with the number 756 on the bottom and and the Asterisk (*)," McDonough told The Brill Report. "I think of this card more of a social commentary; it's subtle and people could pull this from a pack and not even know what it is."

So far the Illinois dealer says he has purchased four of the cards  and believes there are as many as eight of them in circulation. Upper Deck will not confirm how many are out there but it is known the number is extremely limited. Bonds has been under exclusive contract with Topps and since he opted out of the Players Union contract is not available for other manufacturers.

(McDonough with Bears rookie Greg Olsen)

"I believe this could be the shortest run of all the modern day anomaly cards," said the owner of Bleachers Sports. "Look at the Joba (Chamberlain) card where he is on the Astros, and this is shorter than that one."

Of the four he has purchased McDonough has laid out a lot of cash. In all he's paid $1100, $1200 and $1500 each for two more.

"I monitor the different networks, Amazon, eBay and the rest and really keep an eye on it and they are not out there," he said. "I'm not trying to make a market on them but I believe they are going to rise."

As far as the Bonds-Fire thing he says he may go back to it and eventually do it, but says it was more of a "tonger in cheek thing."

                                            ==========================

(SHOP AT HOME TO DIE, DON WEST REVIVED FOR A NIGHT)

Like a vampire screaming back in the night Don West will return for a one night comeback on Shop At Home as SHAP goes off the TV airwaves and holds a series of reunion shows. West, the screaming hawking sports collectibles salesman will be joined by Eddie Lewis and Robert Chambers February 22 at 10pm Eastern Time. The show will last for four hours.

(Don West returns for a one night stand on Shop At Home.)

"Many of our customers and relate to the shows Shop At Home produced in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's," said Tim Engle, President of Shop At Home. "We decided to celebrate how Shop At Home has contributed to the electronic retailing industry by giving viewers a look into the past but as always with great product."

Shop At Home announced it is going off the air as of March 7 when it will cease operations. The company will remain fully operational on the web at www.shopathometv.com.

West became iconic with late night TV collectibles sports sales with his screaming style, often parodied with his shouts of "Near Mint" despite the fact the item visually had a crease. West wore out his welcome for many viewers but chose to leave and has since been seen involved with wrestling announcing.

                                              ======================

(KEY COINS DING COLLECTORS UNIVERSE)

Mainly due to a problem with a few coins, Collectors Universe is posting a loss of $1.4 million from the previous quarter and telling investors it's all about a series of very old coins. Net revenues were strong enough with the revenue for the quarter at over $10 million. However, the company showed the large loss to boot.

"We accrued a charge to increase our warranty reserve relating to several claims under our coin warranty that we experienced in January 2008, the extent of which we have not seen in over 15 years," said CEO Michael Haynes. "Approximately half the charge relates to two coins originally minted prior to 1800 that were not certified in recent years."

The 2008 charge was $822,000. In 2006 the company increased its fees to grade these rare coins and has since added several certifiers to confirm the authenticity of these specific coins. The company is quick to point out it is because of the warranty so many collectors want their coins sent to CU.

                                                   ====================

(RC2 CORP SEES SUBSTANTIAL DROP)

The forecast for RC2 Corporation isn't good as the company looks at a bleak outlook coming off a series of near devastating toy recalls from China. RC2 posted earnings of 2-cents per share compared to 44-cents per share last time out. that 40-percent is being contributed to the toy recalls from China and it's lead paint problem.

Net sales fell 10-percent to $138.6 million and the worst news is the prognosis for 2008? Not good. Analysts had expected the company to post a 61-cents per share gain, not 2-cents. One of the problems forcing the issue was lower domestic spending by toy retailers and RC2 just couldn't make up the ground.

One of the key items affected by the recall was the firm's centerpiece; Thomas the Train.

                                                 ========================

(4KIDS MONSTERS UP TO JAM)

Fans of Monster Trucks are eating at Burker King as a new promotion between BK and 4Kids Entertainment kicks off a giving away the tiny trucks with each BK Kids Meal. The promotion lasts through the early part of March.

(Find Monsters such as this at Burger King.)

"The promotion provides tremendous global exposure for Monster Jam with our target audience," said Al Kahn CEO of 4Kids. "This is helping us broaden awareness of this very popular franchise as we look to take the licensing program to new heights this year."

The program is part of an overall one with Burger King which includes in-store newsletters, on-line promotions, TV and signage.

                                                =======================

(DONRUSS SUPPLYING MORE INFO)                            

Dealers who want pre-sell information will like what Donruss is now offering.

"In an effort to begin a more effective solicitation process you will be receiving Product Information Sheets for every hobby program," decried an email from Donruss Playoff.

While everything is subject to change the company is promising to release preliminary information 16-20 weeks in advance of shipping. Donruss has been probably the slowest of the three main manufacturers about getting product details to dealers and it's hoped with this new change dealers will be able to better judge what they want to order.

                                               ==========================

(LEBRON GETS THE INSURANCE HE NEEDED)

Upper Deck, Nike, Coca-Cola and Microsoft have all learned something State Farm Insurance is about to learn; Lebron James sells stuff.

(James flashes the smile which sells.)

The 23-year old Cleveland Cav just signed on to be the company spokesman as State Farm is hoping James can bring in younger folks. He'll make public appearances and do commercials for the company.

"The relationship will be focused on helping connect our State Farm brand and products, particularly auto and renters insurance, to a young audience in new and relevant ways," said Pam El, VP for marketing.

                                               =========================

UPPER DECK PULLS HILLARY -- GETS LOTSA PUB

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 187

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

TEASE: (RECENT TRADES ACTUALLY KICK START BASKETBALL CARD MARKET!!)

** Hillary Clinton card pulled from UD Baseball Series One

** Shaq and Gasol help jump start card market?

** Fighting Goalies 1/1 new twist for hockey cards

** Court rules against Miller in CU/PSA Case, again

** PayPal with new eBay restrictions

** Dully joins GAI, investment firm steps up ownership

DETAILS ON THESE AND OTHER STORIES IN TODAY'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...

                                                            ==================

(UPPER DECK SAYS HILLARY CARD IN BAD TASTE)

First there was Billy Ripken, then Alex Gordon, how about the left handed Joba, or even that old C-3-P-O Card from Star Wars? Well, now it's Hillary Clinton and Upper Deck says this card really wasn't supposed to get released to the public. Honest.

(Upper Deck pulled this card from the set, but not all.)

"We produced the Hillary Clinton card as we did the other candidates and literally as we were packing out some of external partners said it might be in poor taste," said Upper Deck spokesman, Terry Melia. "To make sure we weren't offending anyone including major league baseball and the Hillary Clinton camp we started manually pulling them out right off the production line."

Guess what? They did not get them all and some made it into packs and onto eBay where they were selling for over $300. The card features Mrs. Clinton parodied as Morganna the Kissing Bandit. They got the attributes correct for both Hillary and for Morganna as she lays a smooch on a male baseball player. All of the candidates who are in Upper Deck Series One Baseball 2008 are parodies including some who are no longer in the race. The Hillary it was decided had to go and a new one for the second series would appear.

"People understand we do these in a humorous way and we were working at break neck speeds to get the cards into the series and keep it topical," said Melia. "Then there were a couple of disparaging remarks from external partners and the focus group which said it could be in poor taste."

The upshot is Upper Deck is getting lots of publicity and this can't be bad for the industry at all. It has brought attention to the new baseball card season if not the political campaigns themselves.

"We've heard from NBC in Boston, USA Today and the Today Show," added Melia. "Even Fox called about getting the card images on-line and on the air."

(Barack Obama certainly got the best of Mrs. Clinton here.)

Candidates cards can be seen at a special UD website www.presidentialpredictor.com. The cards themselves were part of an on-line and in-pack game used to predict the winner of the races. The idea was to capitalize on the political process and get more people involved. You might say it worked one way or another.

Other cards include Fred Thompson, John McCain, Barack Obama, John Edwards and more including Al Gore whom the company thought might still jump into the race. There is even a wild card. Can you say Michael Bloomberg?

Most of the photos are pretty unflattering as is the case with most parody, which is why it is parody. However, the Obama camp can't say too much in comparison to Hillary who really got the short end of the photo stick here.

                                                            ==================

(GASOL, SHAQ, EVEN GARNETT PUT A LITTLE PUMP IN THE HOOPS MARKET)

Most dealers were wondering when if ever the basketball card market was going to get going. Greg Oden's injury notwithstanding, Kevin Durant has done his part. However, the young bright crop of players just hasn't kicked it up for collectors. Now however there is some new life.

It seems a couple trades are helping at least bring attention to the trading card category. It started with Paul Gasol getting shipped to the LA Lakers. The big man is making some sense in Los Angeles and even Kobe is talking good things.

(Shaq in Phoenix means he'll see Kobe even more.)

A couple days later Shaquille O'Neal moved to Phoenix. Add another Shaq jersey to the mix.

"My son in law lives in Phoenix and now that Shaq has arrived he wants a jersey signed by Shaquille O'Neal when they come out," said one caller to a local hobby store.

The answer? Mounted Memories or someone close should have them very soon. Two of the bigger names in basketball on the move following Kevin Garnett's trip to Boston have made news. The fact the Celtics are playing like the Celts of old is not to be overlooked.

Can you imagine the hype if Lebron got traded? Ouch.

                                                           ==================

(COURTS CONTINUE TO UPHOLD CASE FOR COLLECTORS UNIVERSE OVER WILLIAM MILLER)

An appellate court in California ruled in favor of Collectors Universe (PSA) and against former autograph certifier William Miller. Miller, whose name was left on PSA COA's even after he left the company, filed suit a couple years ago. He alleged leaving his name on the company Certificates of Authenticity meant PSA should have paid him for the use of his name.

The company argued, and the courts agreed, he should be paid for the use of one COA with his name on it and not every one which went out. Miller said there were thousands of COA's released with his name and each one constituted a violation. He wanted over $10 million in damages. The courts sided with CU in saying there were 14,000 COA's issued, this constituted one violation and therefore he should be paid $750 just once, 14,000 times.

The recent California ruling can be appealed and Miller has another 40 days to file a petition to the State Supreme Court.

                                                          ==================

(ITG FEATURES 1/1 BATTLING GOALIES)

It is not often NHL goalies actually do battle, being at the opposite sides of the rink, but there are rare occasions when they do. As a tribute to this heated but rare exchange, In The Game's Between the Pipes Series is offering rare cards for the rare events.

(Rare fights on rare cards.)

These are 1/1 cards featuring swatches of goalie patches used in these epic battles.

"Battling goalies have produced memories fans have carved into their memories," the web site proclaimed. "These amazing artistic renditions of some famous goalie battles will cause a lot of excitement."

                                                          ==================

(PAYPAL FREEZE HAS SOME UP IN ARMS)

The new eBay fee structure and policies under new CEO John Donahoe are the topic of conversation of many eBay sellers but one item is being overlooked. The use of PayPal, owned by eBay, is being transitioned. One key change allows PayPal to freeze accounts as it has previously but now it allows PP to hold money for up to 21 days based on circumstances.

The circumstances include the dollar amount, the risk and seller feedback. If PP deems it appropriate it can hold funds up to 21 days. The release procedure basically is on the buyer to either leave positive feedback, three days after confirmed delivery or 21 days without an inquiry. The restrictions don't apply to Power Sellers.

It is part of the design to make the buyers and sellers more responsible, to achieve positive feedback and it would seem to weed out many of the small sellers. The latter was discussed in previous TBR articles. The problem for most is accountability as the entire situation is at the discretion of PP. Thus the importance of eBay on smaller sellers.

                                                           ====================

(BILL DULLY JOINS GAI TO RIGHT SHIP)

Former Upper Deck and Donruss president Bill Dully is back in the hobby heading up Global Authentication. Dully will try to bring more of a presence to the company which admittedly had it's problems in 2007. The company had a temporary shut down in a rumor filled industry recently and is recovering from that outcast mold.

His first job will be to repair the damage done during the shutdown. The management team of Mike Baker and Steve Rochhi and Steve Snipe remain as well. Meanwhile Ault Glazer & Company, a part owner of GAI has repurchased what amounts to a majority interest.

                                                             =======================

HIGH END TENNIS HITS HOBBY MARKET

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 186

(UPDATED FEBRUARY 4 -2008)

(ACE AUTHENTICS TO DEBUT FIRST EVER HIGH END TENNIS CARD SERIES)

(editors/readers: UNLESS THERE IS MAJOR BREAKING NEWS THE NEXT TBR WILL PUBLISH MONDAY FEB-11. THE BRILL REPORT WILL BE ON THE ROAD UNTIL THEN. CONTINUE TO CHECK BACK AND EMAIL ANY NEWS TIPS TO brillpro@prodigy.net -- Thank You)

**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**

(TOPPS FINALLY ADDS THE BIG GUYS TO INDIANA JONES SERIES!!!)

** JUSTIN PRIDDY OPENS OWN AUTOGRAPH SERVICE

** TOPPS PUTS FORD AUTOGRAPHS IN JONES SERIES

** EBAY DEVELOPS NEW STORE SERVICE

** EBAY SLASHES FEES, HIKES OTHERS SAYS NEW CEO

** ANALYST TAKES DIM VIEW OF RC2

** WALL ST. JOURNAL NAMES EDITOR FOR PUB

** MARSHAWN LYNCH ETOPPS AUTOGRAPHS

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS WEEK'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT...

EDITORIAL COMMENT: INDIANA JONES AND TOPPS; FINALLY A PAIR TO DRAW TO

                                          ================

(VICTOR SHAFFER SETS SITES ON TENNIS ROYALTY)

They balked when Upper Deck released a $100 pack, then a $600 pack and Topps released a $350 pack then Donruss hit with a $500 pack. Then came The Cup at $350 for NHL. In The Game with a pack over $100. Now what are they going to say about a $35-$50 Tennis Pack? Due to the limited numbers and the big names in the Ace Authentics set; 'Bring it on."

"We spent a lot of time to ensure quality over quantity in this product," said Victor Shaffer, president of Ace Authentics, which is releasing the 8-pack, $250 box. "We purposely let the market dry up a little before we waited for the correct window to open up before we release this very special product."

Shaffer is no newcomer to innovation. The founder of "game used" memorabilia in the trading card industry with Press Pass in the early 1990's, Shaffer took over the tennis market, bringing his own unique skills to the product. Several months ago when we shared his idea with several collectors and dealers the reaction was typical.

"Tennis, a high end tennis product?" Asked one store owner. "Are they nuts?"

"I'm not so sure the hobby is ready for the high end, if for tennis at all," said another.

Then again who would have believed Donruss Americana with Lillian Gish and Larry Hagman coat and short swatches would be the hottest product on the market in 2008 and selling for upwards of $60 a pack and more? Grand Slam II will very likely be much like Americana when it hits the market.

With eight packs in a box and four cards per pack it won't take much to ship it. The insides are loaded. Each pack will contain four hits. Either an autograph from a top ranked star or legend, a dual jersey from a current star or legend, a card signed by a top prospect and a jersey card from a current player or legend. The key is the legends series with such favorites as Martina Navratilova, Jeniffer Capriati, John Newcombe, Stan Smith and more. For some it is their first trading card while the series guarantees 20 actual rookie cards (RC) in the series.

Shaffer was excited in talking about the upcoming release.

"Each four-card pack is filled with value, fun and will provide fans and collectors with a pack opening advernture every time," he told TBR.

The product is just in release and comes eight months after the firm's release of Grand Slam One.

                                                 ========================

(JUSTIN PRIDDY OPENS ACE, NEW THIRD PARTY AUTHENTICATOR)

Just six months removed from Global Authentication International, Justin Priddy is off on his own. He has debuted Autograph Certification Experts (ACE) and along with partner Neil Whiteley-Ross is set to make a name for himself in the controversial world of autograph authentication. Priddy, just 26, spent nearly four years with GAI and despite what people think he says, he never worked at PSA. Priddy says his split with GAI was amicable.

"I just really wanted to step out and do it on my own, there is something more appealing about working for yourself," Priddy told The Brill Report. "I had achieved everything I wanted to at Global and I had helped grow the authentication department and felt it was time to move on."

In a previous interview with TBR, GAI top man Steve Racchi spoke highly of Priddy.

"I will put my guy up against anyone in the business," he told TBR.

GAI has had it's own problems beginning with a recent move and shut down which gave dealers and collectors the idea the company was closing. It did not. Then there was the incident where GAI certified Tiger Woods golf balls as authentic, which they were not. The company bought back all it could find but Priddy says he had nothing to do with that.

(This scene from ACE website may or may not say something about authenticating Woods and separating Priddy from GAI.)

"Those Tiger Woods golf balls were done just before I was hired, so none of those were done by myself," he said. "No, it was tough to leave, I love Steve like a brother and you hate to leave a place where you feel like family but in the end we all agreed it was the best thing for everyone concerned."

Priddy's new partner has been in the memorabilia, autograph and card business for about 30 years with much of it in San Diego.

"Neil has been buying and selling signatures for quite a while and he and I just seemed a good fit but it is tough to step out on your own," said Priddy.

(GAI certified items)

At only 26 years old Priddy admits to having no formal training, citing the fact there really isn't any schooling, or classes or really any type of educational procedure for this sort of thing. It's basically on the job training and doing it over and over again.

"It is mostly self taught and that is unfortunate in the fact it is self taught," he said. "I wish there was some schooling or accreditation or stamp of approval because I'd certainly like to take some classes."

There are no licensing requirements for autograph authentication in California and while some states do require some sort of licensing there is little else you have to do to get it. Forensics experts testify to their credentials but they do not do what third party authenticators do, by a long shot.

"I think the industry has gone through that and seen where that has gone," he said.

Some of the big names are even banned by eBay including Donald Frangiapani who still does business as a forensics expert and who most dealers and industry experts (hobby industry) and even the FBI says he gets it wrong a lot. Victoria Mertes still runs her forensics business in Beverly Hills, CA despite certifying a number of Greg Marino forgeries. She too is a Forensics Expert. She has never returned a call to TBR.

Forensics experts basically compare autographs and signatures to determine if they were written by the same hand, forged or not, and they also work on determining age of paper and related items for wills, documents etc. They do not authenticate an autograph to be an original first hand.

And speaking of Marino, arrested along with a dozen others in the largest forgery ring bust in US history, it is often asked if third party authenticators have exemplars of Marino's work. Priddy says he doesn't know about the others but he does.

"Oh yes, I have an extensive list of Marino exemplars with over 300 of the names he signed," said Priddy. "I was amazed at how many he did from all the Hall of Fame players to even Greg Luzinski if you can believe that."

Priddy says this list is invaluable. As far as being surprised, he was perhaps most blown away with one very specific autograph which is among the rarest in all of sports. On a trip to Houston he was called to a store to check out some signatures.

(Shoeless Joe & The Babe, extremes on the amount of autographs signed in their lifetime.)

"The guy pulled out a land grant with Joe Jackson's signature on it and I immediately told him it was a secretarial, actually done by Jackson's wife, since pretty much everyone knows Shoeless Joe was illiterate," Priddy told TBR. "Then with a big smile the guy turned the document over and there was an actual Joe Jackson signature, with the broken script and the shaky hand and it matched the exemplar I had. I was really blown away by it."

The most commonly forged signature he sees?

"Mickey Mantle," he stated without hesitation. "I'd say we see about 20 forged Mantles at almost every show, and who knows how many are out there?"

He says the majority of the bad ones he sees are Marino fakes. The most difficult he points out is easily Christy Mathewson. Mathewson died shortly after returning from World War I where he was the victim of mustard gas and other gassing attacks. Since he died so young, age 45, there are few examples of his signature.

"His autograph is extremely scarce and the price is so high it always attracts the ill intentioned people in the hobby to try something," said Priddy. "He just has one of the toughest to authenticate."

Priddy says the most important thing he looks for is the basic form of an autograph.

(Walter Johnson ball said to be forged, notice the careful hesitation in the signature, unlike Johnson who had a flowing signature.)

"The tendencies, because everyone has a tendency to write a little darker in some spots when they hey draw up their name," he added. "There are the certain wobbles and we look for any variation or hesitation in the signature that leads to the determination the piece is not authentic."

When it comes to mistakes he admits he has made his share but like all in the industry adds no one is perfect, not even the best.

"I interviewed with one of the best in the business in 2002 (we'll withhold the name here) and he told me 'look we are all human and whoever tells you they are perfect, don't trust them,'" Priddy said. "It is unfortunate, it does happen and you just try to minimize the mistakes."

As for the nuts and bolts of the business Priddy says autograph authentication begins at $20 for almost all modern players and goes up from their depending on the value, rarity and difficulty of authentication. For $7 an on-line quick service is being offered to determine if it "likely genuine" or "likely not genuine." The company will not authenticate team signed items unless they are baseballs.

"Baseball you usually have good exemplars, but when it comes to the more obscure players on a football helmet or ball, or basketball it becomes difficult to verify the lesser known players," he said. "We'd rather stay away from that."

This is a common problem with the other authenticators which collectors have brought to TBR.

"Where do you get an exemplar of a third string linebacker who happened to sign a day before he got cut and was selling insurance the next week?" Asked Dave Rodriguez of Signatures.com. "And you see these COA's which list most of the guys on the ball and add a line about the rest of the guys whom they don't even list their names on the cert."

As for Priddy he agrees.

"If you don't know the signature how can you authenticate?"

His next show will be the Tri-Star Show in San Francisco February 22-24. His web site is www.autographcertificationexperts.com and his phone is 714-334-0483 in Orange County, CA. He also has an office in San Diego.

                                         ================

(FORD JOINS LUCAS AND MR. STEVE IN TOPPS AUTOGRAPH SERIES)

Just when you thought it was time to criticize Topps for not going out on a limb for a great historic series, the company comes through for collectors. TBR had written previously Topps new Indiana Jones Heritage Series was going to fall flat because the company didn't sign any super quality names for the autographed cards. Now it's all changed.

(Signed Harrison Ford item on eBay.)

The company added Harrison Ford, George Lucas and even Steven Speilberg decided to put his autograph on some cards. There won't be a lot of the big three but they are in the set. Otherwise it would have been like the Inkworks series of the Soprano's with none of the main stars.

Ford doesn't sign much at all and the other two behind the scenes guys are tough signatures as well. The series would have been stuck with Kate Capshaw as the main attraction and while she is attractive her autograph isn't on the most wanted list. Others include people few people have ever heard of due to their character actor status.

Michael Byrne, David Yip, and Alfred Molina don't exactly drive product sales. Adding writer Lawrence Kasdin was a nice touch though. The cut signature of the late Denholm Elliot is a nice touch. The man who played Marcus Brody to the hilt is a good signature and despite the fact he is best known for this role, he did have others.

                                        ================

(NEW EBAY CEO SLASHES FEES, RAISES OTHERS TO GET MORE LISTINGS)

It did not take new CEO to be John Donahoe long to make changes at eBay. In one felt swoop he announced eBay would slash insertion fees for auctions by 24-percent and for stores by 50-percent. He also announced final valuation fees (the amount of commission eBay collects on successful sales) would be hiked to 12-percent on the lowest level and 8-percent on the next level up (over $25).

The move drew strong reviews from sellers and from investment bankers who felt eBay needed to make changes before they could recommend buying the stock. Many had backed off, but most feel despite these moves eBay must do more. These moves were designed to get sellers to list more items and therefore increase eBay's income which hasn't been growing as fast as investors would like to see.

eBay will also crack down on misleading statements in the listings and on other negative practices such as over charging for shipping.

"Sellers that describe items accurately, ship on time and ship at a fair price will enjoy preferential pricing and discounts on eBay," said Donahoe. "We are serious about making eBay easier and safer to shop."

The move comes on the heels of last weeks announcement by CEO Meg Whitman she is stepping down in the spring. Donahoe is her hand picked and groomed successor. Whitman was at the helm for 10 years and saw her personal wealth grow to $1.4 billion. Friends have encouraged her to run for office such as the US Senate in California but she has not announced any plans at the moment.

The downside to the new program will be a big hit to the casual seller but in many cases those casual sellers are the biggest offenders of the eBay fraud rules. Under the new guidelines if an average rating falls below 4.2 on a scale of 5 these sellers will see their items drop to the bottom of the search list when the search is initiated. These weaker sellers could also be forced to use a fixed payment plan such as eBay's PayPal.

The idea is to cut down on the fraud and the bigger sellers have more to lose if they cheat than the small casual seller who maybe doesn't list often and tries to make up for small sales by charging large shipping fees. The eBay feedback system will point these out.

The future plan also calls for power sellers to see a 15-percent discount when they reach certain levels of sales and customer satisfaction. As for Donahoe his bottom line is simple;

"We'll make more of our money when sellers are successful," said the next CEO.

Dealers can only say this part is good news and the way it should be.

                                        ===============

(EBAY NOW OFFERING PRO STORES; A NEW STORE SERVICE)

Not content to sit on it's laurels and watching the slower growth in the number of listings on its auction site, eBay is offering a new service to basically compete with it's current service while interacting. www.ProStores.com is an eBay company designed to compliment it's current auction site and to appeal more to people who want to own a retail store without the store front.

Touting everything from "unlimited number of pages" to enhanced promotional tools and eBay integration, ProStores offers a nice commission status. The company is offering three different levels of stores with the base price for the most expensive and all inclusive bells and whistles store at $249 plus commissions. You can start for a little as $29.99 however.

A one month free trial is also offered and once you do sign up for the full store you can get a 30-percent discount if you own an existing eBay store. So why the new system?

(A ProStores Dealer on the new eBay company.)

"ProStores is ideal for individuals and businesses who want to reach new customers, grow on-line sales, and accelerate business growth," according to eBay.

A better answer might be eBay has seen the growth of it's listings slip some in the recent year. Part of the problem is consumers are tired of the auction format in many cases and choose to go to other sites where they can just buy it. In a huge number of eBay auctions Buy It Now is also offered but there still is the auction stigma which many consumers just are not happy with.

Another case might be what the former president of Bobbs-Merrill once said.

"When you establish a successful business you should immediately go into competition with yourself by opening another business which does basically the same thing," said the late M. Hughes Miller. "This way you corner more of the market share before your real competitors do."

By competing with itself eBay has the opportunity to crowd out other up and coming on-line competitors and gain a larger share of the market. Either way, eBay makes money and consumers get a varied experience they can choose from. From the seller's standpoint it a great deal because sellers can branch out and diversify.

For instance, a dealer selling single cards, wax products, supplies and memorabilia on eBay may just decide to open a ProStores account to sell memorabilia and only memorabilia. In this way he can set himself up with a new ID, a new store and still be linked to his current eBay store.

                                       ================

(RC2 TAKES HIT AFTER ANALYST SMACK DOWN)

RC2 stocks dropped after an analyst took a downturn on the company pointing to consumer confidence, higher costs and lack of consumer spending. RC2 makes it's money off toys, especially for younger kids and was among the first companies targeted in the massive toy recalls from China last year. The company took a large hit due to the problem of excessive lead in paint used on many toys including the popular Thomas the Train series.

The company just settled a class action suit brought by parents for $30 million. Wedbush Morgan Securities downgraded the stock from "Buy" to "Hold" based on several factors. The latest was the price of increased raw materials in China where the bulk of toys are made currently.

Shares fell $1.30 to just under $22 on the news.

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(JOURNAL HIRES EDITOR FOR NEW PUBLICATION INCLUDING COLLECTIBLES)

The Wall Street Journal hired a new director for it's glossy lifestyles magazine which will include collectibles. Tina Gaudoin was named as editor of the publication which is due to hit magazine stands in September.

"I am thrilled to be joining such an august publication with such a phenomenal heritage," said Ms. Gaudoin. "I look forward to bringing the world of the Journal reader to life with the help of intelligent reporting, arresting visuals and a sense of humor."

The new publication will focus on lifestyle articles for the higher end individual and will include stories on collectibles, luxury goods, travel and philanthropy as well as investing.

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(ETOPPS INKS MARSHAWN LYNCH FOR AUTOS)

Marshawn Lynch, the hot rookie of the Buffalo Bills, will be signing eTopps cards which go on sale this Thursday. The price is $59 per autograph, two per customer and only 98 available at the eTopps site. Lynch had a marvelous season and was on his way to competing for ROY honors until an injury took him down for several games. Collectors must have the Lynch card in their on-line portfolio to be eligible for the autographs.

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