VOLUME 1, NUMBER 160
HOT*BUTTON*STORY
(JUICE IS NO LONGER LOOSE OR HE WHO HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS)
** O-J SIMPSON ARRESTED IN LAS VEGAS
** TOPPS AND THE REST OF THE HOBBY SUFFER IN ODEN DEAL
** BONDS NO.756 BRINGS MORE THAN EXPECTED
** FATE OF TOPPS EXPECTED WEDNESDAY
DETAILS ON THESE AND OTHER STORIES IN TODAY'S TBR: THE BRILL REPORT
EDITORIAL COMMENT: THE JUICE SQUEEZED
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(O-J SIMPSON PULLS "STING" TO GET BACK MEMORABILIA)
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse or weirder for O-J Simpson the former NFL running back and murder defendant pulls off what Las Vegas police are trying to classify as armed robbery. On Sunday "The Juice" was arrested and charged with several counts including conspiracy to commit armed robbery when it came to a memorabilia deal. Believe it or don't, the Juice is getting squeezed again.
"He was very cooperative, there were no issues," said Capt. James Dillion of the Las Vegas Police after Simpson was hauled off to the Clark County Detention Center.
After appearing in a tuxedo most of the weekend, Simpson was taken into custody in jeans and a golf shirt. From Brisbane to Vancouver, newspapers and electronic media heralded the weekend craziness in Sin City, Nevada. Celebrity web site TMZ first broke the news of Simpson's "suspect" classification. CNN broke the news of the arrest. KNX Newsradio in Los Angeles told of Simpson's background in the memorabilia field and some of his former business partners early on Friday. It was a wild ride for the man who was the first to break 2000 yards rushing.
(Site of the "sting" operation set up by Simpson.)
The craziness began when according to Simpson he set up a sting operation to get his stolen memorabilia back from dealer Alfred Beardsley. Simpson brought several people with him as he posed as a buyer in a deal set up by auction site owner Tom Riccio. When Simpson entered the room Beardsley evidently realized something was up as Simpson demanded the return of his "stolen stuff." The stuff included personal photo albums from his childhood and what was proclaimed to be the suit he wore on the day he was acquitted in the murder of his wife, Nicole.
Bruce Fromong, another collector was in the room at the time and initially said things went haywire.
(Simpson in happier days.)
"Him and some of his guys come busting through the door," he told TMZ. "They came in with guns hollering and screaming."
Simpson denied the gun charge but on Saturday police arrested Walter Alexander, a member of the Simpson party on weapons charges. By the end of the weekend Simpson was in custody as well. He is charged initially with two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and conspiracy to commit a crime and a burglary with a weapon. The DA in Clark County expects he will eventually be charged with seven felonies and could face up to 30 years in prison per charge.
"He's facing a lot of time," said DA David Roger.
Legal eagles contacted by TBR say the law does not allow an individual to try to use force to take back stolen items. The police are the conduit for such a move and what OJ Simpson did, if he did it as described, was illegal. Police are not saying Simpson carried a gun personally.
"We don't have any information to lead us to believe he was armed, even based on those charges," said police Lt. Clint Nichols.
(Back when Simpson was an NFL favorite.)
At one point in an AP interview Simpson said he believed the items were stolen by Mike Gilbert. Gilbert and Simpson were business partners as long as 20 years ago in a company called "Locker 32." Gilbert handled all of Simpson's signings and memorabilia deals for a while. Gilbert has not surfaced in this particular case as of yet.
Gilbert had taken memorabilia from Simpson previously including at least one item which eventually found it's way to the family of slain Nicole Simpson friend Ron Goldman. The Goldman's won a civil trial against the former NFL star and got a $38 million-plus judgment. Gilbert claimed he took the memorabilia as payment for money owed.
Alexander was released without bail, Simpson is being held without bail and police are still looking for the others; Clarence Stewart, Michael McClinton, and Tom Scotto. For his part however, Beardsley, the victim wants the case dropped.
"I'm on OJ's side," he said. "It's like a bad dream."
(Very rare item of OJ Simpson memorabilia.)
He said he wanted to move on and he didn't want to fight case which will cost a lot of money to defend, let alone prosecute. Simpson's lawyer says he will fight right away.
"We believe this is an extremely defensible case based on conflicting witness statements, flip flopping by witnesses and witnesses making deals with the government to flip," said attorney Yale Galanter.
Beardsley wants to see Riccio charged in the case saying he lied to Simpson and got him all pumped up. Meanwhile the Goldman family is laying claim to any memorabilia taken in the operation if it belongs to Simpson.
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(GREG ODEN INJURY WILL HURT HOBBY, LIKELY TOPPS AS WELL)
Dealers around the country say the loss of no. 1 NBA pick Greg Oden for the season is a devastating blow to the hobby. It won't help Topps either which signed the rookie to an exclusive autograph contract for trading cards. Oden was the biggest thing, literally for the hobby, since Lebron James and a knee injury will not only kill his season but may linger longer than that. It's not good news for hobby dealers who are coming off a lackluster 2006-07 NBA trading card season.
(Loss of Oden for the year hurts hobby everywhere.)
"We anticipated that this year's class (NBA Rookies) would immediately stop the downward trend and bring it (NBA) back to what it was in 2003," said Eric Beckerman, president of NAXCOM. "We still believe it will be better than the last few years, however, because of Oden's season ending injury the basketball business will not get anywhere near the levels it was four years ago."
Every other dealer we contacted had the basic same view of Oden's injury and it's effect on the hobby. Most believe it's now up to Kevin Durant to carry the super rookie load and he signed exclusively with Upper Deck when it comes to autographs.
"Initially it will hurt sales because everyone was waiting for the big guy to play," said Dave Rodriguez of Signatures.com and who consults at several card shops. "It will put more pressure on (Kevin) Durant to come through to spur some sales and hopefully some of the other rookies will step up to boost sales."
Topps may be hurt by this as well since it did sign Oden to an exclusive autograph contract for cards. A call to Topps for a comment was not returned. Beckerman says his company will be careful in the Topps product lines.
"The Topps Chrome product was going to be the focal point of new items added to ThePit.com," said the NAXCOM chief. "The class is very talented, however, we will be cutting back the amount of product by 35-percent from what we were initially going to buy to IPO on ThePit.com."
Most dealers feel there will be sufficient excitement to make this NBA trading card season strong enough to carry through and certainly stronger than last years crop. Topps products will take the biggest hit however. Oden was a sure fire winner and after the disaster of having Adam Morrison as their "out front" guy on packs and boxes, Topps couldn't afford another loser.
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(BONDS BASEBALL DOES BETTER THAN EXPECTED)
The ball Barry Bonds hit to break Hank Aaron's home run record brought a record of it's own at auction. Expected to bring only half a million dollars, the baseball known as no. 756 actually fetched $752,000. SCP Auctions closed the auction over the weekend with 31 bids.
(No. 756 brought more than most thought it would.)
This is much more than the original sale price of the ball Aaron hit to break Babe Ruth's record back in the 1970's. It was also about $200,000 more than most in the hobby predicted it would reach.
The other baseball SCP had up for auction, no. 755, fetched only $186,000.
The man who sold the higher priced ball was on his way to Australia when on a whim decided due to a layover in San Francisco, he should go to the game. It was the best decision he's ever made in his life probably.
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(TOPPS VOTE SET FOR WEDNESDAY)
Counting down the days the board members for The Topps Company are feeling the pressure. Wednesday a vote will be taken to decide the fate of the company and likely the fate of many key executives at Topps. After Upper Deck pulled out of it's possible deal, Topps continued to push it's sale/merger to a company owned by Michael Eisner. Tornante wants to add Topps to a growing multi-media company and would keep the key players at Topps.
(Bazooka Joe will likely have a new boss in waiting later this week.)
Meanwhile the upper echelon at Topps would likely be out of a job of dissident stockholders have their way. They want to kill the Eisner deal and replace the board of directors.
They also want to replace current key management. This could all lead to a sale of the company eventually to Upper Deck which backed out because Topps wouldn't totally open up the books.
Many believe the latter was just a smokescreen by UD to get a chance to look at the competitors key area's of distribution and sales.
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(CAPT. AMERICA FONDA SELLING OFF EASY RIDER MEMORABILIA)
While his signature Capt. America helmet may not go on the auction block, the American flag he wore on his jacket will be up for sale. So says Peter Fonda who is auctioning off some items from the cult classic "Easy Rider."
(Classic film making paying off at auction.)
The auction, handled by Heritage in Texas is October 6 and includes Fonda's gold record soundtrack and several movie posters as well as the flag from the jacket. It's valued at $50,000.
"He just decided it was time to share some of treasures with collectors and fans," said Doug Norwine of Heritage.
The film was released in 1969 and made stars out of Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and had an opening scene appearance by Phil Spector who is currently awaiting a jury to decided whether or not he shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson.
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